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January 2012

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From:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 1 Jan 2012 16:21:51 -0500
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The final list for 2011 in Franklin county stands at 259 native bird 
species.   Actually, that is just where the list stood in late October! 
   Really, we haven’t added a single one since then---unless someone 
forget to report something.  We didn’t count, birdwise, on our November 
turning out like a normal October, and December like November. 
Obviously, missing out on a normal first month of winter deprived us of 
chances at many species we expected or at least had reason to hope for. 
Somewhere we missed another entire month's worth of new species!
        Birds of the north have hung back.  In January, tundra swans and 
sandhill cranes are *still* coming through in good numbers.  Waterbirds 
are apparently continuing to bask in northern waters normally frozen by 
January.  A good warmer season up north lasted much longer than usual, 
apparently.
        I think it’s only fair that if climate warming is going to short us on 
birds of the north now, we should at least have seen more birds from the 
south earlier.  Like painted buntings.  Neotropic cormorants.  Sandwich 
terns.  Swainson’s warblers.  Red-cockaded woodpeckers.  Groove-billed 
anis.  It’s only fair.  Oh, we did get a few of these, if you remember 
the royal tern, the purple gallinule.  But all those wayward waterbirds, 
those gone gulls, and those wanton winter finches—-they really hurt us 
in what could have been a record run. Or maybe this was still a record; 
I don't know.
        But we still did very well, thanks to the sharp-eyed and enthusiastic 
observers who birded here and told the rest of us about them.  We saw, 
and reported, what was here.  Now for the first time we have an idea 
about how many birds can show up here when we pay attention.
        As for the future, we get only twelve months for a year, and it’ll be 
hard if we have new birds in only ten of them.  That’s something else we 
can learn from.
        The list of birds seen and birds missed can be found on the Columbus 
Audubon site at 
http://www.columbusaudubon.org/production/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=675&Itemid=216 
  .
Thanks to all,
Bill Whan
Columbus

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