2010 Christmas Bird Count Results   Sunday, December 26, 2010

Lakewood (west side of Cleveland) Count Circle

Compiler: Nancy Howell

 With temperatures hovering in the mid to lower 20’s and overcast skies one would think this would not be a bad winter day.  It was the wind that made it tough, not only on the CBC participants, but on the birds as well. Twenty mile per hour winds with gusts to 30 made it mighty cold, especially along the lake. Several inches of snow on the ground since Thanksgiving and below normal temperatures in December really tightened up the winter and froze ponds, lakes and streams.

The Lakewood Christmas Count species numbers were down a little from previous years, but the number and effort of participants was terrific. Sixty-nine (69) species were sighted the day of the CBC and three (3) species during count week. Seventy (70) participants spent 59.50 hours out in the field and 13.75 hours watching feeders.  Another .50 hours was spent owling.

 Lake Erie was ice covered close to shore and the fierce winds made it not only cold but difficult to see through teary eyes. Waterfowl and gulls were not as concentrated nor as diverse as in the past.

The teams along the Lake Erie shoreline did a fabulous job, no doubt about that. Big water ducks were low in diversity and in number. All three species of Mergansers were seen but in low numbers. Singles of Canvasback, Redhead, Surf Scoter and White-winged Scoter were nice finds. Common Goldeneye (169) was the largest number of big water ducks sighted. What was especially great was a single female Harlequin Duck.  How it was seen and identified must be a story in itself. Two Tundra Swans were also nice sightings.

 Continuing with Lake Erie sightings, gull numbers were respectable, but some were much lower that usual. Ring-billed Gulls, while outnumbering other gulls, were way down in number. A single Bonaparte’s Gull and Iceland Gull were wonderful finds. Note that no Double-crested Cormorant, nor loons or grebes were found. 

A few species of dabblers Wood Duck, Mallard, American Black Duck, and Northern Pintail were found at a few inland sites.  These were fortunate sightings since most inland ponds and lakes were frozen and even slower moving waters on streams and along larger rivers were icing up which left only faster flowing water and lakes with aerators. A single Great Blue Heron, and only a couple American Coot and Belted Kingfisher were seen again due to lack of open water.

 The number of Wild Turkey is increasing year by year. 

 Diurnal raptors were fairly visible with 13 Bald Eagles sighted.  Three American Kestrels were found in different areas and a single Merlin was noted. Oops, where were the Peregrine Falcons? Too windy? While seen during count week, they were not seen on count day which is highly unusual.

 Two Great Horned Owls and two Barred Owls rounded out the nocturnal raptors.

 Woodpecker numbers were down in general – again, the wind?  Red-headed Woodpeckers were seen at a couple of sites. Nice.

 In general the numbers of songbirds seemed a bit lower.  Was it the continued snow cover, cold or wind? The feeder-friendly birds such as chickadee, titmouse and nuthatch numbers were good. Neither Red-breasted Nuthatch nor Brown Creeper was tallied.  Carolina Wrens are surviving around feeders. Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglets were nice touches.  It is hard to imagine these tiny birds surviving the tough weather.

 There is plenty of fruit around (honeysuckle, flowering crabapple, hawthorn and decorative pear) which attracted some of the fruit eaters, such as Eastern Bluebird, American Robin and European Starling (ugh).  Oops, where were the Cedar Waxwings? Why not more Northern Mockingbirds?  A single mocker was found which is the lowest number we have had in years.  No Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers were seen this year.  Have they eaten all the poison ivy fruits already?

 Sparrow sightings were fairly good.  A single Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrow and White-crowned Sparrow were goodies. A single Chipping Sparrow was noted during count week. The blackbirds did not appear in numbers with the exception of Common Grackle which were noted by several teams. A single Brown-headed Cowbird was seen on count week.

 A single Common Redpoll and a few Pine Siskins rounded out the list nicely.

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As usual, there were ups and downs with the numbers of certain species.  Some of more noteworthy species are in bold and count week are in italics. Below is the list of species and numbers.

 Jim McCarty wrote about our Christmas Bird Count in his column Aerial View. Read it here.

Nancy Howell, compiler Lakewood CBC

Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society    www.wcasohio.org

A HUGE thank you to all 70 participants in the 2010 Christmas Bird Count.  If you were outdoors, watched feeders, tooled around in your car remember all of your hard work is deeply appreciated and it shows in the results. The following are the participants:

Jan Auburn, Ken and Lois Ballas, Mary Bartos, Howard Besser, Dennis and Kit Birch, Sarah Boumphrey, Nancy Brewer, Erik Bruder, Diane Busch, Lee and Mary Cavano, Daniel Cica, Sally Deems-Mogyordy, Bill Deininger, Mark Eberling, Maria and Chuck Finchum, Bob Finkelstein, Jerry Friedman, Lisa Giba, Ted Gilliland, Joanne and Terry Gorges, Dave Graskemper, Betty Green, Paul Grubach, Jim Heflich, Jan Holkenborg, Don and Nancy Howell, Mary Lou Hura, Larry Keeger, Ethan Kistler, Claire Kluskens, Claire Kovacs, Jeff and Marian Kraus, JoAnn Kubicki, Ray Kutnar, Dave LeGallee, Paula Lozano, Terri Martincic, Jim McCarty, Lucy McKernan, Marie Monago, Gary Neuman, Marianne Nolan, Penny O’Connor, Steven Ollay, Michael Pasek, Earl and Martha Peck, Chris Pierce, Larry Richardson, MaryAnne and Tom Romito, Larry Rosche, Jeremiah Roth, Scott and Christine Rush, Inga Schmidt, Andrea and Robert Segedi, Judy Semroc, Paul Sherwood, Page Stephens, Kathleen Tiburzi and Julie West.