Statistical Reports
The BBC has a yearly report summarizing the trips taken and the birds seen, along with individual birders's highlights and lists.
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Labels: StatisticalReport
2008 Statistical and Year End Report
By Robert H. Stymeist, Statistician
During 2008, the Brookline Bird Club listed 306 species of birds on 190 reported trips, three species less than last year. A total of 249 trips were scheduled, 4 trips more than last year, but 41 trips less than the all time high number of 290 in 2000. There were 70 all-day, 152 mornings, 25 afternoons or evening, and two weekend trips. FIFTY-NINE trips were not reported, 20 were cancelled by weather and THIRTY-NINE went unreported. In Massachusetts the Club listed a total of 296 species, two less than last year on 186 reported trips. To put this in perspective, birders throughout the state recorded a
total of 364 species during the year, thus the BBC total of 296 is 81% of all the species seen in 2008!
Three new species were added to the overall Brookline Bird Club list of birds. The Club recorded SLATY-BACKED GULL from Gloucester. This bird, along with another sighting from Cape Cod, showed up in December of 2007 and remained in the area through at least February 24 and was seen on several Cape Ann trips beginning January 12. The Club added the BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD in September in East Dennis. This adult male arrived on August 24 and remained until December 13 and was a first state record. A pre Machias Maine weekend trip to Newmarket, New Hampshire added MISSISSIPPI KITE to the overall BBC Club list. Three birds, two of which SUCCESSFULLY bred, constituted the northern most breeding record for the species. Mississippi Kites also bred for the first time in Connecticut; hopefully they will start breeding in Massachusetts soon.
For the birder, the weather in 2008 was for the most part unremarkable, with no ocean storms or massive fallouts noted during migration. January and February were unseasonably warm, the temperature rose to a balmy 67 on January 7 and for the third winter in a row the temperature never reached zero or below in the Boston area. Rainfall was just a bit above average and snowfall for the winter season reached 24.3 inches in Boston, just four inches above normal. March began rather lamb-like but soon heavy rains caused floods in eastern Mass. and heavy snows in the north and western parts of the state. April brought samples of summer with the mercury hitting into the eighties causing the trees to leaf out, making it harder to see the first migrants. May, on the other hand, was on the cool side with a lot of east and northeast winds during the first half of the month, hampering migration for many of us in eastern Massachusetts. The last half of the month saw many more days with winds from a southwesterly direction, providing us with happier birding. The summer months were busy for many birders searching for breeding birds with the start of the Mass Audubon Breeding Bird Atlas. The temperature averaged out at nearly 72 in Boston for the summer months of June, July and August. The start of the fall migration began in earnest in August with the first shorebirds returning and helped by a good number of days in August with northwest winds. The fall season was a bit cool with a of lot rain especially with Hurricane Hanna in September which did not produce any major flight of storm related birds. The first freeze hit the Boston suburbs well into October, but the first hard freeze did not occur in Boston until November 18th. December was a bit on the mild side but was very wet and snowy. Many of the Christmas Bird Counts had to be rescheduled due to a major snowstorm. Boston recorded 7.10 inches of rain, 3.37 inches over normal and a near record 25.3 inches of snow, 18.4 inches more than normal for December.
The sixth Annual Winter Meeting was held at Bedford Middle School on February 29, 2008. This was the Club's FIRST Members Night. So many members of our Club travel all over the world as well as our own backyards and take excellent photographs. Peter and Fay Vale shared some of their best photos from a trip to South Africa in October 2007 and Paul Ippolito and Diana Fruguglietti took us on their adventure to Uganda, the pearl of Africa. Eddie Giles entertained the Club with his multi-media show on the annual BBC Rangeley Lake trip, which prompted a quick sign-up for the summer of 2009. Helen Bailey with a little help from her friends as well as strangers, gave an interesting presentation followed by Joe Paluzzi with a fun show on bird lists and Shawn Carey closed the evening with fabulous photos of the birds and other wildlife he has taken in Massachusetts. The Spring Meeting at the Harvard Museum of Natural History featured Alison O'Hare, who shared with us the results of a two-year study of the Purple Martins of Plum Island. The fall meeting at Harvard featured members Paul Ippolito and his wife Diana Fruguglietti on their trip to the Galapagos Islands. This famous group of islands that Charles Darwin explored is a photographer's utmost dream.
Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns opened up the start of 2008 by leading their twelfth annual New Year's Day birding trip. A small army of THIRTY-THREE members came out on a warm but wet day to begin a New Year of birding. The trip tallied 49 species from Newburyport to Gloucester and finished up at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield. There were many highlights including the only Hoary Redpolls of the year. Laura and Mark also led us through the seasons with a Vernal Equinox walk on March 22, a Summer Solstice hike on June 21and an Autumnal Equinox walk on September 20th. Jane Zanichkowsky led a Leap Day Lark trip on February 29 where mergansers and goldeneyes were in heavy courtship mode.
The annual Grand Slam Owl Prowl had to be cancelled this year due to weather, but Eddie Giles carried out a Cape Cod Waterfowl Prowl with Mary Kelleher. The intent of this trip was to cover as many ponds on Cape Cod as possible in hopes of seeing the 29 species of ducks (geese and swans don't count). The leaders tallied 61 species and came up with 27 of the 29 duck species! The Club scheduled Woodcock walks in Stoughton, Reading, and the Blue Hills. The Club continued cosponsoring the TASL (Take A Second Look) surveys of the waterfowl of Boston Harbor and a Dawn Heron Census at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. Ongoing was a series of mid-week trips on Cape Ann in search for alcids led by Barbara Volkle; Breeding Bird Surveys were conducted in Woburn and in Moose Brook Valley, Hardwick.
Again this year there was a three day Cape Cod Blitz, starting on Friday, September 12 at the feeder in East Dennis to add the Club's first record of Broad-billed Hummingbird. The weather went downhill from there with gusty winds on South Beach and off and on rain, sometimes heavy. Despite the weather, the trip recorded 113 species, which included 4 Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and absolute killer looks at a Baird's Sandpiper just a few feet away.
This year, the Club scheduled five pelagic trips; the trip scheduled for waters off Chatham in November was cancelled because of weather and high seas. These Extreme Pelagics as they are called are 18-hour marathons to the Continental Shelf waters, about 100 miles south of Muskeget Island. The super rarities found on these trips included Audubon's Shearwater, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Long-tailed Jaeger and Bridled Tern. The mammal show wasn't too shabby, on the June 30th trip a staggering count of over 1100 Common or Saddleback Dolphins charged the boat to come and investigate us and to ride the bow waves and wake.
At the end of the year the Club suspends scheduled trips so that our members can participate in the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). There are 34 count circles in Massachusetts and this year stormy weather forced some counts to reschedule.
A special thank-you to the 72 leaders who guided our members throughout the year, this was the second highest number of leaders ever - in 1988 there were 78 leaders. There are several leaders deserving special mention. Bill Drummond and Ida Giriunas, two of our long term members led the most with 19 trips each, followed by Soheil Zendeh with 15 trips, Bob Stymeist with 14, Jane Zanichkowsky and Glenn D'Entremont each with 13, Jonathan Center led 12 and Linda Ferraresso and Bob Petersen each led 10. Another twelve dedicated leaders accounted for five or more trips each.
The Club visited Essex County most often; with a total of 86 scheduled trips seeing 232 species on 74 reported trips. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was a distant second with 36 trips, which recorded 108 species. There were also 34 scheduled trips in the Metropolitan Boston area, 19 trips were scheduled in the extended Sudbury River Valley, which included Great Meadows NWR, Oxbow NWR, and the Assabet NWR, and one visit to Bolton Flats. Thirty-three trips to the South Shore and to areas on Cape Cod, including four trips to the hot birding spot at Wompatuck State Park in Hingham and seven trips to areas in Western Mass.
