Fifty years ago on December 23, 1971, Bill Smith and Steve Krings conducted the first Poynette Bird Count centered in Poynette at the Owl’s Nest restaurant at the intersection of Highways 51 and CS.
Bill, who grew up in Poynette, coordinated the count for the first decade and then we took over. We enjoyed working with Bill at DNR and for the past 40 years he has been the count leader for unit 1. On the first count, Bill and Steve found 28 species including ruffed grouse, Wilson’s snipe, herring gull, red-headed woodpecker and yellow-bellied sapsucker that were not found on this year’s count.
This year the Poynette Count was held on December 26th. A major challenge this year was the pandemic. Some field counters passed on participating while those that participated went in family groups while non-related birders traveled in separate cars.
Sixty four species were counted by 33 field observers and seven households. Species and numbers — bold are uncommon species or high numbers — Canada geese (1,397), wood duck (4), gadwall 14, American black duck (12), mallard (1,026), green-winged teal (1), common goldeneye (6), hooded merganser (1), ring-necked pheasant (28), wild turkey (373), great blue heron (1), bald eagle (101), northern harrier (1), sharp-shinned hawk (1), Cooper’s hawk (6), red-shouldered hawk (1), red-tailed hawk (97), rough-legged hawk (11), American kestrel (17), merlin (1), peregrine falcon (2), Virginia rail (4), rock pigeon (474), Eurasian collared dove (16), morning dove (278), sandhill crane (92), eastern screech owl (7), great horned owl (2), barred owl (1), short-eared owl (1), northern saw-whet owl (1), belted kingfisher (1), red-bellied woodpecker (67), downy woodpecker (131), hairy woodpecker (46), northern flicker (2), pileated woodpecker (8), northern shrike (1), American crow (782), horned lark (71), black-capped chickadee (310), tufted titmouse (53), red-breasted nuthatch (13), white-breasted nuthatch (125), brown creeper (3), eastern bluebird (8), American robin (45), European starling (512), cedar waxwing (138), American tree sparrow (354), fox sparrow (1), swamp sparrow (3), white-throated sparrow (1), dark-eyed junco (972), Lapland longspur (265), yellow-rumped warbler (1), northern cardinal (324), red-winged blackbird (1), house finch (341), pine siskin (37), American goldfinch (138), and house sparrow (402).
Photos below: Cooper’s hawk, by Graham Steinhauer; Eastern bluebirds, by Bill Smith; Hairy woodpecker, by Dory Owen; Merlin, by Bill Smith; Rough-legged hawk, by Dory Owen; Wild turkeys, by Dory Owen
As always there were many interesting observations. Al and Gale Shea were rewarded with a special sighting of 58 bald eagles at one location along the Wisconsin River.
Bald eagle party. Photo by Jeff Pieterick
Meg Nelson and her husband David reported a flock of 130 crows in the unit surrounding Schoeneberg Marsh Waterfowl Production Area/Erstad Prairie.
Brand Smith, our volunteer Kestrel Nest Box Program coordinator and Pat Ready, a kestrel nest box volunteer, had a high count of five kestrels. We wonder how many of the 17 kestrels found in the count were from the Madison Audubon kestrel box project?
American kestrel. Photo by Jim Stewart
Peregrine falcons did not nest in Wisconsin 50 years ago and we were lucky enough to find two (record high) on the count. Other species found in 2020 that were not present or very rare in Columbia County in 1971 include the wild turkey, merlin, Eurasian collared dove, sandhill cranes (rare), eastern bluebird (rare), and house finch.
JD Arnston and his parents reported a bald eagle carrying sticks for nest building along Rowan Creek Fishery Area near Poynette.
For 20 years an area around Goose Pond has been surveyed as the “Goose Pond Unit”. This year we found 25 species in the Goose Pond Unit including 7 redtails, 83 morning doves, 51 cranes, 250 lapland longspurs, and 185 house finches. Our highlight at Goose Pond was counting 170 house finches in our maple tree in the backyard of the Kampen Road residence.
We wrote in the October Friday Feathered Feature about the invasion of pine siskins. In early October we counted 1,017 pine siskins at Goose Pond. On the count day we could not find any pine siskins around Goose Pond and only found 37 in the larger 177 square mile count area. The nation-wide Audubon CBCs will provide information where the invasion was in the last half of December.
https://madisonaudubon.org/fff/2020/10/16/pine-siskin-2020-an-invasion-year
The 2020 pandemic year is behind us and we look toward things returning to normal before next year’s 51st Christmas Bird Count.
Thanks to all the field and feeder counters that made this a very successful count.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan-Foote Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
Cover photo by Dory Owen
