The 14th March Kelleys Island census was conducted yesterday.  Due to
illness, my regular census helpers were not available today.  Too bad,
because it was a very good day.  Weather was near perfect.  60 species and
8192 individuals were observed on the census.  The 14 year average for March
is 55 species and 5722 individuals, so this was an above average census.  No
new species were observed for the March census data but 14 species had
all-time high counts for March.  In addition, I stayed on the island and
set-up nets to attempted to banded migrating Northern Saw-whet Owls.  Kelleys
Island does very well in the fall with saw-whets but I have only ever banded
one in March on the island.  This was partly because I could not get there
and set-up to do it.  But yesterday was different.  The nets were up at 7:30
PM and taken down at 10:30 PM.  (I got tired!).  *6 Northern Saw-whet Owls
were captured and banded.*  All were females.  The first was captured at
8:00 PM before I turned on the audio lure.  So they are moving north through
Ohio right now.  Unfortunately, the weather doesn’t look good for the next
few nights.
48     Canada Goose
2       Wood Duck
3       Gadwall
2       American Wigeon
57     Mallard
42     Greater Scaup
88     Lesser Scaup
1262 Bufflehead
2180 Common Goldeneye
8       Hooded Merganser
16     Common Merganser
1046 Red-breasted Merganser
4       Divers species?
3       Horned Grebe
12     Double-crested Cormorant
4       Great Blue Heron
8       Turkey Vulture
1       Bald Eagle
1       Cooper's Hawk
*        Red-tailed Hawk
*        American Kestrel
*        Wild Turkey
18     Killdeer
1       American Woodcock
79     Bonaparte's Gull
142   Ring-billed Gull
251   Herring Gull
11     Great Black-backed Gull
59     Gull species?
2       Mourning Dove
1       Eastern Screech-Owl
*        Great Horned Owl
*        Northern Saw-whet Owl
3       Belted Kingfisher
5       Red-bellied Woodpecker
36     Downy Woodpecker
14     Northern Flicker
11     Eastern Phoebe
3       Blue Jay
54     American Crow
4       Horned Lark
9       Tree Swallow
53     Black-capped Chickadee
*        Red-breasted Nuthatch
1        White-breasted Nuthatch
5       Brown Creeper
4       Carolina Wren
4       Winter Wren
9       Golden-crowned Kinglet
2       Eastern Bluebird
1       Hermit Thrush
541   American Robin
152   European Starling
8       Yellow-rumped Warbler
1       Eastern Towhee
118   American Tree Sparrow
16     Fox Sparrow
133   Song Sparrow
7       White-throated Sparrow
211   Dark-eyed Junco
71     Northern Cardinal
554   Red-winged Blackbird
8       Rusty Blackbird
542   Common Grackle
80     Brown-headed Cowbird
7       Purple Finch
53     House Finch
*        American Goldfinch
121   House Sparrow

60 species

8192 individuals

* = species observed on census day but not during the census

-- 
H. Thomas Bartlett
Tiffin, Ohio
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