Nature Done Wright

   The annual Ramsey bird count came up with 81 species this year, just seven shy of the group’s all-time best.
  Highlights of the day included:

  Six screech owls, including Ace.

  Three great horned owls.

   Although it was disappointing not to get that rare Pacific loon seen recently on Greenwood Lake, my team’s common loon seen on Monksville Reservoir (it’s somewhere in the distance in the image below) was the only loon seen all day.
   I have a story with more details on the count in The Sunday Record, but a few of the highlights were 22 golden-eyes, 102 ring-necked ducks and 21 gadwalls.
   Also tallied 2 merlins and — for only the fifth time on the Ramsey count — an eastern phoebe.
   I think the Canada geese total approached 1,000.