The 15th December monthly census was conducted on Sunday, December 18 as part of the Lake Erie Island Christmas Bird Count. Below are the numbers and species observed by our group conducting the census. Species marked with an * were observed by our groups on the island during the day. Our group consisted of myself, Paula Bartlett, Tom Behlen, and Sandy Tkach. Weather was mild for December with temps in the 30's to mid 40's, overcast to partly cloudy, with SW winds 5-12 mph. One species was added to the December census count; Turkey Vulture. The group observed 49 species which is slightly below average of the 15 years (51 species). The 5758 individuals observed was will below the 15 year average of 21,740 individuals. 29 Canada Goose * Tundra Swan 15 Gadwall * American Wigeon 17 American Black Duck 108 Mallard * Canvasback * Redhead 138 Greater Scaup 856 Lesser Scaup 2 Surf Scoter * White-winged Scoter 325 Bufflehead 411 Common Goldeneye * Hooded Merganser 17 Common Merganser 359 Red-breasted Merganser * Wild Turkey 7 Common Loon 32 Horned Grebe * Double-crested Cormorant * American Bittern * Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 7 Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier * Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Cooper's Hawk 2 Red-tailed Hawk * Rough-legged Hawk 1 Killdeer * Dunlin 8 Bonaparte's Gull 57 Ring-billed Gull 261 Herring Gull 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull 14 Great Black-backed Gull * Eastern Screech-Owl * Great Horned Owl * Northern Saw-whet Owl * Belted Kingfisher 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker * Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 23 Downy Woodpecker * Hairy Woodpecker 5 Northern Flicker 4 Blue Jay 45 American Crow 1 Horned Lark 73 Black-capped Chickadee * Red-breasted Nuthatch * White-breasted Nuthatch 4 Brown Creeper 2 Carolina Wren 4 Winter Wren 5 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 Eastern Bluebird 3 Hermit Thrush 57 American Robin 2716 European Starling 15 Cedar Waxwing 9 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Eastern Towhee * American Tree Sparrow * Song Sparrow * Swamp Sparrow 9 White-throated Sparrow * White-crowned Sparrow 14 Dark-eyed Junco * Snow Bunting 37 Northern Cardinal * Red-winged Blackbird * Purple Finch 2 House Finch * Red Crossbill 12 American Goldfinch 38 House Sparrow * = species observed on the island on census day but not on census route Tom -- 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]