The Lake Erie Islands Christmas Bird Count was held Sunday, December 16. There was some coverage on all of the islands for the first time in a few years. We ended up with 82 species. The most interesting thing however were some of the rare species and high numbers. Rare birds seen were harlequin duck, golden eagle, Virginia rail, purple sandpiper (3), Northern saw-whet owl (9!), Cape May warbler, and white-winged crossbill (11). High numbers were as follows: yellow-bellied sapsucker 4, northern flicker 102, golden-crowned kinglet 45, ruby-crowned kinglet 2, hermit thrush 112, yellow-rumped warbler 560, and fox sparrow 4. Below is a list of what we ended up with. I know for me I cannot remember a count where I saw as many individual birds each stop. Hermit thrushes were responding to owl tapes before dawn. At one stop I had 7 at one time. Yellow-rumped warblers were also amazing with over 500 counted. Total Canada Goose 180 Tundra Swan 13 Gadwall 40 American Wigeon 5 American Black Duck 17 Mallard 688 Northern Pintail 1 Redhead 5 Ring-necked Duck 1 Greater Scaup 4 Lesser Scaup 41 Harlequin Duck 1 Bufflehead 1518 Common Goldeneye 101 Hooded Merganser 7 Common Merganser 47 Red-breasted Merganser 810 Merganser spp. 2 Common Loon 8 Pied-billed Grebe 1 Horned Grebe 16 Double-crested Cormorant 27 Great Blue Heron 2 Bald Eagle 6 Golden Eagle 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 Cooper's Hawk 16 Red-tailed Hawk 9 Hawk spp. 2 Wild Turkey 1 Ring-necked Pheasant 2 Virginia Rail 1 Killdeer 2 Purple Sandpiper 3 Bonaparte's Gull 77 Ring-billed Gull 109 Herring Gull 693 Thayer's Gull CW Great Black-backed Gull 19 Gull species 55 Mourning Dove 20 Eastern Screech-Owl 17 Great Horned Owl 14 Northern Saw-whet Owl 9 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 62 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 Downy Woodpecker 188 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 102 Blue Jay 41 American Crow 94 Black-capped Chickadee 577 Red-breasted Nuthatch 27 White-breasted Nuthatch 26 Brown Creeper 38 Carolina Wren 45 Winter Wren 7 Golden-crowned Kinglet 45 Ruby Kinglet 2 Kinglet spp. 1 Eastern Bluebird 37 Hermit Thrush 112 American Robin 1210 Northern Mockingbird 1 European Starling 19058 Cedar Waxwing 80 Waxwing spp. 3 Cape May warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 560 Eastern Towhee 1 American Tree Sparrow 57 Fox Sparrow 4 Song Sparrow 6 Swamp Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 163 Slate-colored Junco 107 Snow Bunting 3 Northern Cardinal 264 Red-winged Blackbird 25 Rusty Blackbird 4 Common Grackle 18 Brown-headed Cowbird 5 Purple Finch 65 House Finch 207 White-winged Crossbill 11 Common Redpoll 103 American Goldfinch 146 House Sparrow 416 28253 82 spp John Pogacnik 4765 Lockwood Road Perry, OH 44081 ______________________________________________________________________ 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]