ROCKET PROPELLED CARDINAL—

This aerobatic version of Ohio’s state bird did an explosive departure from the platform feeder when the Blue Jay arrived for lunch Saturday. Heavy snow had begun falling about an hour earlier during the backyard feeder, Christmas Bird Count for our Gorman Nature Center.

I recorded 15 species of birds at my feeders during the day-long count. The greatest quantity of a single species at one time was the Junco with 33. Second place went to Cardinals with 16 while 9 Goldfinches took third.

I also recorded Mourning Doves, Red Breasted and White Breasted Nuthatches, Downy, Hairy and Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Song, White Throated and Tree Sparrows, Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Blue Jays and two Mallard ducks.

The ducks, naturally, are not regarded as feeder birds but I have a hopper feeder near the edge of the pond and the ducks like to come and tidy up the droppings of seed from the birds with messy table manners.

We are on the border of the ranges of the Black Capped and Carolina Chickadees and they are very difficult to tell apart. Local birding experts believe the Chickadees we see are the Black Capped variety

The snowfall diminished and temperatures warmed overnight to 36 degrees at dawn Sunday and left us with about an inch of slush. Then, the low pressure moved east of us which brought us north winds, plummeting temperatures and about two more inches of snow.

It’s December in Ohio--and the birds rarely seem to mind.