New Year's Birding

Alright, I might have slacked a bit on the blogging and what not but it's also a whole lot of fun to get thrown back into two jobs right after some vacay..... not to mention that classes resume tomorrow morning. Fun, right?

New Years came and went, spending time with the family back in Northeast Iowa for our late Christmas (as our previous date on Christmas Day was snowed/iced out). Nothing too exciting birdwise. I was fairly excited about getting an adult Cooper's Hawk harassing some pigeons at an underpass along Hwy 20 in Waterloo and Rough-legged Hawk and American Kestrel in Buchanan Co., the latter seems to be getting harder to find in winter in NE Iowa.

Bitter cold summed up the next few days with lows well below zero, often in the -10 F to -15 F range with 10-20 mph winds. Yeah, those -35 F wind chills sound awesome for some CBCing action don't they? I know you're envious.

I started my 4-day CBC marathon with a trip to Dubuque on Jan 2nd. Met up with a small crowd of semi-familiar birders that I largely haven't had contact with for the last few years. That said, it was a cold day.... and about the only time my feet were warm was when we were walking small stretches of territory.

I don't think our party even cracked 25 species, so I'll be curious to see how the Dubuque CBC finishes for the year (reminds me, I haven't checked the CBC database yet). Best bird for me on that count by far was a scolding Carolina Wren along a hiking/biking trail down a power-line cut near Mines of Spain State Park. That bird looked pretty darn cold and I'd be very surprised if it makes it through this harsh Iowa winter. Later that evening, Kelly McKay and I met up and we drove to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin to spend the night for the Cassville, WI CBC the next day.

And so the Cassville CBC began, at 530 AM at a location known as Eagle Valley (basically located directly across the Mississippi River from Guttenberg, IA). An air temp of -14 F was recorded when we began at 530. By the time we descended into the valleys and 630 AM came around, we recorded a temp of -21 F. That single Barred Owl sounded damn cold!

By and large, the Cassville CBC was a beautiful winter day to be birding, minus the cold weather of course. The winds were very light to practically non-existant, and Kelly and I turned up a very respectable 48 species in arguably, the best territory in the count circle. Our territory reached the northern limits of the town of Cassville, which has not one, but two coal plants along the river. Of course, there must be some open water. Nothing too exciting, but 11 Canada Geese, 13 Trumpeter Swans, a group of about 30 Mallards, 2 Common Goldeneye, and 24 Common Mergansers were more than we could have asked for. Some other highlights amid the bluffs that day included a single adult Golden Eagle, a Belted Kingfisher, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Northern Shrike, and single White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows. Our count of 40 Brown Creepers was exceptional and a Peregrine Falcon sitting atop a blinking light near the top of the northern power plant smokestack was a great way to end the day. After dark and heading south, we traveled to Kelly's house in the Quad Cities for the next day's count in Andalusia, Illinois.

Again starting early, we arrived within the count circle on Jan 4th at about 515 AM, where we met up with Dick Sayles from Buffalo, IA (just across from Andalusia, Illinois). The day was an improvement from the previous, with a high of 8 F and a low of -5, but light to moderate northwest winds really put a damper on things in the upland areas and in the river bottom (this is another Mississippi River count). Albeit some significant misses like Snow Bunting, we tallied 50 species for the day, slightly lower than what is normal for the count. The most memorable moment of the day was the sight of 3 Northern Mockingbirds in a single shaggy looking field populated by small cedar trees. I was also particularly pleased with the 40 Eurasian Tree Sparrows we saw, despite being noted as a significantly low tally. We don't get either of these birds much in central or northeastern Iowa. An immature Northern Shrike was definitely a nice bird for this count as well. A few other highlights were 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, 2 Hermit Thrushes, and a female Eastern Towhee.

After another night in the Quad Cities, we left for one of my counts, the Southeast Clayton Co. CBC, bright and early: 3 AM on Jan 5th. We arrived within the circle back in Guttenberg just after 530 AM and began owling, turning up a fairly respectable 8 Great Horned Owls and 6 Eastern Screech Owls. A single Barred Owl was nice, but below normal. Kelly and I were the only ones conducting the count, so it was up to us to make for a good count. We covered an area between Guttenberg and Garnavillo east towards the Mississppi River, including such gravel roads as Buck Creek and Miner's Creek.

We managed 45 species, which isn't too terrible considering the winter (10 inches of snow depth). We did have some excellent finds though, including a pair of Common Goldeneyes and a single female Bufflehead at the Dam in Guttenberg, both firsts for this young CBC (this was the 7th year). Those were also our only waterfowl; waterfowl in general aren't really expected on this count. Incredibly though, I'd have to say our highlight of the day was finding 3 adult Golden Eagles, including a pair. Four Belted Kingfishers and 2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers made for good totals respectively, again considering the winter. Two Winter Wrens were huge and I'm very happy there are at least a couple left somewhere in Iowa this winter. We also had single Eastern Bluebird and American Robin, both of which looked very cold. Four Swamp Sparrows also made for a new addition to the cumulative count list. Two White-throated Sparrows and 7 Red-winged Blackbirds were also nice for this count.

Some quantity records were also established. I'd have to check my cumulative list, but I believe the 230 Black-capped Chickadees were a count high count record and 64 Tufted Titmice couldn't have been far behind. 135 White-breasted Nuthatches were also respectable. By and large, the 22 Song Sparrows found made for an incredibly tally this far north, especially this winter! How many times have I said that now? 519 American Crows was also a record tally and 179 Northern Cardinals was also respectable. 181 Horned Larks and 151 Lapland Longspurs were nice, as were 21 Snow Buntings.

The day for the SE Clayton Co. count was also warmer than the previous two, with a high of 14 F and a low of -5 F.



Since I returned to central Iowa on the 6th, I've had no time for birding whatsoever. I was literally thrown back into the lion's den, working 2 jobs (one temp; gotta support this birding hobby you know). Finally getting a few minutes of free time, instead of getting prepped for classes to resume tomorrow morning at 8 AM, I decided to flip through some other blogs and decided to update my own.


Perhaps I'll try to chase that Varied Thrush up in Mason City one of these days.