Paula Bartlett, Pat Hayes and myself conducted the monthly census yesterday morning from 0730 to 1230. Weather was beautiful and birds were moving. We ended the day with 60 species which is slightly above the 11 year average for October (58 species). Three new species were added to the October list. Those were Wild Turkey, Hairy oodpecker, and Clay-colored Sparrow. I am not sure what to do with the Wild Turkey. There is a flock of 19+ which are rumored to have been brought over to the island by a local and released. Not sure that was a good idea or what ODOW thinks of it. The Hairy Woodpecker is not unexpected and should have been recorded before. It is not a common bird at anytime on the island. The Clay-colored Sparrow was an immature found along the wet area of the North Pond trail. We began our Northern Saw-whet Owl banding project Saturday evening (10/18/2008). 11 saw-whets were captured and banded. 2 additional saw-whets were captured and banded Sunday night. The owls have arrived!! Census Results: * Pied-billed Grebe 5393 Double-crested Cormorant 3 Great Blue Heron 172 Canada Goose 53 Mallard 1 Red-breasted Merganser 3 Turkey Vulture 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Cooper's Hawk * Red-tailed Hawk 19 Wild Turkey 4 Killdeer 628 Bonapartes Gull 1666 Ring-billed Gull 182 Herring Gull 2 Great Black-backed Gll 900 Gull species? 1 Caspian Tern 13 Mourning Dove * Eastern Screech-Owl * Great Horned Owl * Northern Saw-whet Owl * Belted Kingfisher 6 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 9 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 11 Northern Flicker 2 Eastern Phoebe 5 Blue-headed Vireo 15 Blue Jay 24 American Crow 3 Horned Lark 71 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 11 Brown Creeper 9 Carolina Wren 27 Winter Wren 189 Golden-crowned Kinglet 63 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 44 Kinglet species? 41 Hermit Thrush 193 American Robin 60 European Starling 1 American Pipit 10 Cedar Waxwing 1 Nashville Warber 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler 254 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 75 Warbler species? 8 Eastern Towhee 13 Chipping Sparrow 1 Clay-colored Sparrow 5 Song Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 165 White-throated Sparrow 2 White-crowned Sparrow 47 Dark-eyed Junco 25 Northern Cardinal 220 Red-winged Blackbird 4 Rusty Blackbird 3 Common Grackle 1 Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Purple Finch 22 House Finch 4 American Goldfinch 81 House Sparrow * = observed on the island during census day but not on census route 60 species 10779 individuals observed -- H. Thomas 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. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. 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]