Poynette Christmas Bird Counters for 14+ years, Jim Hess (left), Bill Walters (middle), and Mark Martin (right).
For the past two decades I have had the pleasure of surveying Goose Pond Sanctuary and surrounding area as part of the Poynette Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Our group size and participants vary each year (we enjoy and are grateful for everyone’s involvement!) but Jim Hess and Bill Walters have been part of the team for the past 14 years. That’s pretty good!
In 2000, we split the Unit 7 block into two parts and formed part of it into a block 12 which includes Goose Pond Sanctuary and the surrounding area for a total of 5.5 square miles. Most of the birds are on or adjacent to the sanctuary. We decided to form a new block so we could see the impact that land acquisition and habitat restoration were having on bird numbers and also have a historical perspective on changes to bird numbers.
American tree sparrow, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar
Much of the habitat outside of the sanctuary is open fields with a few residences. In the first decade of the new century, we acquired more land and have been restoring additional habitat still in 2019. At the end of 2019 there are over 450 acres of restored prairie at Goose Pond Sanctuary, on Judi Benadi’s property, and on the Roland & Lynn Manthe farm. Bird numbers also are impacted by our food plots, bird feeders at our residences and at Judi’s residence, and with open water years in 2015 and 2018 probably due to climate change. Weather conditions also vary year to year and impact bird numbers. Over this time we tried to conduct the count around the last Saturday in December. Our long-term goal is to have a data set that will track bird species and numbers for decades to come.
Rough-legged hawk, photo by Phil Brown
The effort expended in the 20 years includes field observers that walked 47 miles and drove 193 miles over 95 hours. We also spent nine hours searching for owls.
Our Goose Pond unit CBC checklist contains 42 species found on count days. An impressive 22,620 individuals were found with five species being counted each year. The number of species found each year ranged from 13 to 27 with an average of 19 species.
Red-bellied woodpecker, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar
Species found in lower numbers or in few years are cackling goose 3 birds - 1 year, trumpeter swan 8 - 1, tundra swan 192 - 2, American black duck 3 - 1, northern pintail 2 - 1, northern harrier 8 - 5, Cooper’s hawk 21 - 15, bald eagle 6 -5, red-tailed hawk 132 - 17, rough-legged hawk 19 - 14, great horned owl 12 - 10, snowy owl 2 - 1, short-eared owl 11 - 5, red-bellied woodpecker 6 - 5, downy woodpecker 39 - 14, hairy woodpecker 10 - 5, American kestrel 21 - 15, northern shrike 2 -2, blue jay 59 - 13, American crow 128 - 19, horned lark 93 - 7, black-capped chickadee 115 - 13, song sparrow 15 - 7 swamp sparrow 1 - 1, northern cardinal 70 - 15, red-winged blackbird 1 - 1, purple finch 1 - 1, and common redpoll 2 - 1.
The two snowy owls were sitting about 12 feet apart in the cropland south of the Bicentennial Prairie in 2014. Raptors have increased in the past 30 years due to an increase in prey. It was nice to find three short-eared owls this year and we hope to see more short-ears on future counts.
Thanks to everyone that has helped with the 2019 count and in the past. Every year I look forward to conducting this count with Jim and Bill.
By Mark Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident co-manager, goosep@madisonaudubon.org
