About the CBC
For over 100 years, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) uses volunteers to track bird populations by holding local counts across North and South America. Counts are held between December 14 and January 5 and are composed of volunteers of all birding levels to count birds in the field and at their feeders. Volunteers count birds and tally them by species within a 15 mile diameter count circle.
The Mitchell circle is centered roughly at the Corn Palace. It encompasses parts of Davison and Hanson counties including the cities of Mitchell and Loomis. The Mitchell count circle can be found at https://arcg.is/1vb44L2.
After a 46 year hiatus, the Mitchell CBC was reinstated in 2013. The first count was executed in 1957. Two more counts were executed in 1966 and 1967.
Count Summary
This year’s count took place on Saturday, December 14, 2024 and was the 12th consecutive year to hold the count since reinstatement. This was the first year I never saw any birds at my mom’s bird feeders all day long.
On the day of the count we had foggy conditions all day with freezing drizzle. Day time temperatures started at 25° F and rose to 30° F. The maximum wind speed was 5 mph out of the south. There was no open water other than some moving water.
A total of 17 people participated and all were adults. We had 7 groups of people who birded in the field and 9 groups that watched their feeders. Field groups spent 16 hours in the field observing birds. In comparison the feeder watchers spent 34.25 hours watching birds at their feeders.
We had a total of 1,607 birds composed of 33 species for the count day. Both the total number of birds and number of species were lower than past years. There were an additional 7 count week species. Count week species are seen 3 days before or after the count day but not on the count day. The most abundant species was the rock pigeon at 427.
We added two new species to the count. A pileated woodpecker was seen at a feeder on the edge of Mitchell and a yellow-bellied sapsucker was seen at another feeding station. Some misses included Cooper’s hawk, brown creeper, purple finch, horned lark, and lapland longspur. Both the pileated woodpecker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker were flagged as rare.
The best birds of the count were definitely the pileated woodpecker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The barred owl and short-eared owl were also very good additions.
We had no high counts which is not surprising since numbers were low this year.
I’ve composed the following tables: Counts for the Year, Participants for the Year, Counts by Year, and Effort by Year.
Bird Counts for the Year
The following table contains counts for the Mitchell CBC. CW designates count week birds.
| Species | Total |
| Snow Goose | CW |
| Canada Goose | CW |
| Wild Turkey | 141 |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | 86 |
| Rock Pigeon | 427 |
| Eurasian Collared-dove | 18 |
| Mourning Dove | 1 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | CW |
| Bald Eagle | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 3 |
| buteo sp. | 5 |
| Great Horned Owl | 1 |
| Barred Owl | CW |
| Short-eared Owl | CW |
| yellow-bellied sapsucker | CW |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 5 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 15 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 10 |
| Pileated woodpecker | 1 |
| Northern Flicker | 9 |
| woodpecker sp. | 1 |
| American Kestrel | 1 |
| Northern Shrike | 2 |
| Blue Jay | 8 |
| American Crow | 9 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 15 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 3 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 12 |
| European Starling | 223 |
| American Robin | 268 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 47 |
| House Sparrow | 46 |
| House Finch | 56 |
| Pine Siskin | 16 |
| American Goldfinch | 66 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 14 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 37 |
| Harris’s Sparrow | 2 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | CW |
| Northern Cardinal | 10 |
| passerine sp. | 45 |
| Total | 1607 |
Participants for the Year
The Mitchell CBC wouldn’t have been possible without the help of these volunteers.
| Full Name | Field | Feeder |
| Doug Hansen | Field | |
| Jeff Hansen | Field | |
| Rick Hansen | Field | Feeder |
| Doug Hollum | Feeder | |
| Dee Johnson | Field | Feeder |
| Dennis Leland | Field | Feeder |
| Sheri Leland | Field | Feeder |
| Jacob Leland | Feeder | |
| Derrick Adams | Feeder | |
| Chuck Adams | Feeder | |
| Paula Mazzer | Field | Feeder |
| Chris Slaybaugh | Field | Feeder |
| Andrea Meyer | Field | Feeder |
| Scott Meyer | Field | Feeder |
| Tim Mullican | Field | |
| Bonnie Orr | Feeder | |
| Lonnie Wiess | Field |
Counts by Year
This table contains counts by year for the last 9 years of the Mitchell CBC. Note, zero denotes count week species.