Out-of-state trips included a weekend trip to the Machias area and to Rangeley Lakes in Maine. The combined total number of species on the Maine trips was 137 and included some boreal birds such as Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay and Boreal Chickadee. Both Ida Giriunas and Eddie Giles have been leading these great trips for many years, affording Club members the opportunity to see some northern forest and ocean birds that don't nest in Massachusetts. There were three trips scheduled in New Hampshire plus one diversion to Newmarket for the Mississippi Kites. Highlights among the 94 species included Rufous Hummingbird, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee, plus the only report of Ipswich Sparrow.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist (10/2000) now includes all the species that have been identified in the state as determined by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC). The Club recorded the following species that are listed on the new list as rare or as accidental species:
| Eared Grebe | Gloucester | January 5 |
| Scopoli's (Cory's) Shearwater | Atlantis Canyon trip | June 28 |
| Audubon's Shearwater | Atlantis Canyon trip | June 28 |
| Leach's Storm-Petrel | Atlantis Canyon trip | June 28 |
| Band-rumped Storm-Petrel | Atlantis Canyon trip | July 19 |
| MISSISSIPPI KITE | Newmarket, NH | June 13 |
| King Rail | Plum Island | July 7 |
| Long-tailed Jaeger | Atlantis Canyon trip | July 19 |
| Thayer's Gull | Gloucester | February 17 |
| SLATY-BACKED GULL | Gloucester | January 12 |
| Bridled Tern | Atlantis Canyon trip | July 19 |
| BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD | East Dennis | September 13 |
| Rufous Hummingbird | Plaistow, NH | November 2 |
| Townsend's Solitaire | Rockport | January 5 |
| Bohemian Waxwing | Rockport | January 12 |
| Summer Tanager | Mt. Auburn | May 16 |
The following species occur with some regularity in Massachusetts but were missed by the Club during 2008: Northern Bobwhite, Cattle Egret, Upland Sandpiper, Ruff, Long-billed Dowitcher, Little Gull, Black-headed Gull, Long-eared Owl, Olive-sided Flycatcher (seen in Maine), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (seen in New Hampshire and Maine), Gray-cheeked Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, and Pine Siskin (seen in Maine).
The biggest trip list this year was Bill Drummond's trip on May 10 from Rowley to Newburyport and including Plum Island which recorded just 89 species, this is the first year in decades that did not reach the century mark in a single day!
| Date | Location | # Species | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 26 | Somerset-Westport | 59 | Bob Stymeist |
| February 10 | Scituate-Plymouth | 67 | Glenn d'Entremont |
| March 15 | Cape Cod Waterfowl | 61 | Eddie Giles |
| April 27 | Boston | 85 | Bob Stymeist |
| May 10 | Rowley-Plum Island | 89 | Bill Drummond |
| June 22 | October Mountain | 85 | Glenn d'Entremont |
| July 7 | Plum Island | 82 | Tom Young |
| August 31 | Newburyport-PI | 65 | Bill Drummond |
| September 13 | Wellfleet | 79 | Bob Stymeist |
| October 5 | Ipswich | 70 | Tom Young |
| November 1 | Plum Island-Salisbury | 75 | Bill Drummond |
| December 6 | Cape Ann | 44 | Bob Petersen |
The Club recorded 81% of all the birds that were noted during 2008 - pretty impressive! A total of at least 364 species, thirteen less than last year were observed and reported by birders across the state during 2008. Other noteworthy species seen during the year but not on the BBC list were: Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, Barnacle Goose, Tundra Swan, White Pelican, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed Kite, Golden Eagle, Gyrfalcon, Yellow Rail, Purple Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt, Curlew Sandpiper, Franklin's Black-tailed, and Sabine's gulls, Calliope Hummingbird, Say's Phoebe, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Loggerhead Shrike, Sedge Wren, Mountain Bluebird, Varied Thrush, Audubon's and Prothonotary warblers, and Yellow-headed Blackbird to name a few.
There were a few spirited competitions during the year; the most ambitious one was on Plum Island. Tom Wetmore kept a daily tally of all the birds seen on the Island and generated a friendly contest (though those heavily involved were hesitant to bird any where else) and the total number of species seen on the Island was an amazing 292 which was taken from a total of 52,853 reports. Not to be outdone, a group from Boston formed the BIMBO's (Birding in metro Boston only) to challenge the Plums. It was a see-saw year with the Plums winning by just five species, the BIMBO's finished the year with 287 birds. Another competition initiated by the Brits and embraced by a cadre of Boston birders was a BIGBY; this is an acronym for birders doing a Big Green Big Year in which birders attempt to build a long list of species without once contributing to greenhouse gas emissions though public transportation was allowed.
ANNUAL LISTS
There was no question among those who sent in their lists, the Broad-billed Hummingbird that spent almost five months coming to a feeder in Dennis was the clear favorite. You have to also believe that the whole scene there in the backyard of Ron and Marge Murphy had a lot to do with it. The Murphy's opened up their yard to the birding community and totally changed their daily routine to accommodate their visitor. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher, which showed up in early April in a small pond in Brighton provided excellent photo opportunities and was listed as a favorite on many lists. Here in their own words are some other favorite memories of 2008.
