NEWSLETTERS ~ CURRENT NEWS ~ BUTTERFLY COUNT ~ CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT ~ NATIVE PLANTS & PRAIRIE ~ VOLUNTEER
The National Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is the longest running survey of American bird populations ever conducted.
Learn how it all began
Learn how the data collected is used
Rochester's Annual Christmas Bird Count
Every December our volunteers work in teams to scout Rochester, Minnesota and the surrounding area for birds. We typically find more than 50 species and frequently turn up an unusual species or two! Everyone is welcome to participate. We count from the warmth of cars or on short hikes. We also need home feeder reports from the day of the count. Our numbers are reported to National Audubon and added to a CBC database that has been collected annually for more than 100 years! The Official Count period established by the National Audubon Society is Dec. 14 thru Jan. 5 (the same date window every year).
Oour next Christmas Bird Count will be on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024
We'll meet at 7:15 a.m. at Silver Lake in Rochester near the old fire station to divide into teams. Each team will cover a section of the Rochester count circle. A mid-day tally will be held at Quarry Hill Nature Center from noon to 1 p.m. (bring your own lunch). An end-of-day tally will be held at the Nature Center starting around 4:45 p.m. All participants are invited to attend. This will be a light potluck supper with soup and bread provided. Some teams bird just in the morning, and some go out all day. Counting is done from the warmth of cars or on short hikes. Participants should dress for the weather and bring binoculars, field guides, and a pen or pencil. To pre-register or for more information contact Clifford Hansen at 507-281-0249 or clhroch@yahoo.com.
More resources and reference material for count day:
CBC Registration Form
CBC Field Tally Sheet (download pdf file)
Feeder Report Form as a pdf OR Feeder Report Form as a Word Doc
CBC Count Circle Map (15 mile diameter - the center of the circle is located at the 37th ST NW bridge over Hwy 52 - near IBM)
This alternate map has a little more detail but it's a much larger file - either can be used.
Data for those that want to dig deeper: These files will be updated in mid-January 2024
2019- 2023 CBC Count Day Species - 5 Year Summary ( .xls file)
Yearly Rochester CBC Total Species Results - Total Species found on Count Day + additional during Count Week (CW)
CBC Data - All CBC results since 1959 - (.xls file)
Learn how it all began
Learn how the data collected is used
Rochester's Annual Christmas Bird Count
Every December our volunteers work in teams to scout Rochester, Minnesota and the surrounding area for birds. We typically find more than 50 species and frequently turn up an unusual species or two! Everyone is welcome to participate. We count from the warmth of cars or on short hikes. We also need home feeder reports from the day of the count. Our numbers are reported to National Audubon and added to a CBC database that has been collected annually for more than 100 years! The Official Count period established by the National Audubon Society is Dec. 14 thru Jan. 5 (the same date window every year).
Oour next Christmas Bird Count will be on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024
We'll meet at 7:15 a.m. at Silver Lake in Rochester near the old fire station to divide into teams. Each team will cover a section of the Rochester count circle. A mid-day tally will be held at Quarry Hill Nature Center from noon to 1 p.m. (bring your own lunch). An end-of-day tally will be held at the Nature Center starting around 4:45 p.m. All participants are invited to attend. This will be a light potluck supper with soup and bread provided. Some teams bird just in the morning, and some go out all day. Counting is done from the warmth of cars or on short hikes. Participants should dress for the weather and bring binoculars, field guides, and a pen or pencil. To pre-register or for more information contact Clifford Hansen at 507-281-0249 or clhroch@yahoo.com.
More resources and reference material for count day:
CBC Registration Form
CBC Field Tally Sheet (download pdf file)
Feeder Report Form as a pdf OR Feeder Report Form as a Word Doc
CBC Count Circle Map (15 mile diameter - the center of the circle is located at the 37th ST NW bridge over Hwy 52 - near IBM)
This alternate map has a little more detail but it's a much larger file - either can be used.
Data for those that want to dig deeper: These files will be updated in mid-January 2024
2019- 2023 CBC Count Day Species - 5 Year Summary ( .xls file)
Yearly Rochester CBC Total Species Results - Total Species found on Count Day + additional during Count Week (CW)
CBC Data - All CBC results since 1959 - (.xls file)
Tally & photos from our December 16, 2023 count:
It isn't often that have to contend with rain on Christmas Count Day but this year our teams did just that. On Saturday morning the skies were gray, it was 37 degrees and a light drizzle was falling. Despite that everyone had great success finding birds.
At noon several teams gathered at Quarry Hill for a quick lunch and to share their findings. The "regular" birds were mostly all accounted for. Some unusual finds included: Snow Goose, Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Hooded & Common Mergansers, Belted Kingfisher, Coots, Wilson's Snipe, Northern Shrike, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Red-winged Blackbird, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows.
Open water helped us locate more waterfowl this year. And our early-rising owl team found Screech, Barred and Great-horned. No Rough-legged Hawks were found, but a Merlin and a Peregrine Falcon were.
At 5 pm the final tally / pot luck was held at Quarry Hill. It's always fun to get together and compare what we found! Our count numbers will need to be verified over the next few days - and "count week" birds, those seen 3 days before and after Count Day, but not seen on Count Day itself, will be added in later this week.
