A chilly early December included a moderate snowfall on the 9th, followed by two smaller events at the beginning of the Christmas Count Period. Counts conducted early in the period fared better than those run after Christmas, when the weather turned sharply colder. Unlike last year, there was no heat wave with temperatures soaring into the 50’s and 60’s. The number of individuals was low, especially for passerines, but there was a good variety of rarities. Once again, irruptive northern species were mostly absent. Twenty-nine CBCs were submitted from New Jersey, with Island Beach weathered out; Belleplain has a new compiler but was also weathered out. The 196 species recorded was the same number as two previous years and still six below the 20-year average. Cape May had an excellent count to lead the state with 159 species. Barnegat (131) returned to second, followed by Long Branch (116), Oceanville (115), and Cumberland (113). The 37 species of waterfowl detected...