"A Cape May Warbler feeding in the spruce tree illuminated by a warm October sun"
"Watching Cave Swallows heading to their roost in the north-east corner of the pavilion in Salisbury"
"Seeing a Sandhill Crane flying low over the Bill Forward Pool on Plum Island"
"King Rails at Plum Island, hearing the bellowing male, then seen preening, stretching its wings and making "kik" calls at 20 feet away"
"The Say's Phoebe popping up on a sprig of goldenrod in the dunes at dawn"
"Watching Chimney Swifts retiring to a chimney in West Newbury one evening"
"Visiting the active tern colony at the end of Plymouth Beach, seeing four species of terns on a gorgeous, cloudless summer day"
Other favorites included personal finds: a Gyrfalcon, a Bicknell's Thrush, baby Barred Owls, seeing 36 species of Wood warblers. Rounding out the list of favorites was: White-faced Ibis, Slaty-backed and Black-tailed gulls, Golden Eagle, Clapper Rail, Townsend's Solitaire, Bohemian Waxwings and Western Tanager.
The Gloucester Eared Grebe it seems, failed to return in the fall and was among the top vote getters for most missed bird, Doug Chickering wrote, " Since 1996 it has been my first "write-in" on my Massachusetts list; it seems the era of the Eared Grebe of Gloucester Harbor is over, for over a decade this unlikely visitor could be seen, usually next to a white mooring ball, I'll miss him"
Most aggravating multi-year miss: "Ruffed Grouse in spite of a serious effort"
Most disturbing new this year miss: ‘Stilt Sandpiper"
Actually Stilt Sandpiper was listed by many along with Western, Baird's, Buff-breasted and Upland sandpipers.
Repeated trips in search of a rare bird only to keep coming up empty frustrated some birders, the Black-tailed Gull at Race Point in Provincetown always seemed to be missing on the days they looked and the Tundra Swans in Longmeadow had always just flown away moments after arriving. Cave Swallow and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow garnered votes especially after an extensive search.
Then there are the "should have got that" bird, one respondent listed FORTY species! Owls always seem to make the list and Barred Owls were mentioned most often and still, the Golden-winged Warbler makes the list from veteran birders who remember the days when they outnumbered the Blue-winged Warbler.
All in all it was a very good year, really hard to complain, and a great big thank-you to Massbird, the Internet and the great group of birders who share their knowledge and their love of birding throughout the year.
THE ANNUAL LISTS
| John Hoye, Wayland | 326 |
| Audrey McCarthy, Wayland | 323 |
| Oakes Spalding, Cambridge | 312 |
| Herman D'Entremont, Somerville | 311 |
| Glenn d'Entremont, Stoughton | 307 |
| Chris Floyd, Lexington 303 | |
| Linda Ferraresso, Watertown | 300 |
| Ida Giriunas, Reading | 293 |
| Margo Goetschkes, Cambridge | 293 |
| Mollie Taylor, Danvers | 291 |
| Steve Grinley, Newburyport | 289 |
| Bev Chiasson, Newton | 288 |
| Doug Chickering, Groveland | 273 |
| Bob Stymeist, Arlington | 272 |
| George Gove, Southboro | 272 |
| Karsten Hartel, Arlington | 269 |
| Fred Bouchard, Belmont | 266 |
| Paul Gurn, Fall River | 261 |
| Eileen Synnott, Fall River | 260 |
| Tom Wetmore, Newburyport | 260* |
| Steve Grinley, Newburyport | 257* |
| Lois Cooper, Groveland | 254 |
| Jonathan Center, Chelmsford | 252 |
| Margo Goetschkes, Cambridge | 241* |
| Doug Chickering, Groveland | 231* |
| Sue McGrath, Newburyport | 231* |
| Laura de laFlor, Salem | 229 |
| Davis Noble, Marblehead | 189** |
*Plum Island Only
** Marblehead only
Labels: StatisticalReport
2007 Year End and Statistical Report
By Robert H. Stymeist, Statistician
During 2007, the Brookline Bird Club listed 309 species of birds on 213 reported trips, one species more than last year. A total of 245 trips were scheduled, 11 trips less than last year, and 45 trips less than the all- time high number of 290 in 2000. There were 66 all-day, 145 morning, 27 afternoon or evening, six pelagic, and two weekend trips. Of the 33 trips that were not reported, 12 were cancelled by weather, leaving 21 unreported. In Massachusetts the Club reported a total of 298 species, three less than last year, on 206 trips. To put this in perspective, birders throughout the state recorded a total of 377 species during the year, thus the BBC total of 298 is 79% of all the species seen in 2007!
