Road and walking conditions were equally bad for this year’s Kishwaukee Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The count circle covers the southern part of Winnebago County which is not part of the more northwestern circle that is the Rockford CBC.
Each year we try to do as many area bird counts as possible to assist in collecting data on the bird populations in our local haunts. Our area mostly included driving but we did get out a bit and walk.
The main highlights were a Rough-legged Hawk, Horned Larks, 1 Lapland Longspur, and a huge flock of American Crows (311).
This is just a small part of the larger flock.
We also had a really cool non-bird sighting of a Red Fox. He was less than 100 feet from us but by the time I got the camera ready (just a little point-and-shoot) he had scurried pretty far away.
I also participated on the count highlights for our team 250 Snow Buntings in with 45 Horned Larks and 100+ Tree Sparrows. Second seeing a Coop dive into a bunch of House Finches. It was a bit cool looks like it will be colder for the Rock Cut count this Sunday.