Friends,

I normally don't share the results of the Chandlersville CBC for some
reason, but this year I feel inspired to talk about the count.

Chandlersville is in southeast Muskingum County, and our circle encompasses
tiny portions of Guernsey, Noble, and Morgan Counties.  The habitat in that
area of Ohio is exceptionally diverse.  Much of it is the grasslands of
reclaimed strip mines.  The Wilds and some of AEP Recreation lands fall
inside the circle.  This is the habitat that has famously hosted Golden
Eagles for the last decade or more.  The circle also covers the rugged
forested hills of Blue Rock State Forest.  The Muskingum River flows
through the western side of the circle.  This diversity of habitat has
given our little Appalachian circle a list of 107 species of birds over the
last 7 years!

We were able to add several new species to our total list this year.  Many
of you that attended the OOS trip to the Wilds area last Saturday were
treated to looks at a Greater White-fronted Goose.  That goose made our
list this year.  It has been present since at least Black Friday.  Finding
a Greater White-fronted Goose is always exciting here in Ohio, but finding
one on a strip pond in the hilly part of the state is pretty special.  And
the same goes for the Long-tailed Duck that Glen Crippen found.  Glen also
found two American Bitterns in some cattails along the edge of a strip
pond.  All of these species made for a special CBC this year.  You could
say that another thing that made this year special were the American
Robins.  We counted more robins this year than we did in the last six years
combined!

As compiler, I keep a spreadsheet of all the results from when I started in
2009.  I enjoy making bird lists and looking for trends.  The raptors are
especially interesting to me.  Buteos were down this year.  Both
Rough-legged Hawk and Northern Harrier tied their lowest numbers since
2009.  Red-tailed Hawks were even down with 14 less birds than we counted
last year.  American Kestrels have declined over the last two years.  I
don't have enough data to comment on Short-eared Owls.  Their numbers just
bounce around from year to year.

Eastern Towhees continue to be reliable birds on our CBC, while most other
sparrows this year declined slightly from last year.

The presence of Wood Ducks and Turkey Vultures may have been indicators of
the unusually warm autumn.

The count was on Dec. 26 this year and the day felt slow as far as seeing
birds.  Once the numbers came in, however, it was a pretty average...if not
good day.  We ended up with 76 species and over 4000 individual birds.  Our
group generally runs between 12 and 15 participants for the entire circle.
If you're interested in participating next year, I can most definitely use
you.

I'd like to drop an idea here on the listserve just to see if anyone might
be inspired to help me with this...I've always thought about starting a new
count in the Egypt Valley area of Belmont County.  Scott Pendleton has a
count in Cadiz with habitat similar to the Chandlersville area.  An Egypt
Valley count would "connect the dots," so to speak and create a neat
crescent of bird data in a very interesting part of the state.  The
limiting factor to creating an Egypt Valley count is that I'm not too
confident that I could get enough people to cover it.  We all know that
birders abound in Columbus and the metro areas, but as you move east into
the hills they become like grouse...sort of just skulking around here and
there.  If anyone reading this wants to explore the possibility of a new
Appalachian circle let me know.  Egypt Valley is an awesome place just like
the AEP lands of Muskingum County...full of strip ponds, grasslands, and
forests.  If I were a Golden Eagle...hmmm....

Scott Albaugh

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]