| Species | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Snow Goose | 0 | 7 | 0 | 75 | 0 | ||||
| Cackling Goose | 25 | ||||||||
| Canada Goose | 24 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 211 | 0 | |||
| goose sp. | 40 | ||||||||
| Wood Duck | |||||||||
| Northern Shoveler | 2 | ||||||||
| Gadwall | 2 | 4 | |||||||
| Mallard | 40 | 34 | |||||||
| Northern Pintail | |||||||||
| Redhead | 1 | ||||||||
| Lesser Scaup | |||||||||
| Common Goldeneye | 1 | 10 | |||||||
| Common Merganser | 204 | ||||||||
| Ruddy Duck | 2 | ||||||||
| Wild Turkey | 162 | 30 | 168 | 215 | 111 | 105 | 210 | 106 | 141 |
| Greater Prairie-chicken | 3 | ||||||||
| Ring-necked Pheasant | 141 | 221 | 34 | 146 | 97 | 261 | 231 | 333 | 86 |
| Rock Pigeon | 131 | 631 | 55 | 323 | 545 | 128 | 59 | 117 | 427 |
| Eurasian Collared-dove | 179 | 37 | 35 | 45 | 85 | 70 | 35 | 30 | 18 |
| Mourning Dove | 2 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 1 | ||||
| Ring-billed Gull | 0 | ||||||||
| Great Blue Heron | 1 | ||||||||
| Northern Harrier | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Cooper’s Hawk | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |||
| Northern Goshawk | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Bald Eagle | 6 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 28 | 21 | 0 | 31 | 26 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan’s) | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| Rough-legged Hawk | 20 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 18 | 37 | 1 | 3 | |
| buteo sp. | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | |||||
| Eastern Screech-owl | 1 | 2 | 6 | 2 | |||||
| Great Horned Owl | 5 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | |
| Snowy Owl | |||||||||
| Barred Owl | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| Long-eared Owl | |||||||||
| Short-eared Owl | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| Northern Saw-whet Owl | 1 | ||||||||
| Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 0 | |||||||
| yellow-bellied sapsucker | 0 | ||||||||
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 8 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 5 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 27 | 18 | 9 | 34 | 15 | 30 | 27 | 23 | 15 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 13 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 10 |
| Pileated woodpecker | 1 | ||||||||
| Northern Flicker | 27 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 9 |
| Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) | 6 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | ||||
| Northern Flicker (red-shafted) | 1 | ||||||||
| woodpecker sp. | 1 | ||||||||
| American Kestrel | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Merlin | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||||
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | ||||||||
| Prairie Falcon | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| falcon sp. | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Northern Shrike | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Blue Jay | 73 | 37 | 20 | 73 | 70 | 39 | 22 | 14 | 8 |
| American Crow | 15 | 10 | 17 | 32 | 17 | 18 | 5 | 12 | 9 |
| Common Raven | |||||||||
| Black-capped Chickadee | 24 | 15 | 11 | 53 | 40 | 78 | 10 | 13 | 15 |
| Tufted Titmouse | |||||||||
| Horned Lark | 4 | 368 | 60 | 70 | 220 | 11 | 236 | ||
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 12 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 3 | |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 20 | 6 | 5 | 22 | 19 | 21 | 16 | 8 | 12 |
| Brown Creeper | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | |||||
