RRBO is 20 years old!

The Rouge River Bird Observatory banded its first bird -- a Black-capped Chickadee -- in 1992. Since then, we've banded over 33,000 more birds, conducted thousands of bird surveys, compiled hundreds of thousands of bird records, participated in numerous cooperative research projects, trained dozens of field volunteers...our list of accomplishments goes on.

For our 20th anniversary, we'll be starting an email newsletter to share a look back at some highlights of the past twenty years, and look forward to our future. If we don't have your email address, please sign up for our newsletter at this link. I'll be putting out our first issue later this month.

We thought it might be fun to spruce up the RRBO logo to reflect our anniversary. The original depiction of the bird with two leaves is from an architectural detail in Fair Lane, Henry Ford's estate; we chose it to reflect the historic nature of our study site. You may see this little bird carrying a banner acknowledging RRBO's 20 years of bird conservation. It will certainly be sitting on a branch that now has three leaves, representing our growth and the start of our third decade.

Given that RRBO is donor-supported, all our successes have been yours as well. We can all celebrate together!

Dearborn portion of the Detroit River CBC, 2012

The Detroit River Michigan-Ontario Christmas Bird Count was held, as it is each year, on January 1. This was the 35th year for the count, which is centered at I-94 and Warren Ave, and the 18th year that RRBO has coordinated the field work in the city of Dearborn.

The day began with mild temperatures which had been the hallmark of the autumn and winter season up to that point. All water was open, and there was (and had been for the most part) no snow cover. Waterfowl and seed-eating birds were dispersed far and wide. We'd seen an excellent fruit crop in late summer and fall, but most had been stripped by the time New Year's Day arrived.

We ended the day with 39 species, well below the average of 46 because the party covering the Ford Rouge Plant was denied access this year (not by Ford, but by the private security firm of another company). Thus, we missed a number of species of waterfowl and the two dozen or so Black-crowned Night-herons that typically roost in a small pond on the property.

Nonetheless, the day was not without highlights. Covering the UM-Dearborn campus, Greg Norwood found one of the Gray Catbirds first found on 20 December. This is a new species for the Dearborn portion of the count and brings the cumulative total to 87. A Sharp-shinned Hawk seen on 29 December couldn't be located, but is tallied as a "count week" species and is also new for the count. Greg also found the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that has been hanging around for weeks. This is only the second time sapsucker has been found on the Dearborn portion of the count.

Darrin O'Brien and I covered the various plantings on Ford properties. Like last year, most of the seed-eating birds were found at the fields in front of Ford World Headquarters. Most numerous were House Finches (over 900) and House Sparrows (over 1800). The day's total of 1038 House Finches was a new high for the count. Many of the fields had a lot of standing water, making it harder for the little birds that like to forage on the ground. The total of 26 American Tree Sparrows was a new count low. Also present at Ford HQ was a Peregrine Falcon. It chased around a Red-tailed Hawk before landing on the Ford building.

Arrow points to grooming Peregrine.

Cathy Carroll turned up 18 Great Blue Herons along the concrete channel of the Rouge. Often this group of birds roosts along the river on campus, but forages all along the river. She also saw one of the seven American Kestrels in the city, which is a new high for the count.

Finally, only one American Crow was found all day. This is a new low, and represents a decade of counts with fewer than 20 crows (most years fewer than ten). The local population has simply not recovered from West Nile virus, and I am beginning to wonder if I will ever see new birds move in.

The complete results of the Dearborn portion of the 2011 Detroit River CBC can be found at the RRBO web site on this page, along with historical results. I've written summaries here at Net Results for the 2011, 2010 and 2009 counts.

You can read an analysis of the first 25 years of the overall count in this paper:

Craves, J. A., and J. A. Fowler, Jr. 2003. Twenty-five years of the Detroit River Michigan-Ontario Christmas Bird Count. (pdf) Ontario Birds 21:109-128.

Keep those silver bracelets coming....

This Cooper's Hawk is just one of over 33,000 birds of 122 species banded by the Rouge River Bird Observatory on the campus of the University of Michigan-Dearborn since 1992. Our banding program is supported by donors like you. Help us continue this long-term conservation research project by making a contribution today. Donate online or see our website for a mail-in form.

Thank you from RRBO!

30% off Birds of Dearborn: One day only

	Publish | Services
	The Birds of Dearborn, An Annotated Checklist Purchase The Birds of Dearborn, An Annotated Checklist or any other title with 30% off with coupon code WINTERSAVE305. Hurry ... offer ends Wednesday.

Also, over at Cafe Press, you can get 10% off orders over $40, through Thursday, December 8, including all the neat stuff described in my previous post. Use coupon code TDEC1140. Details are on the Cafe Press site.

Some holiday gift ideas that support RRBO

In addition to making a donation, you can support RRBO by shopping. Any time you buy any product from Amazon through RRBO, for example, we get a small commission that goes to support our research. You can always find some recommended books and Amazon search box on the "Shop" page of the RRBO web site and on the right sidebar of this blog.

This season, I have a particular book recommendation. It the newest edition of one of our favorite field guides: the newly released National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition. While not the best book for beginning bird watchers (try Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America or The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America), the Nat Geo guide is great for coverage of all of North America. Nearly 1,000 species are included, many with new illustrations and excellent maps. You can see examples of both in this interview with the illustrator at BirdWatching Magazine. This will be the first of the major field guides to cover all the recent taxonomic changes as well.

On our "Shop" page you can also find a link to our Cafe Press store, where you can get all sorts of RRBO logo gear, including organic cotton t-shirts, sweat shirts, tote bags, buttons, and more. New products this year include a ceramic/stainless travel mug with the RRBO logo and a hardwood keepsake/knick-knack box with a ceramic photo tile on top featuring a White-throated Sparrow banded here by RRBO. Other bird photos appear on various greeting cards, like this Eastern Bluebird.

We also had a contest on our Facebook page to vote for the bird to appear on the 2012 calendar. The winner was this great Blue-headed Vireo:

Thanks for your support this holiday season!