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JACKSON AUDUBON SOCIETY CHRISTMAS COUNTS PAGE

Christmas Bird Count (CBC)

The Jackson Audubon Society conducts an annual Christmas Bird Count each December, as part or the National Audubon count.  Our count area is the Waterloo State Recreation Area, centered on the corner of Mt. Hope and Seymour Rd

COUNT AREA MAP

DATA RETRIEVAL FROM NATIONAL AUDUBON CHRISTMAS COUNT DATABASE

LAST EST AREA COUNT DATA.

The Waterloo Recreation Area Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 18th. We counted 60 species in our circle which is about average for us. The Waterloo count circle is centered at the intersection of Mt. Hope and Seymour Roads in Waterloo Township, Jackson County. It reaches into a small portion of southeastern Ingham County and northwestern Washtenaw County.

Surprisingly, 3 new species were added that had not previously been recorded in the count’s 42 year history. The new species were Northern Shoveler, Swainson's Thrush and Lincoln's Sparrow.

The female Northern Shoveler was found at the Leoni Mill Pond west of Grass Lake by Don and Robyn Henise and Gary Mason. The Mill Pond was one of only a few locations in the count circle with open water. The shoveler was accompanied by a female Ruddy Duck which provided only the 3rd record for the Count.

The Swainson's Thrush was found in the Cedar Lake Outdoor Center in Sylvan Township, Washtenaw County just inside the Pierce Road entrance by Tom Hodgson and his team.

The Lincoln's Sparrow was found on private property in Waterloo Township by Ron Hoffman, Allen King and Chris VanLonkhuyzen. It was seen again and photographed on Monday, Dec 20th by Lathe Claflin.

Other highlights of the day were an adult Bald Eagle flying over Gillettes Lake, a Wilson's Snipe at Leoni Mill Pond, 2 Northern Shrikes (one at Haehnle Sanctuary and one on Thrush Road off of Ann Arbor Road in Leoni Township), and a Northern Mockingbird at its historical location near Munith in Waterloo Township.

Several species were recorded in record high numbers. I’ll list them here with the old record and year in parenthesis: Wild Turkey – 240 (236 - 2004), Sharp-shinned Hawk – 5 (4 - 1973), Cooper's Hawk – 17 (14 - 1989), Pileated Woodpecker – 5 (3 - 2008), Golden-crowned Kinglet – 22 (20 - 1989). The following species numbers were higher than average, but not records: Ring-necked Pheasant – 15, Rough-legged Hawk – 4, Red-headed Woodpecker – 7, Blue Jay – 541, American Tree Sparrow – 675, and Dark-eyed Junco – 767.

We really did not have any misses of expected species except for the fact the Short-eared Owls that had been seen in recent weeks in Leoni Township were not found in spite of determined effort. A few species were counted in much lower than normal numbers: Canada Goose – 6, Sandhill Crane – 10 (surprising after having record numbers in our fall counts), and American Robin.

 Report from Count Compiler:: Don Henise 

JAS Waterloo Area Christmas Bird Count Circle Map

The area covers a six mine radius centered on the intersection of Mount Hope Road and Seymour Road in Jackson County Michigan (42.3167 degrees North x -84.2167 degrees West) .  The count area area also encompasses part of western Washtenaw County.

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ACCESSING CBC DATA FROM NAS DATABASE

National Audubon Christmas Bird Count Page at  http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/ can be used to learn more about the CBC and view current and historic counts data. You can do your own data retrieval and analysis selecting count areas, species and/or years. 

History currently goes through the latest count  (2010-2011).You can look at the data, down load it, obtain charts an maps, and plot changes in population over the years. and over multiple count areas.  Detailed instructions for historical data for our count area are as follows.

• Go to he National Audubon Christmas Bird Count Historical Results Page at  http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/hr/index.html

• To access count data go to either Results: Current Year  (http://cbc.audubon.org/cbccurrent/current_table.html) or  Results: Historical  (http://birds.audubon.org/historical-result)   
• To gat to the Waterloo count area, in n Step 1 "OPTION A: STATE OR PROVINCE" select Michigan from the drop down list.
• Click on the "Find Count" button.
• In In Step 2"ADD SELECTED CBC COUNT CODE TO YOUR QUERY"  scroll down to find and then click on "waterloo state recreation area [MWA]"
• Then click the  "Add" button.
• In Step 3 "SELECT DATE RANGE" Select thestart and end dates oof the count or counts you want to look at. 
• Then click on the "MAKE A TABLE" button on the right side. 
• A table with the count data you requested will now be displayed.
• NOTE: In Step 2 you can select other states, or other count areas than Waterloo, if you want to view other areas.  If you want to combine areas, you can select and add multiple areas.

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WATERLOO AREA JACKSON AUDUBON CHRISTMAS COUNT DATA FOR 2010-2011

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