2009 Christmas Bird Count
Summary by Art and Barb Straub
More than 100 children, women and men participated in the annual Christmas Bird Count of Saturday, December 19th. The day was, as many put it, “for the birds,” as, due to the inclement weather, birds made themselves scarce. Area ponds, lakes and streams froze over early, this eliminated most waterfowl, thus the number of bird SPECIES observed was 41, yet this was about average for the annual count.
The event was conducted within a 7.5 mile radius of LeSueur County’s Ney Learning Center near Henderson. The species which garnered the migratory bird population prize was….the Dark-eyed Junco, with more than 800 reported. Juncos are often termed “Snow-birds,” and arrived especially early in autumn, 2009. Their numbers have escalated in this area especially after the deep snow accumulated. Juncos may be readily seen in weedy road-side ditches, and darting near woody copses and ravines. Their numbers have greatly increased over the 13 years of the local bird count.
Wild turkey numbers were the greatest ever, 420 observed, which coincides with recent DNR action. Turkey hunting permits will be awarded at an all time record high this spring…..providing of course, that the deep crusty snow and depredation by heavy coyote population doesn’t reduce their numbers drastically. The next few weeks will determine wild turkey winter survival. (Just 18 of these newly reintroduced birds were counted in 1957 during the CBC.)
Other birds enumerated in large numbers included Black-capped Chickadees (330); American Goldfinch (264); Northern Cardinals (253); Bluejays (232). An abundance of American Crows (264); House Sparrows (535); European Starlings (385) were spotted as well.
Just two surprises in the 2009 count…a lone Fox Sparrow braved the bluster under the feeders at Ney, while an observer counted four Pine Siskins, the first reported observation of that species in the area.
Comments regarding the CBC report are welcomed, while a complete tally of the 2009 census may be obtained by contacting the Ney Learning Center at 507-248-3474. Christmas Bird Count organizers are grateful to the many actors and actresses in the 2009 enumeration, and look forward to the 2010 CBC.