Two new species were added to the overall Brookline Bird Club list of birds. The Club recorded Little or Macaronesian Shearwater on the Hydrographer Canyon trip August 25. This species recently "split" off from several other small "black and white" shearwaters. According to Rick Heil, most European ornithologists have accepted that these forms are distinct, though the American Ornithologist Union (AOU) has not yet voted to accept the DNA research. A special trip to Newport, Rhode Island and nearby areas on February 3 netted great looks at TWO Pink-footed Geese on the grounds of the Newport Country Club, as well as the only report of Cackling Goose in 2007.
For the birder, the weather in 2007 was a mixed bag. January was unusually mild at the start of the month and ended very cold, but the good part was there was just a little snow. February was sunny and dry but very cold, and snow came from one storm on Valentine's Day. March began with a Lion-Lamb truce but was quickly followed by record-breaking cold weather and a nor'easter on the 16th that dumped over 10 inches of snow. April lived up to its reputation with frequent rain, some heavy and much more than average; a high of 86 on April 23 brought on the leaves! May was very warm but with too much rain. June was dry and a bit warmer than usual and July was quite cool with a lot of rain. August was hot, with over six days reaching above 90 in Boston. September continued on the warm side and was nice and dry for fall birding. Sparrow month, October, was also mild and dry and 86 degrees on the 4th broke the record for Boston. After starting out on the mild side, November turned down-right cold which continued into December; a nor'easter on the 16-17th disrupted many of the Christmas Bird Counts.
The fifth Annual Winter Meeting was held at Bedford High School on January 19, 2007. Cape Cod birder Blair Nikula gave a fascinating and comprehensive presentation on the seabirds of Antarctica. The talk, entitled "Penguins, Petrels, and Prions: An Antarctic Adventure," was based on Blair's four week trip on a Russian ship helping gather data on seabird distribution. At our Annual Spring Meeting at Harvard's Geological Lecture Hall, John Rogers, a co-founder of the New York State Bluebird Society, talked about the life history of the Eastern Bluebird and his nest box management of an extensive Bluebird Trail which has fledged over 11,000 bluebirds! Mike O'Connor, the jovial proprietor of the Bird Watcher's General Store in Orleans, had us laughing as he talked about his recently published book: "Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches". Mike also shared some of the questions he has been asked over the years at his store. Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns opened up the start of 2007 by leading their ELEVENTH annual New Year's Day birding trip. Fourteen hardy members came out on a dismal day to begin a New Year of birding. The trip tallied just 38 species from Newburyport, finishing up at Jodrey Pier in Gloucester. Laura and Mark also led us through the seasons with a Vernal Equinox walk on March 24 all around outer Cape Cod, a Summer Solstice Saunter on June 23, and an Autumn Equinox walk on September 22.
The eighth annual Grand Slam Owl Prowl started out at 4:30 a.m. on February 17. The goal of this trip is to locate, either by hearing or sight, all seven species of owls that are regularly found in mainland Massachusetts in one day. (Barn Owls are somewhat regular on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket-but time and cost make it nearly impossible to include the Islands). This year was a marked improvement over the last few years and we ended the day with six species, just missing Saw-whet Owl, which was also missed by the Club all year! The Club also scheduled Woodcock walks in Reading and the Blue Hills. The Club continued co-sponsoring the TASL (Take a Second Look) surveys of the waterfowl of Boston Harbor and a Dawn Heron Census at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. Ongoing were a series of mid-week trips on Cape Ann in search for alcids led by Barbara Volke and Breeding Bird Surveys in Woburn and in Moose Brook Valley, Hardwick. On August 18 heavy seas prevented Mark Burns and Laura de la Flor from leading the Hawaiian Shirt Shorebird Safari over to South Beach, though the group probably caught a few glances from other tourists as they birded the outer cape in tropical attire.
A Fall Hawk watch at Mt. Tom by veteran hawk-watcher Tom Gagnon tallied eight species of raptors with 734 Broad-wings, making quite a show. The group proceeded down to Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary and had both Mourning Warbler and “killer” looks at a Connecticut Warbler. New this year was a three day Cape Cod Blitz, starting on Friday September 7 at Morris Island in Chatham, where 12 members joined up for three full days of birding. In the end, the group tallied 117 species! At the end of the year, the Club suspends scheduled trips so that our members can participate in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). There are thirty-four count circles within Massachusetts.
