The tenth annual C&O Canal Midwinter Bird Survey was on Saturday, January 19th, 2008. Thanks to all who participated! See the survey announcement [0] to enter data from your segments.

DC Audubon's most ambitious birding activity, the C&O Survey aims to provide a true picture of winter birdlife along the entire 184.5 miles of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, from Georgetown to Cumberland. It has become a welcome institiution for regional birders and is starting to provide interesting year-to-year and mile-to-mile comparative distributional information. Tallies of species and numbers are recorded on a mile-by-mile basis using the mileposts along the towpath.

Read the reports from 2001 [0], 2002 [0], 2003 [0], 2004 [0], 2005 [0], 2006 [0], and 2007 [0].

Checklist for 2008 count: COchecklist2008.doc [0]

Count data are available in Excel spreadsheet format. They will print legibly on six 8.5"x14" pages, numbered left to right (ascending mile-segments of the Canal) and then top to bottom (non-passeriforms and passeriforms). Each page displays a species column, a mile-segment row, and a row with initials of the reporting observer. Column totals are the number of species and numbers of individual birds in a mile-segment. Row totals are, for each species, the total number counted and number of mile-segments in which any were observed. Comparative aggregate data from previous years is also shown. The mile-segments are numbered starting with "0", and thus correspond to the milepost marking the downstream terminus of that sector. This numbering seems to be the least confusing way to report segments covered, and to correlate with the maps and descriptions in Hahn's Towpath Guide. The order of species is the same as on the checklist provided to participants.

Year	File
1999	COfinal99.xls [0]
2000	COfinal00.xls [0]
2001	COfinal01.xls [0]
2002	COfinal02.xls [0]
2003	COfinal03.xls [0]
2004	COfinal04.xls [0]
2005	COfinal05.xls [0]
2006	COfinal06.xls [0]
2007	COfinal07.xls [0]

Here is a summary of count totals:

