Owatonna’s Christmas Bird Count Results
The numbers have been compiled from the 45th annual Christmas Bird Count last month. The very cold weather did play a role in the count. A total of 4,025 individual birds were counted. This is the 11th-lowest count. An average count usually yields 4,521 birds. There were 44 different species spotted. With Lake Kohlmier frozen over, no waterfowl were spotted as is the case in some past years.
One record was broken and that was the total of 129 downey woodpeckers spotted. Other increases from the count included 69 mourning doves, 152 northern cardinals, 494 lapland longspurs, 237 house finches and 144 American goldfinches.
Seventy-one people counted birds from their home feeders. Fourteen people on six teams counted birds in the field. Among the findings was a very low 29 ringed-necked pheasants and 52 wild turkeys.
There were 11 first-time counters in last month's count.