BBC New Years Day Birding Trip 01/01/10
Happy New Year!
Yesterday, Mark Burns and I led our 14th annual New Year's Day birding trip for the Brookline Bird Club (BBC)! At 9:00AM, we greeted 26 BBCers at the municipal parking lot in Newburyport and toasted in the New Year with sparkling apple cider and good cheer! It is always so nice to see our old friends who have come on this trip each year and to meet new ones! To those who could not make the trip this year (you know who you are) we missed you. The temperature was 28df as we started our day and it slowly rose to 35df during the day. The sky remained overcast and the wind was very light. We birded until 4:45PM.
We birded Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Cashman Park/Merrimac River, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (PRNWR), and north Plum Island.
We tallied 51 species for the Club list. Following is a complete list of the birds we saw:
Red-throated Loon - 2
Common Loon - 12
Horned Grebe - 9
Red-necked Grebe – 1
Northern Gannet – 18 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
Great Cormorant – 4
Great-blue Heron – 1 (Peter, Fay, and Jim saw this bird along the Merrimack River near the Chain Bridge)
Canada Goose – 500
Brant – 6 (fly-by along the Merrimack River near the Newburyport Jetty, north Plum Island)
American Black Duck - 90
Mallard – 180
Northern Pintail – 5 (PRNWR)
Common Eider – 350
Surf Scoter – 3
White-winged Scoter – 25
Black Scoter - 2
Oldsquaw - 12
Bufflehead - 40
Common Goldeneye - 18
Red-breasted Merganser – 47
Bald Eagle -1 (immature seen from the Salisbury Boat Ramp)
Northern Harrier – 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Sanderling - 30
Purple Sandpiper – 12 (one sat on a snow-capped rock on the Salisbury Jetty providing nice scope looks)
Ring-billed Gull - 90
Herring Gull - 175
GLAUCOUS GULL 1 (Cashman Park/Merrimack River - Thanks Peter, Fay, and Jim for hanging on to this bird until the group arrived)
Great Black-backed Gull - 35
RAZORBILL – 65 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
BLACK GUILLEMOT – 1 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
Rock Dove - 250
Mourning Dove – 28
SNOWY OWL – 1 (PRNWR-Lot 3 - Thanks to Paul Roberts for tipping us off)
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Blue Jay - 37
American Crow - 52
Horned Lark - 22 (Salisbury Beach State Reservation)
Black-capped Chickadee - 18
American Robin – 400 (they seemed to be everywhere)
Northern Mockingbird - 5
European Starling - 600
American Tree Sparrow – 23
Savannah Sparrow – 7 (5 of which were Ipswich Sparrows seen at Salisbury and north Plum Island)
Song Sparrow - 5
Dark-eyed Junco - 8
LAPLAND LONGSPUR - 1 (Salisbury Beach State Reservation near the campground entrance - Thanks to Ida for alerting us to this bird)
Snow Bunting – 2
Northern Cardinal - 9
American Goldfinch - 33
House Sparrow - 25
Many Thanks again to all who joined us on New Year’s Day and wishing you a happy, healthy, and birdy 2010!
Laura H. de la Flor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So much to learn about Mother Nature ..
... always racing with father time." (lhf)
Yesterday, Mark Burns and I led our 14th annual New Year's Day birding trip for the Brookline Bird Club (BBC)! At 9:00AM, we greeted 26 BBCers at the municipal parking lot in Newburyport and toasted in the New Year with sparkling apple cider and good cheer! It is always so nice to see our old friends who have come on this trip each year and to meet new ones! To those who could not make the trip this year (you know who you are) we missed you. The temperature was 28df as we started our day and it slowly rose to 35df during the day. The sky remained overcast and the wind was very light. We birded until 4:45PM.
We birded Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Cashman Park/Merrimac River, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (PRNWR), and north Plum Island.
We tallied 51 species for the Club list. Following is a complete list of the birds we saw:
Red-throated Loon - 2
Common Loon - 12
Horned Grebe - 9
Red-necked Grebe – 1
Northern Gannet – 18 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
Great-blue Heron – 1 (Peter, Fay, and Jim saw this bird along the Merrimack River near the Chain Bridge)
Canada Goose – 500
Brant – 6 (fly-by along the Merrimack River near the Newburyport Jetty, north Plum Island)
American Black Duck - 90
Mallard – 180
Northern Pintail – 5 (PRNWR)
Common Eider – 350
Surf Scoter – 3
White-winged Scoter – 25
Black Scoter - 2
Oldsquaw - 12
Bufflehead - 40
Common Goldeneye - 18
Red-breasted Merganser – 47
Bald Eagle -1 (immature seen from the Salisbury Boat Ramp)
Northern Harrier – 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Sanderling - 30
Purple Sandpiper – 12 (one sat on a snow-capped rock on the Salisbury Jetty providing nice scope looks)
Ring-billed Gull - 90
Herring Gull - 175
GLAUCOUS GULL 1 (Cashman Park/Merrimack River - Thanks Peter, Fay, and Jim for hanging on to this bird until the group arrived)
Great Black-backed Gull - 35
RAZORBILL – 65 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
BLACK GUILLEMOT – 1 (PRNWR-Emerson Rocks)
Rock Dove - 250
Mourning Dove – 28
SNOWY OWL – 1 (PRNWR-Lot 3 - Thanks to Paul Roberts for tipping us off)
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Blue Jay - 37
American Crow - 52
Horned Lark - 22 (Salisbury Beach State Reservation)
American Robin – 400 (they seemed to be everywhere)
Northern Mockingbird - 5
European Starling - 600
American Tree Sparrow – 23
Savannah Sparrow – 7 (5 of which were Ipswich Sparrows seen at Salisbury and north Plum Island)
Song Sparrow - 5
Dark-eyed Junco - 8
LAPLAND LONGSPUR - 1 (Salisbury Beach State Reservation near the campground entrance - Thanks to Ida for alerting us to this bird)
Snow Bunting – 2
Northern Cardinal - 9
American Goldfinch - 33
House Sparrow - 25
Many Thanks again to all who joined us on New Year’s Day and wishing you a happy, healthy, and birdy 2010!
Laura H. de la Flor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So much to learn about Mother Nature ..
... always racing with father time." (lhf)
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