Sandy Tkach and I did the monthly census 1/20/2009. Temps from 7-20 F, winds SW 5-15 mph, overcast in AM to clear in PM. There is over a foot of snow on the ground. Roads were clean but icy as Sandy found the ditch and stopped the census for about an hour. I was snowshoeing the North Pond Trail at the time. But we finished. A total of 37 species were observed which is below the 12 year average of 40 species. Only 1466 individuals were observed which is also well below the average of 5685 individuals. Most of the island is frozen in. Some ice opened up on the east side in early afternoon which added the waterfowl and gull numbers. Two new species were added to the January census list; Snowy Owl and Pine Siskin. We have now observed 80 species on January census routes over the 12 years. 31 Common Goldeneye 15 Common Merganser 2 Bald Eagle 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hwk 1 Rough-legged Hawk 27 Ring-billed Gull 267 Herring Gull 4 Great Black-backed Gull 350 Gull species? * Mourning Dove 2 Eastern Screech-Owl 1 Snowy Owl ( out on ice SE side of island) 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 32 Downy Woodpecker 3 Northern Flicker 5 Blue Jay 11 American Crow 2 Horned Lark 78 Black-capped Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 4 Brown Creeper 3 Carolina Wren 8 Golden-crowned Kinglet 19 Hermit Thrush 275 American Robin 64 European Starling 17 Yellow-rumped Warbler 11 American Tree Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 67 White-throated Sparrow 23 Dark-eyed Junco 31 Northern Cardinal 19 Purple Finch 2 House Finch 6 Pine Siskin 11 American Goldfinch 63 House Sparrow 37 species 1466 individuals In the 12 years since this census started, it has been run 11 times. In 2000 I could not get to the island in January or February. Since that time only 11 species have been observed on every census. Those are Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco, and Northern Cardinal. Nine additional species have been observed on 10 out of the 11 census run. -- 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]