Species	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Common Loon	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Pied-billed Grebe	2	3	4	4	2	3	2	0	14
Horned Grebe	3	1	2	0	3	0	0	0	0
Red-necked Grebe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Double-crested Cormorant	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Great Blue Heron	57	42	23	48	112	24	32	40	41
Black-crowned Night-Heron	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Black Vulture	19	5	22	53	50	19	36	78	34
Turkey Vulture	45	21	50	177	128	14	60	179	64
Mute Swan	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
Tundra Swan	32	10	0	26	33	0	0	0	0
Canada Goose	3678	5978	5149	3808	9609	5933	5679	1369	2257
Cackling Goose	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Snow Goose	0	1	1	5	3	0	2	0	0
Wood Duck	24	7	9	11	27	0	0	9	2
Gadwall	14	42	8	21	15	15	0	0	1
American Black Duck	165	564	220	325	563	256	544	150	159
Mallard	678	1162	555	790	1197	310	421	298	475
Northern Pintail	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	1	0
Northern Shoveler	0	0	9	0	0	0	0	0	0
American Wigeon	13	41	81	32	14	2	0	0	0
Green-winged Teal	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Canvasback	751	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Redhead	295	4	51	0	0	10	0	0	0
Ring-necked Duck	450	1055	1837	196	563	474	508	307	273
Greater Scaup	103	0	0	0	0	0	89	1	0
Lesser Scaup	154	49	3	0	164	24	1	40	7
Bufflehead	37	32	38	22	98	83	85	24	38
Common Goldeneye	34	57	29	9	92	28	157	11	70
Hooded Merganser	4	61	11	3	52	37	35	8	11
Common Merganser	86	181	84	92	376	300	392	157	163
Red-breasted Merganser	9	5	3	0	21	4	8	0	2
Ruddy Duck	0	2	3	2	3	0	0	0	3
Osprey	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bald Eagle	12	4	5	17	23	15	19	13	22
Golden Eagle	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Northern Harrier	3	2	3	0	4	3	1	0	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	4	7	3	8	17	5	6	3	5
Cooper's Hawk	4	4	0	2	7	5	6	3	6
Red-shouldered Hawk	11	15	5	36	40	23	32	32	16
Red-tailed Hawk	50	41	40	59	87	27	37	31	27
American Kestrel	3	2	0	0	0	2	1	1	2
Merlin	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Ring-necked Pheasant	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Ruffed Grouse	2	0	4	6	3	0	2	0	1
Wild Turkey	0	6	20	78	27	12	65	13	49
Northern Bobwhite	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
American Coot	176	417	1	3	0	0	3	7	1
Killdeer	4	16	0	16	6	0	2	0	6
Greater Yellowlegs	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Bonaparte's Gull	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ring-billed Gull	743	68	235	1040	793	201	384	1103	494
Herring Gull	22	15	55	34	34	17	13	10	3
Great Black-backed Gull	3	6	11	6	3	2	0	0	1
gull sp.	0	0	0	106	1	30	0	0	0
Rock Pigeon	245	236	548	330	702	266	241	115	178
Mourning Dove	67	158	93	92	162	125	123	96	192
Eastern Screech Owk	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Great Horned Owl	1	2	2	0	5	0	1	0	1
Barred Owl	7	4	1	7	15	0	3	2	4
Belted Kingfisher	40	47	19	45	112	30	36	55	58
Red-headed woodpecker	0	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	0
Red-bellied Woodpecker	230	371	360	473	678	499	357	449	312
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	21	211	54	80	178	230	108	67	94
Downy Woodpecker	291	515	319	535	869	521	488	419	511
Hairy Woodpecker	64	68	38	71	153	64	101	62	115
Northern Flicker	84	176	108	123	198	242	44	136	65
Pileated Woodpecker	136	136	118	143	308	192	145	149	145
Eastern Phoebe	17	18	20	17	26	15	9	6	11
Blue Jay	89	191	98	236	289	221	102	187	106
American Crow	775	1026	682	1745	1940	894	672	667	666
Fish Crow	7	23	6	89	24	10	24	28	10
crow sp.	38	41	45	235	64	25	10	27	0
Common Raven	16	7	8	21	38	15	23	25	19
Black-capped Chickadee	188	211	52	276	363	99	147	124	137
Carolina Chickadee	529	823	657	1129	1368	485	675	855	893
chickadee sp.	14	70	40	106	61	79	60	7	14
Tufted Titmouse	347	638	360	812	1157	374	524	478	546
White-breasted Nuthatch	179	416	234	481	664	350	456	311	414
Red-breasted nuthatch	0	8	0	2	0	0	2	6	5
Brown Creeper	75	79	29	115	232	103	102	110	219
Carolina Wren	178	430	279	516	709	315	398	453	542
Winter Wren	14	68	18	44	73	37	58	48	48
House Wren	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
Golden-crowned Kinglet	125	20	169	129	258	119	246	246	241
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	35	21	61	39	72	42	11	44	28
Eastern Bluebird	104	419	291	332	359	153	203	151	440
Hermit Thrush	4	40	12	4	25	14	7	17	5
American Robin	82	310	24	638	255	555	280	1245	494
Northern Mockingbird	15	52	12	47	75	26	42	18	32
Gray Catbird	0	0	1	4	1	2	1	0	0
European Starling	662	725	494	600	947	1021	692	703	1254
Cedar Waxwing	218	6	204	397	314	149	22	403	243
Orange-crowned Warbler	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Yellow-rumped Warbler	80	84	198	96	164	111	64	138	104
Eastern Towhee	1	0	1	10	8	1	6	5	1
American Tree Sparrow	104	29	24	21	143	38	18	0	13
Field Sparrow	3	14	4	3	25	10	6	4	41
Savannah Sparrow	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0
Fox Sparrow	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	0	0
Song Sparrow	112	282	98	232	394	365	215	132	172
Swamp Sparrow	2	26	0	7	8	24	21	6	0
White-throated Sparrow	345	694	275	604	1190	976	781	452	757
White-crowned Sparrow	7	1	0	1	17	2	0	0	0
Dark-eyed Junco	531	962	471	708	1230	988	943	415	1304
Northern Cardinal	217	596	318	501	796	560	338	250	510
Red-winged Blackbird	4	2	5	1	15	0	70	1	12
Rusty Blackbird	156	3	0	4	159	11	0	0	0
Common Grackle	1	1	0	3042	0	0	0	216	1
Brown-headed Cowbird	0	0	0	400	3	25	0	5	15
House Finch	34	258	189	115	60	18	28	27	13
Purple Finch	0	1	0	9	0	2	0	19	0
Pine Siskin	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
American Goldfinch	154	149	156	315	289	101	169	221	291
House Sparrow	74	77	33	84	88	77	184	130	93
species	89	89	80	91	84	85	86	74	84
individuals	14411	20693	16200	23158	19505	18489	17888	13619	15641
ex. Canada Geese	10733	14715	11050	19350 (15047*)	13721	12566	12209	12250	13384
miles covered	138	142	129	178	176	150	182	126	171

* excluding cowbird and grackle flock in mile 71