Message from Rick Kinzie:

Highlites of the 2006 Lax CBC: The Lax CBC was held on saturday Dec 16th. There were 21 field observers with 1 feeder report and 55 species tallied. The weather for the cbc followed the pattern of the last few years. Early cold weather had frozen up much of the Mississippi and it's tributaries and what snow had fallen earlier in the fall had melted. Almost all backwater areas were still frozen over and this was reflected in the low total numbers of waterfowl. We still managed 2 Great Blue Herons in spite of the ice. Nine different Raptor species were seen along with 3 Owl species and 2 N. Shrikes. There were still good numbers of Robins around, especially in the Catholic Cemetary and 11 E. Bluebirds were reported. With all the open ground conditions on count day the numbers reported might be down slightly from average. If there was an award given for effort, that award would go to Matt Paulson for the 2006 count. Matt left Whitewater friday night after work, drove back to LaCrosse, arriving somewhere around 1am, and spent the rest of the early hours owling around his count area. At daybreak Matt and his father, Lance, covered their area and then made it up to the Potluck hosted by Mike Furr, where he appeared to be bright, awake, and lucid. Nice effort Matt!

I would like to take this time to announce that I would like to step down as compiler for the Lax CBC. The constraints brought on by our business have eaten up most of my free time in Dec and I have not done as thorough a job as needs to be done and I would like to apologize for the lateness getting the results out. This count needs someone from the Lax area as compiler who can spend a little more time working with local newspapers and possibly TV to promote and recruit more participants. You could become famous! I will work with whoever decides to volunteer going over maps/routes and reporting procedures. If you have some free time pleast think seriously of volunteering!