RIDGERUNNER REPORTS: Annual bird count was a hoot

I have written about the Audubon Christmas bird count for years now, but this was the first year I actually went along with someone during the event. I was very grateful to Dan Jackson, president of the Coulee Region Audubon Society based in La Crosse, for taking me along with him on his route.

Jackson coordinated the Christmas bird count around La Crosse this year. He had a very good group of volunteers to assign to various routes within a 15-mile circle around downtown La Crosse.

In spite of winter storm warnings and snowy weather, the La Crosse area count went well. Jackson and I first listened for owls in Smith Valley, Goose Island and Chipmunk Coulee. The night was crispy and the cloudy skies eerily diffused the lights from the city of La Crosse over the surrounding landscape. We could literally see in the dark, but the screech owls and barred owls were silent for us until we finally heard a couple great-horned owls hooting softly in Chipmunk Coulee.

As the day unfolded in subtle shades of gray, Jackson was soon identifying birds as they chirped in the brush or flitted about in the dim light of dawn. Our best sightings of the day, as we both guessed ahead of time, came at the popular feeding area on Goose Island. Most of the usual gang of winter birds was there for Jackson to count.

In fact, many of the counters reported that most of the birds seen were concentrated around feeders that day, with the snowy weather making the more free roaming birds hard to spot. In the end, though, the total number of species was comparable with last year’s count. More than 6,600 birds were seen around La Crosse representing 58 species.

Another surprise was the high number of robins seen this year around La Crosse — more than 650. The numbers vary from year to year, but some robins always stay behind feeding on fruits and seeds like crabapples and hackberries.

After most results were in, Jackson reported that the most unusual birds reported were six trumpeter swans below the east spillway, three white-crowned sparrows in Hokah, a Carolina wren at a feeder on the bluff, a northern flicker on the south side of La Crosse, a yellow-bellied sapsucker along the bluffs and a Wilson’s snipe in Smith Valley.

Birds that were under-represented, he added, included red-winged blackbirds (three) and northern shrikes (one). “The cold weather has obviously been effective in chasing the blackbirds south for the winter and shrikes are not irrupting south in significant numbers this year,” Jackson said.

I talked to a couple members of the Hiawatha Valley Audubon Society in Winona who reported some very interesting results on their routes during the count. Howard Munson, for instance, saw and photographed a rare varied thrush, and Steve and Toni Sherwood saw the first wood duck on their route. I didn’t get the final results as of this writing, and I know the weather cut down on the number of volunteers who could participate, but those who got out in the Winona area apparently had some good action.

Overall, the results of the counts done by Audubon groups from all across the country give a good indication of bird population and movement trends.

If you would like to participate in future counts or just get information about local birds, you can e-mail Jackson at djackson@mwt.net

Eagle has flown

New Year’s Eve 2008 brought a sight more meaningful to me than a crystal ball being lowered in Times Square or even a burst of bubbly at midnight. It was the release in the afternoon of a female bald eagle that had recovered from injuries it received when it stepped on a trap set for raccoons along the Mississippi River.

The eagle was reported to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources by duck hunters who found it Nov. 25 after it had struggled in the trap overnight near De Soto, Wis. The trap had been set in the open along a log and was left so that anything that wandered along the log was liable to get trapped.

The DNR was busy checking deer so they referred the situation to Nick Stavroplus at the McGregor, Iowa, office of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Stavroplus picked up the bird and took it to Coulee Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Chaseburg, where Merv and Sue Broten started treatment with antibiotics. Linda Bethke at Soaring Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation in Prairie du Sac, Wis., later had the foot X-rayed and continued antibiotics before returning the bird to CWRC.

On New Year’s Eve day, the eagle was ready to be released at a boat landing about a half-mile from where it was originally found.

I have watched hundreds of eagles soaring along the Mississippi River, but seeing that lucky eagle fly over its home territory once again was especially gratifying. It was a very fortunate bird not to have suffered fractures, hypothermia, infection or serious tissue destruction in the ordeal.

As we approached the release area earlier, another adult eagle was sitting in a tree nearby. We wondered if perhaps it was the mate of the injured bird. That would have been wonderful, but even if it wasn’t, I would not be surprised if the two knew each other. As the eagle gained altitude over the river and finally rested on a limb to scope out the scene, the small group who had gathered to watch its release cheered it on. Eventually, it flew off in the direction that the other eagle had gone.

It was a happy ending for the eagle and for the old year of 2008!

Whaditiz

An eagle has four powerful clawed toes.

Contact Jim Solberg at nitefrogger@charter.net or (608) 782-2560.