Poynette Christmas Bird Count and Goose Pond Unit - 2020

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

Two Decades of Christmas Bird Counts at Goose Pond Sanctuary

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

Goose Pond's 2018 Christmas Bird Count

On Saturday December, 29 we ended 2018 “The Year of the Bird” by coordinating the 47th Poynette Christmas Bird Count (CBC), with assistance of 26 field counters and 10 households as feeder counters.  Fifty-nine species and 10,816 individual birds were documented.

It is very rewarding to spend a day at Goose Pond Sanctuary seeing the winter bird usage as the result of 50 years of land acquisition and habitat restoration. For the 19th year Goose Pond Sanctuary was searched as a unit of the Poynette CBC count with the assistance of Jim Hess, Bill Walters, and JD Arnston. 

Jim Hess, Bill Walters, and Mark getting ready to head out. Not pictured: JD Arnston. Photo by Sue Foote-Martin

The count day was slow for many species, however we had a number of firsts and highlights at Goose Pond Sanctuary and the adjacent area. Twenty-seven species, a record high for our count, were found in the Goose Pond area. Black ducks and northern pintails were new to the species list bringing the total species observed to 44. Record high numbers included 1,340 mallards (only found on two other counts with a previous high of 61), 3 American kestrels, and 87 dark-eyed juncos. The second highest number of birds was found – 2,045, thanks to the large number of mallards. 

Northern pintail, photo by Monica Hall

Mark, Jim, and Bill spent an enjoyable hour walking the sorghum and sunflower food plot. Ring-necked pheasant tracks were easy to see with the recent half inch of snow. Eight hens and two roosters were flushed and judging from the tracks there might have been 25 birds using the food plot. 

The highlight of the food plot walk was the 300 American tree sparrows flitting around. They were not easy to count! At first there were 30 sparrows, then 50, and half-way through the plot we estimated 200 tree sparrows were present. Another 100 were found in the second half of the food plot.

Sorghum in the food plot. Photo by Mark Martin

Chickadees, cardinals, juncos and two cottontails were also found in the food plot, mostly where the spruce trees were adjacent to the food plot. The winter birds fly into the surrounding restored prairie but feed mostly in the food plot on 10 varieties of sorghum. Thanks to the Columbia and Dodge Counties Pheasant Forever chapters for donating sorghum and sunflower seed.

With the abundance of waste corn in the fields and the relatively open winter mallards were still feeding in the Arlington area. The ducks usually visit Goose Pond in mid-morning and on the 29th they found about a tenth of an acre of open water. It was nice to see the black ducks and pintails in the dense flock of mallards roosting on the ice or swimming. 

The hawks and great horned owl were present due to the large amount of habitat that resulted in a high number of prey species.

At Christmas time we like to watch Jimmy Steward in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey learned how different life would have been in Bedford Falls without him.  As we end the 50th year of Goose Pond Sanctuary we wonder how different bird life would have been at Goose Pond Sanctuary without Madison Audubon. 

There probably would not be a Poynette CBC and the low number of species would mostly be dominated by rock pigeons, horned larks, and European starlings.

Birds found:  Canada goose (6), tundra swan (1), American black duck (3), mallard (1,340), Northern pintail (2), ring-necked pheasant (15), northern harrier (2), Cooper’s hawk (2), red-tailed hawk (1), rough-legged hawk (2), American kestrel (3), rock pigeon (47), mourning dove (68), red-bellied woodpecker (1), downy woodpecker (5), hairy woodpecker (1) feeding on emerald ash borer larva, blue jay (3), American crow (6), horned lark (4), black-capped chickadee (18), European starling (5), American tree sparrow (329), dark-eyed junco (87), northern cardinal (6), house finch (44), American goldfinch (28), and house sparrow (15).

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident co-managers