| Carolina Wren | 0 | ||||||||
| European Starling | 6559 | 689 | 47 | 832 | 1188 | 447 | 135 | 55 | 223 |
| Brown Thrasher | 1 | ||||||||
| Eastern Bluebird | 5 | 0 | |||||||
| Townsend’s Solitaire | 1 | 5 | |||||||
| American Robin | 261 | 118 | 14 | 6 | 204 | 152 | 310 | 71 | 268 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 70 | 157 | 84 | 140 | 76 | 45 | 40 | 47 | |
| House Sparrow | 687 | 809 | 73 | 336 | 277 | 357 | 252 | 70 | 46 |
| House Finch | 49 | 128 | 38 | 27 | 115 | 25 | 75 | 26 | 56 |
| Purple Finch | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Common Redpoll | 97 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
| Red Crossbill | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| White-winged Crossbill | 1 | ||||||||
| Pine Siskin | 24 | 12 | 17 | 53 | 1 | 6 | 16 | ||
| American Goldfinch | 292 | 132 | 18 | 139 | 163 | 75 | 88 | 9 | 66 |
| Lapland Longspur | 30 | 50 | 20 | ||||||
| Snow Bunting | 8 | 3 | |||||||
| American Tree Sparrow | 456 | 413 | 11 | 49 | 433 | 41 | 20 | 14 | |
| Fox Sparrow | 1 | ||||||||
| Dark-eyed Junco | 83 | 172 | 50 | 123 | 100 | 60 | 97 | 41 | 37 |
| Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) | 36 | 14 | 28 | 54 | 39 | 9 | |||
| Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| White-crowned Sparrow | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Harris’s Sparrow | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Song Sparrow | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
| Spotted Towhee | 1 | ||||||||
| Western Meadowlark | 6 | 9 | 1 | 14 | |||||
| Red-winged Blackbird | 1212 | 1230 | 285 | 106 | 10122 | 450 | 141 | 125 | 0 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 2 | 13 | |||||||
| Rusty Blackbird | 19 | ||||||||
| Common Grackle | 20 | 1 | 20 | ||||||
| blackbird sp. | 506 | 2 | |||||||
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Northern Cardinal | 27 | 21 | 6 | 23 | 29 | 12 | 14 | 3 | 10 |
| passerine sp. | 23 | 45 | |||||||
| 10682 | 5552 | 1121 | 3058 | 14733 | 2610 | 2080 | 1779 | 1607 |
Effort by Year
This table contains effort for all years of the Mitchell CBC.
| Count Date | Count Year | Field People | Field Hours All | Feeder People | Feeder Hours | Count Day Species | Count Week Species | Count Species Total | Bird Total |
| 12/23/1957 | 1957 | 2 | 9.00 | 25 | 0 | 25 | 1377 | ||
| 12/30/1966 | 1966 | 1 | 9.00 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 463 | ||
| 12/31/1967 | 1967 | 1 | 9.00 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 2885 | ||
| 12/26/2013 | 2013 | 17 | 52.50 | 6 | 13.25 | 47 | 2 | 49 | 10639 |
| 12/26/2014 | 2014 | 9 | 42.75 | 11 | 34.25 | 49 | 0 | 49 | 3560 |
| 12/26/2015 | 2015 | 20 | 37.25 | 14 | 29.00 | 49 | 6 | 55 | 4737 |
| 12/26/2016 | 2016 | 17 | 48.00 | 15 | 32.75 | 45 | 0 | 45 | 10682 |
| 12/26/2017 | 2017 | 17 | 47.00 | 4 | 13.00 | 42 | 2 | 44 | 5552 |
| 12/26/2018 | 2018 | 9 | 10.25 | 5 | 21.00 | 32 | 6 | 38 | 1121 |
| 12/21/2019 | 2019 | 13 | 47.50 | 17 | 29.00 | 51 | 2 | 53 | 3058 |
| 12/26/2020 | 2020 | 19 | 34.00 | 9 | 22.75 | 50 | 2 | 52 | 14733 |
| 12/26/2021 | 2021 | 17 | 28.00 | 11 | 27.75 | 38 | 3 | 41 | 2610 |
| 12/17/2022 | 2022 | 11 | 17.00 | 15 | 40.25 | 36 | 1 | 37 | 2080 |
| 12/16/2023 | 2023 | 9 | 29.75 | 16 | 35.25 | 44 | 2 | 46 | 1780 |
| 12/14/2024 | 2024 | 9 | 16.00 | 15 | 34.25 | 33 | 7 | 40 | 1607 |
Thank You
I’d like to give a big “Thank You” to everyone who helped with the count. This is a GROUP effort. All who participated should be very proud of their work.
If you know anyone who would like to help with the count next year, send me their contact information so they can be included in all communications.
Jeff Hansen
CBC Compiler
jeff.hansen.sd@gmail.com
785.806.6917