One of the highlights of 2016 was finding 51 species and 1,633 pairs of breeding birds at Goose Pond Sanctuary and at the adjacent 65-acre Manthe farm. Most of the data was gathered from Heather Inzalaco’s master project with additional data provided by us.
Over 460 acres of restored prairie were surveyed and this large acreage accounts for the bulk of the breeding pairs. Grassland birds found included:
Goldfinch nest, Photo by Maddie Dumas
- ring-necked pheasant - 28 pairs,
- northern harrier - 2,
- sedge wrens - 62,
- common yellowthroat - 212,
- clay-colored sparrow - 128,
- savanna sparrow - 1,
- song sparrow - 302,
- dickcissel - 23,
- red-winged blackbird - 365,
- eastern meadowlark - 46,
- brown-headed cowbird - 17, and
- American goldfinch 47.
Check out this Friday Feathered Feature post to learn more about the breeding bird point count project at Goose Pond!
