Thirteen has been a lucky number for Knox biology professor Jim Mountjoy. This winter, his 13th season participating in the Audubon Society's 2014 Christmas Bird Count in Knox County, he achieved a "first."

Collecting data during the official bird count in December, Mountjoy spotted a Ross's Goose over Green Oaks, Knox College's biological field station in rural Knox County. "It was the first one I have seen at Green Oaks, and only the second one we've recorded on our count."

Mountjoy and three other Knox biology faculty -- Stuart Allison, Paul Skrade and Jennifer Templeton -- were among eleven people who took part in this year's edition of the annual census of birds in Knox County.

In all, Mountjoy and other Christmas Bird Count participants recorded 72 species in Knox County, including 18 species of waterfowl. Another first this year, one of the Knox County birders recorded a Mute Swan at Spoon Lake in central Knox County -- the first ever reported in the county.

Mountjoy notched one more personal high mark in early January, when he traveled to the Mississippi River and spotted an ivory gull -- a rare bird in Illinois and the Midwest.

"The ivory gull is is a native of the high Arctic Islands and is rarely seen in the lower 48," Mountjoy said in an interview with WGEM TV in Quincy, Illinois.

It's only the second time Mountjoy had seen an ivory gull in 40 years of bird-watching, and only the third verified sighting in Illinois in recent history.

"This could be the most exciting bird seen in Illinois this year," Mountjoy said in an inteview with the Qunicy Herald-Whig newspaper. Birders flocked to Quincy to catch sight of the gull. "If it stays around for a few days, it could draw people from across the U.S," Mountjoy told the media.

This year's bird species count in Knox County is about average, said Mountjoy, who has taught biology and conducted research at Knox College since 2001.

"Our waterfowl total is strong," Mountjoy said. "The land birds were generally a bit scarce -- cold weather in November probably moved some south, and then the lack of snow allowed what birds were here to scatter and not concentrate in their usual haunts."