The 12th March census was conducted on Friday, March 20, 2009. Participants were Sandy Tkach and myself. The ferry is still not running but is to start on Thursday, March 26. Weather was cool with a NW wind to start and finishing with a NE wind of 5-15 mph. Temps were 26-45 and skies were cloudy to PC. Muskrats (5+) were active along the shoreline but only 3 deer were observed on the census route. The average number of species for a March route has been 55 with an average number of individuals at 5573. We had 53 species and 5501 individuals. North winds cut our number of species as we had no migrant raptors or larks/longspurs, etc. Highlights were our first Common Redpolls for a March census route, an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and a second-year White-crowned Sparrow. We also missed Mourning Dove on the route for the first time. 97 Canada Goose 4 Wood Duck 52 Mallard 8 Ring-necked Duck 671 Greater Scaup 45 Lesser Scaup 342 Bufflehead 824 Common Goldeneye 14 Hooded Merganser 18 Common Merganser 755 Red-breasted Merganser 5 Horned Grebe 13 Double-crested Cormorant 4 Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 3 Bald Eagle * Wild Turkey 4 Killdeer 22 Bonaparte's Gull 49 Ring-billed Gull 127 Herring Gull 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 Great Black-backed Gull * Mourning Dove 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 11 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 2 Eastern Phoebe 2 Blue Jay 23 American Crow 54 Black-capped Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 4 Carolina Wren 11 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Hermit Thrush 311 American Robin 62 European Starling 3 Yellow-rumped Warbler * Eastern Towhee 2 Fox Sparrow 14 Song Sparrow 26 White-throated Sparrow 1 White-crowned Sparrow 55 Dark-eyed Junco 44 Northern Cardinal 1211 Red-winged Blackbird 13 Rusty Blackbird 522 Common Grackle 11 Brown-headed Cowbird 4 Purple Finch 12 House Finch 5 Common Redpoll * Pine Siskin 2 American Goldfinch 22 House Sparrow 53 Total Species 5501 Total individuals * = species observed on island but not on census route The April census route is currently scheduled for April 18, 2009 and the May census on May 15, 2009. -- 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]