Some birds we'd like to locate in the next couple days are Cedar Waxwings, Great Blue Herons, Horned Lark, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Eastern Bluebird.
Many thanks to Clifford Hansen for organizing the walk, to Quarry Hill Nature Center for providing space for our tally and pot luck, and to our team leaders and the many volunteers who helped out and made this year's event a success.
2023 species list:
Snow goose 3
Cackling goose 8
Canada goose 8637
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 17
Mallard 1106
Northern pintail 1
Green-winged teal 1
Canvasback (cw)
Lesser scaup 3
Common goldeneye 3
Hooded merganser 1
Common merganser 2
Ruddy duck 3
Ring-necked pheasant 12
Wild turkey 261
Turkey Vulture 1 (cw)
Northern Harrier 1 (cw)
Sharp-shinned hawk 1 (cw)
Cooper's hawk 5
Bald eagle 19
Red-tailed hawk 44
Rough-legged Hawk (cw)
American coot 14
Wilson's snipe 1
Rock pigeon 714
Eurasian collared-dove 9
Mourning dove 200
Eastern screech owl 1
Great horned owl 8
Barred owl 3
Belted kingfisher 3
Red-headed woodpecker 2
Red-bellied woodpecker 53
Downy woodpecker 151
Hairy woodpecker 43
Northern flicker 4
Pileated woodpecker 13
American kestrel 6
Merlin 1
Peregrine falcon 1
Northern shrike 3
Blue jay 235
American crow 1771
Black-capped chickadee 320
Tufted titmouse 10
White-breasted nuthatch 113
Brown creeper5
American robin 74
European starling 1746
Cedar Waxwing 1 (cw)
American tree sparrow 70
Dark-eyed junco 366
White-crowned sparrow 1
White-throated sparrow 4
Song sparrow 7
Swamp Sparrow 1 (cw)
Northern cardinal 201
Red-winged blackbird 1
House finch 459
Purple finch 1
Pine Siskin 6
American goldfinch 92
House sparrow 671
Number of species: 57
Total individual birds: 17,535
Count week birds: 7
cw = Count Week bird
At noon several teams gathered at Quarry Hill for a quick lunch and to share their findings. The "regular" birds were mostly all accounted for. Some unusual finds included: Snow Goose, Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Hooded & Common Mergansers, Belted Kingfisher, Coots, Wilson's Snipe, Northern Shrike, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Red-winged Blackbird, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows.
Open water helped us locate more waterfowl this year. And our early-rising owl team found Screech, Barred and Great-horned. No Rough-legged Hawks were found, but a Merlin and a Peregrine Falcon were.
At 5 pm the final tally / pot luck was held at Quarry Hill. It's always fun to get together and compare what we found! Our count numbers will need to be verified over the next few days - and "count week" birds, those seen 3 days before and after Count Day, but not seen on Count Day itself, will be added in later this week.
Some birds we'd like to locate in the next couple days are Cedar Waxwings, Great Blue Herons, Horned Lark, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Eastern Bluebird.
Many thanks to Clifford Hansen for organizing the walk, to Quarry Hill Nature Center for providing space for our tally and pot luck, and to our team leaders and the many volunteers who helped out and made this year's event a success.
2023 species list:
Snow goose 3
Cackling goose 8
Canada goose 8637
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 17
Mallard 1106
Northern pintail 1
Green-winged teal 1
Canvasback (cw)
Lesser scaup 3
Common goldeneye 3
Hooded merganser 1
Common merganser 2
Ruddy duck 3
Ring-necked pheasant 12
Wild turkey 261
Turkey Vulture 1 (cw)
Northern Harrier 1 (cw)
Sharp-shinned hawk 1 (cw)
Cooper's hawk 5
Bald eagle 19
Red-tailed hawk 44
Rough-legged Hawk (cw)
American coot 14
Wilson's snipe 1
Rock pigeon 714
Eurasian collared-dove 9
Mourning dove 200
Eastern screech owl 1
Great horned owl 8
Barred owl 3
Belted kingfisher 3
Red-headed woodpecker 2
Red-bellied woodpecker 53
Downy woodpecker 151
Hairy woodpecker 43
Northern flicker 4
Pileated woodpecker 13
American kestrel 6
Merlin 1
Peregrine falcon 1
Northern shrike 3
Blue jay 235
American crow 1771
Black-capped chickadee 320
Tufted titmouse 10
White-breasted nuthatch 113
Brown creeper5
American robin 74
European starling 1746
Cedar Waxwing 1 (cw)
American tree sparrow 70
Dark-eyed junco 366
White-crowned sparrow 1
White-throated sparrow 4
Song sparrow 7
Swamp Sparrow 1 (cw)
Northern cardinal 201
Red-winged blackbird 1
House finch 459
Purple finch 1
Pine Siskin 6
American goldfinch 92
House sparrow 671
Number of species: 57
Total individual birds: 17,535
Count week birds: 7
cw = Count Week bird
2021 Count Report (pdf)
2020 Count Report (pdf)
2018 Count Report (jpg)
2017 Count Report (pdf)
2016 Count Report (pdf)