The merlin was spotted for the first time in the Audubon Society's Dec. 16 South Butler Christmas Bird Count. Individual birds were spotted in Penn and Middlesex townships and near Zelienople. Merlins are small falcons with a powerful build.

The numbers are in from the Dec. 16 Audubon Society South Butler Christmas Bird Count.

And they are looking really good for the American robin and cedar waxwing populations in the county said Chris Kubiak, director of education for the society.

This year's count tallied 54 bird species and numbered 7,855 individual birds, Kubiak said.

“Two of the top species,” Kubiak said, “were the American robin which totaled 622 and the cedar waxwing which numbered 451 in the count.”

“The reason is interesting that the numbers are so up from last year's robin and cedar waxwing counts,” said Kubiak. “It has nothing to do with population increase, but it does have something to do with what the birds eat.”

The bird count was moved from its traditional Jan. 6 date because extremely low temperatures and dangerous wind chill conditions kept the numbers of both bird sightings and observers low during the January bird census.

On Dec. 16 there were 35 bird counters in the field, he said, and another 22 counting birds at feeders from inside their homes.

This is an excerpt — learn more about this year's bird count in Friday's Butler Eagle.