 Our thanks to all of the volunteers who spent the day counting birds with us! Special thanks to Sandusky County Parks for the use of the visitor center at Creek Bend Farms for our post-CBC compilation pizza party. As part of the 126th Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Black Swamp Bird Observatory staff and volunteers ventured forth on a cold, dark morning on Wednesday, December 17, to count as many individual birds and species as possible within a 15-mile diameter circle (divided into six sections) covering Fremont, OH. Handed off to BSBO in 2007 (after some years of inactivity), this marked the 19th Fremont CBC coordinated by the Observatory. * While birders might not think of Fremont, Ohio as "birding nirvana," there are many great birding sites around the area including Creek Bend Farm, Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area, Wolf Creek Park, and numerous woodlots, state wildlife areas and production units, and grasslands for finding wintering birds.  Black Vultures by Ryan Jacob This year, 21 counters recorded 28,610 individual birds, represented by 72 species (right at average). Birds recorded were about 16% below the yearly average (34,010). Highlights included seldom-encountered species including:
Of the 72 species recorded, 22 were observed in all six sections of the count circle. Bald Eagle was by far the highest-recorded raptor, with 108 individuals reported (a new count record) and Downy Woodpecker the number one woodpecker spotted (72).  American Tree Sparrow by Jamie Cunningham There were several notable highs and lows for the count. Sandhill Cranes were counted for the sixth straight year as this species continues to return to the Ohio landscape. As a group, waterfowl numbers were below average. Almost all water bodies were frozen and surely contributed to this drop. Gulls were also way below average, maybe in response to a completely frozen lake and bay. Mourning Dove had its lowest count since 2016. This was the lowest total for American Goldfinch and Black-capped Chickadee since BSBO started organizing the count, a trend that seems to be continuing for the chickadee. It was the fourth straight year that Northern Mockingbird was recorded as the soft winters may be aiding these species in northward expansion. Snow Bunting had its highest count since 2013 as did the Red-breasted Nuthatch. It was a good American Tree Sparrow year as it had its highest count since 2017.  Blue Jay eating a Gizzard Shad by Kenn Kaufman Here's a note from count volunteer Kenn Kaufman on a particularly interesting encounter this year. Blue Jays, like other members of the Corvidae (jays, crows, ravens, magpies), are intelligent, adaptable birds that readily take advantage of novel food sources. On December 17, Kimberly and I were on the Fremont, Ohio, Christmas Bird Count, walking through a wooded park where most of the creek was frozen. Birds were concentrated near one stretch where the creek was open, and there we saw a Blue Jay fly up from the water’s edge, carrying something silvery in its bill. This turned out to be a small fish that we later ID'd as a Gizzard Shad! Blue Jays are certainly not rare birds, but I thought this behavior was interesting enough to be worth sharing. The Fremont CBC is always fun and interesting, and we’d like to thank all the volunteers who devoted their time to search throughout Fremont – in the cold – recording every bird they could find, even down to every House Sparrow crowded around a backyard feeder. Special thanks to Sandusky County Parks for the use of the visitor center at Creek Bend Farms for our post-CBC compilation pizza party! *Averages and sums presented here refer only to those 19 years of data recorded by BSBO. 
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorsBSBO Staff Archives
January 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed