Although there were no official meetings of people (or lunches at the Cherokee or Grandma's Griddle Restaurants), we still obtained some decent bird numbers on the Muskegon County Wastewater CBC December 16 and the City of Muskegon CBC December 19. Numbers for the City CBC were compiled for the official North American records and keep our club's participation in Christmas Bird Counts unbroken since we first began a long time ago.
Five people submitted numbers to Brian Johnson for the Dec. 16 Wastewater count. Pleasant weather helped produce respectable numbers and good quality. Rough-legged Hawks were seen by all; Wild Turkeys by nobody! Excellent species included Rusty Blackbird and Short-eared Owl. Totals were 57 species and 10,197 individuals.
Eight people submitted numbers from 14 locations within 7.5 miles of downtown Muskegon on Dec. 19. Two species had not been recorded on previous Muskegon CBC's for at least 25 years: White-crowned Sparrow (at the Causeway Marsh) and Wood Duck (along Rood Road in Norton Shores). A total of 3,059 individual birds were reported among the 49 total species.
