KCA PORTION (AREA 8) OF FERMILAB CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT
DECEMBER 19, 2015
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On a sunny, moderately windy December Saturday morning, twenty-four Kane County Audubon volunteers ventured out into mid-teen temperatures. Their job? To count all the birds they could identify in Area 8 of the Fermi Christmas Bird Count Circle. (CBC circles are 7.5 mile diameter patches, this one centered on a point in Fermilab. Area 8 is all the territory in that circle, west of the Fox River, excluding any property adjacent the river.) Our birders covered 145 snow-free miles, 30 of them on foot. They found 49 species and 14,779 total birds. The particulars: |
| SPECIES | COUNT | SPECIES | COUNT | |
| Snow Goose | 1 | Tufted Titmouse | 2 | |
| Canada Goose | 4,420 | White-breasted Nuthatch | 31 | |
| Mallard | 5,310 | Brown Creeper | 20 | |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | 2 | Winter Wren | 2 | |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | Golden-crowned Kinglet | 2 | |
| Great Blue Heron | 2 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | |
| Northern Harrier | 3 | Eastern Bluebird | 3 | |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | American Robin | 102 | |
| Cooper's Hawk | 6 | European Starling | 3,181 | |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 16 | Cedar Waxwing | 12 | |
| American Kestrel | 2 | American Tree Sparrow | 230 | |
| Peregrine Falcon | 2 | Fox Sparrow | 1 | |
| Ring-billed Gull | 25 | Song Sparrow | 5 | |
| Herring Gull | 1 | White-throated Sparrow | 19 | |
| Rock Pigeon | 84 | White-crowned Sparrow | 6 | |
| Mourning Dove | 34 | Dark-eyed Junco | 222 | |
| Great Horned Owl | 3 | Northern Cardinal | 155 | |
| Belted Kingfisher | 5 | Red-winged Blackbird | 2 | |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 33 | Brown-headed Cowbird | 1 | |
| Downy Woodpecker | 38 | Purple Finch | 5 | |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 4 | House Finch | 139 | |
| Northern Flicker | 2 | Pine Siskin | 6 | |
| Blue Jay | 29 | American Goldfinch | 78 | |
| American Crow | 42 | House Sparrow | 261 | |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 200 |