The annual National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count was on December 14th in Guthrie County, and there was a lot of fun and new species to see in the Jamaica Circle.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources Interpretive Naturalist and Educator Anne Riordan says that bird watchers went out and saw 65 species of birds this year, which is more than what they saw last year, and that there were over 7,500 individual birds seen. She mentions that one species was also brand new to the circle.

“Some of the notable birds that we saw, I saw a swamp sparrow down in the wetland back behind the lake at Springbrook (State Park), kind of crawling around back there, and saw that little guy. And on of the people who was counting over at Bay’s Branch, which was part of that area, counted a new species to our count, meaning that in the 49 years that we’ve had this circle, this was the first time we’ve ever had a great-tailed grackle on the count, and tey actually saw 120 of them. So that’s kind of exciting.”

Riordan mentions that the increase in species, along with the new species, were both very exciting pieces of information.