BROOKINGS – Nineteen observers took to the field and 11 more kept an eye on their bird feeders for this year’s Brookings area Christmas Bird Count.
All together they found 50 species and one sub-species.
Count day, Dec. 23, in the Brookings area brought about 2 inches of snow, temperatures between 10 and 19 degrees Fahrenheit, and 8 mph winds from the northwest.
Nelda Holden, who spearheaded this year’s count and has taken part in every area Christmas Bird Count since 1957, said the weather “made for a good count day.”
Holden said highlights included “a huge flock of snow geese found at Lake Sinai and a snowy owl also found near there.”
Some of the larger numbers included: 30,000 snow geese; 1,877 Canada geese; 714 house sparrows; 599 mallards; 406 starlings; 303 common redpolls; 155 blue jays; 136 cedar waxwings; 136 dark-eyed juncos; 122 horned larks; 112 tree sparrows; 103 American goldfinches; and 87 black-capped chickadees.
Other counts were: 20 ring-necked pheasants; 13 wild turkeys; 3 Coopers hawks; 1 sharp-shinned hawk; 12 bald eagles; 8 red-tailed hawks; 1 northern goshawk; 7 American kestrels; 7 rough-legged hawks; 86 rock pigeons; 98 Eurasian collared doves; 1 mourning doves; 2 eastern screech owls; 1 barred owl; 8 great-horned owls; 1 short-eared owl; 1 snowy owl; 15 red-bellied woodpeckers; 57 downy woodpeckers; 18 hairy woodpeckers; 13 northern flickers; 3 northern shrikes; 74 crows; 2 red-breasted nuthatches; 42 white-breasted nuthatches; 4 brown creepers; 3 golden-crowned kinglets; 22 American robins; 15 cardinals; 1 Oregon junco; 85 red-winged blackbirds; 82 Brewer’s blackbirds; 8 rusty blackbirds; 58 house finches; 15 purple finches; 37 red crossbills; 35 white-winged crossbills; and 23 pine siskins.
