The 50th annual Christmas Bird Count was completed Monday, Dec. 16, at Barton County’s Cheyenne Bottoms. The first count was completed in 1958. For the day, the 13 volunteers witnessed 81 species, totaling 286,555 individual birds.

Count Highlights

There were 269,077 Snow Geese - an all-time high.

21 species of duck/geese were observed - a good number for this count.

Ten species of sparrows were counted, another solid number for the count.

The number of 182 White-crowned sparrows is an all-time high.

Ten spotted Towhees is an all-time high count.

Savannah Sparrows and Lincoln’s Sparrows were both observed for only the sixth time.