10/13/13 Big Sit here: The weeather was beautiful, clear, sunny, mild, no wind but as I feared our absent birds still were not present--even & especially our usual feeder birds which we rely heavily on. This years count was about the worst ever. I noted other counts were way down in numbers and even less circles participating this year. Michigan had only 5 circles registered with none in the UP & only one in the NLP

As I said previously the counts anywhere that are on water do real well. Our list this year:
Blue Jays 4
Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers 3
Crows 4
Mourning Doves 6
White breasted Nuthatch 2
Grackles 25
Downy Woodpecker 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
House Sparrows 12
Goldfinch 4
House Finch 3
Blk. Capped Chickadees 2
Robins 6
Cardinal 4
Canada Geese 3
Eastern Screech Owl 2
Total 16 species (

) Our usual totals for this count is 25 to 35 !
Conspicuous by their complete absence were such species as Starlings, Tufted Titmouse, Red-tail Hawk, RN Pheasant, Wild Turkeys, Song Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Juncos, Hairy Woodpecker, E. Bluebird, Cedar Waxwings , Killdeer, etc. etc.
Russ Emmons (Camp Remote)