We conducted the January monthly survey yesterday. It was the 15th year of this survey beginning in 1998. Couldn't get to the island in January of 2000. This was the largest number of participants to date. The Townsend's Solitaire was the draw and it didn't disappoint us. Weather started out partly cloudy and a cool 3 degrees but rocketed up to 13 degrees by the end of the survey. Participants were Sandy Tkach, Dan Gesualdo, Dand Sanders, Dorrene Linzell, and myself. Monday when I arrived on the island, the waters were completely open around the island. When I got up Tuesday morning to go pickup people at the airport, I found the most of the lake on the south side of the island was completely frozen. The thousands of gulls and ducks that were there Monday afternoon were gone but we managed to find many later in waters that opened up on the east side of the island. We ended up with 51 species of birds which is an all time high for the January census which has averaged 42 species. Northern Pintail, Ruddy Duck, American Coot, Townsend's Solitaire, and White-winged Crossbill were new for the January survey. Over the 15 years of this survey, 90 species have been observed. Surprisingly, we missed Carolina Wren for only the second time. The low numbers of American Robin and House Finch were also unusual. The 8415 total individuals was slightly above the 15 year average of 6338 For those who may try for the solitaire, it was present almost all day on Monday at the fruit tree in front of Condo #9. But on Tuesday, we only saw it in the early morning. It was not observed after 9:00 AM. Not sure what its schedule is, but it does take patience. The fruit trees are fast losing there fruit so not sure what the bird will do when they are all cleaned off. 78 Canada Goose 12 Tundra Swan 451 Gadwall 178 American Black Duck 542 Mallard 2 Northern Pintail 1 Canvasback 196 Redhead 9 Ring-necked Duck 132 Greater Scaup 385 Bufflehead 1837 Common Goldeneye 1095 Common Merganser 609 Red-breasted Merganser 3 Ruddy Duck 1750 Diving duck species? * Wild Turkey 5 Double-crested Cormorant 11 Bald Eagle 1 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 18 American Coot 28 Ring-billed Gull 233 Herring Gull 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull 23 Great Black-backed Gull 450 Gull species? 2 Mourning Dove 1 Eastern Screech-Owl 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker 18 Downy Woodpecker 4 Northern Flicker 2 Blue Jay 12 American Crow 37 Black-capped Chickadee 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 3 White-breasted Nuthatch 8 Brown Creeper 1 Winter Wren 3 Golden-crowned Kinglet 11 Eastern Bluebird 1 Townsend's Solitaire 7 Hermit Thrush 3 American Robin 14 European Starling 32 Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 American Tree Sparrow 56 White-throated Sparrow 29 Dark-eyed Junco 90 Northern Cardinal 1 House Finch 2 White-winged Crossbill 2 American Goldfinch 20 House Sparrow Total Species = 51 (January average = 42 species) Total Individuals = 8415 (January average = 6338 individuals) * = Observed on the island but not on survey 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]