Conducted the monthly census on Sunday as part of the Lake Erie Islands Christmas Count. Participants included Shane Roberts, Sandy Tkach, Phil Carrothers, and myself. The warm weather had me worried as I thought birds would have left and no northern birds moved in. As it turns out, this was the most productive December census in ten years. The previous high number of species was 53 but this count we had 60 species. In addition, other counters for the Christmas count lead by John Pogacnik added 9 species for the island. So it appears that Kelleys Island had 69 species for the day but not all the data is in. Information from South Bass, Middle Bass, North Bass, and Peele Island are not in yet. On Saturday afternoon, John Pogacnik and I scouted the island and setup mist nets to attempt to trap Northern Saw-whets. We caught one on Saturday night and mist/fog prevented setup on Sunday night. But Saturday night's bird all ready had a band and it wasn't one of mine. I will send in the data and see where the bird has been. 2 Common Loon 1 Pied-billed Grebe 3 Horned Grebe 1 Double-crested Cormorant 87 Canada Goose * Tundra Swan 23 Gadwall 5 American Wigeon 107 American Black Duck 402 Mallard 3 Mallard X American Black Duck 1 Lesser Scaup 1 Surf Scoter * White-winged Scoter 1098 Bufflehead 1348 Common Goldeneye 2 Hooded Merganser 16 Common Merganser 554 Red-breasted Merganser * Turkey Vulture 3 Bald Eagle * Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk * Killdeer 1 Purple Sandpiper 1 Bonaparte's Gull 206 Ring-billed Gull 1 California Gull (adult) 567 Herring Gull 1 Iceland Gull 5 Great Black-backed Gull * Mourning Dove 2 Eastern Screech-Owl * Great Horned Owl * Long-eared Owl * Northern Saw-whet Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 18 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 39 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 37 Northern Flicker 8 Blue Jay 48 American Crow 145 Black-capped Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 25 Brown Creeper 31 Carolina Wren 3 Winter Wren 42 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 24 Eastern Bluebird 53 Hermit Thrush 818 American Robin 1254 European Starling 3 American Pipit 56 Cedar Waxwing 56 Yellow-rumped Warbler 88 Northern Cardinal 13 American Tree Sparrow 3 Song Sparrow 5 Swamp Sparrow 104 White-throated Sparrow 46 Dark-eyed Junco 1 Brown-headed Cowbird 1 Purple Finch 215 House Finch 7 American Goldfinch 45 House Sparrow 60 species 7637 individuals Monday had the Merlin in one of its usual trees. Where was it on count day? Also had American Woodcock, Rock Pigeons (very uncommon on the island), Eastern Towhee, and Red-winged Blackbird. Monday night captured and banded 2 more Northern Saw-whet Owls. So there are at least three on the island. Tuesday morning added Great Blue Heron to the count period. Kelleys could easily have had 75 species only for the Christmas count. This maybe the year for an Ohio count to break 100 species??? Tom Bartlett Tiffin, Ohio [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]