This year, the Club scheduled six pelagic trips; one trip; the November 17 trip to Nantucket Shoals, had to be cancelled because of high seas. Ida Giriunas, our pelagic trip organizer, also added another unscheduled Hydrographer Canyon trip on August 19 where almost 70 participants enjoyed a record number of Audubon's Shearwaters (17) and killer looks at FIVE Sperm Whales. The first trip to the offshore canyons on July 19 was highlighted by three Bridled Terns and six species of whales and dolphins. Every trip to these waters is an adventure in our discovery of new birds offshore. The trip on August 25 did in fact add a new species to the Massachusetts list of birds, a LITTLE or MACARONESIAN SHEARWATER, which was photographed by many of the participants, providing the first documented sight record for North America! Rounding out our pelagic birding were some half day trips to Stellwagen Bank and Jeffreys Ledge.
A special thank-you goes out to the 65 leaders who guided our members throughout the year; several leaders deserve special mention. Bill Drummond and Ida Giriunas, two of our long term members, led the most with 22 trips each, followed by Linda Ferraresso with 13 trips, and Soheil Zendeh and Bob Petersen with 12 trips each. Glenn d'Entremont led 11 trips mostly on the south shore and Cape Cod and Bob Stymeist also led 11 trips both in the Boston area as well as Bristol and Barnstable counties. Laura de la Flor and Jane Zanichkowsky each led 10 trips. Another nine dedicated leaders accounted for five or more trips each.
The Club visited Essex County most often, with a total of 88 scheduled trips: 49 to the Newburyport/ Plum Island area, 20 to Cape Ann, and 19 to other spots in the county, including five trips to Marblehead Neck Sanctuary. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was a distant second with 37 trips that recorded 115 species. There were also 40 scheduled trips in the Metropolitan Boston area and 19 in the extended Sudbury River Valley, which included six trips at Great Meadows NWR, four trips to Oxbow NWR, three trips to Assabet NWR, and one visit to Bolton Flats. There were 27 trips to the South Shore and to areas on Cape Cod, including two trips to the hot birding spot, Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, and eight trips to areas in Western Mass.
Out-of-state trips included a weekend trip to the Machias area and to Rangeley Lakes in Maine. The combined total number of species on the Maine trips was 135 and included some boreal birds such as Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee. Totally unexpected was ZERO terns on Machias!! Both Ida Giriunas and Eddie Giles have been leading these great trips for many years, affording Club members the opportunity to see some northern forest and ocean birds that don't nest in Massachusetts. There were two trips in New Hampshire, one along the coast in winter and one to Pondicherry NWR, where a Black-backed Woodpecker nest was found. A trip to Appledore Island, in the Maine part of the Isles of Shoals, was cancelled due to bad weather. There was one special trip to Rhode Island, where the Club added Pink-footed Goose, a new species for the Club list. This trip also recorded the only Cackling Goose.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist (10/2000) includes all the species that have been identified in the state, as determined by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC). The Club recorded the following species that are listed as rare or as accidental species:
The following species occur with some regularity in Massachusetts but were missed by the Club during 2007: Northern Bobwhite, Cattle Egret, Northern Goshawk (seen in Maine), Baird's Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Black Skimmer, Thick-billed Murre, Parasitic Jaeger, Northern Saw-whet Owl, and, what unfortunately is becoming a trend, Golden-winged Warbler. The biggest trip list this year was from Bill Drummond's trip around Essex County, recording 137 species on May 20. The best bird on that trip was an American Avocet, though the group had super looks at many warblers (20 species) that were feeding very low in the Old Pines area on Plum Island. The most species for the least amount of travel (a total of 12 miles by car in 10 hours) was a trip just along Sconticut Neck in Fairhaven that recorded a total of 77 species on September 18. In the following table you can see which trip in each month recorded the most species; this may help in planning for a big year of birding:
The Club recorded 79% of all the birds that were noted during 2007 - pretty impressive! A total of at least 377 species, four more than last year, were observed and reported by birders across the state during 2007. Other noteworthy species seen during the year but not on the BBC list were: Tundra Swan, Tufted Duck, Brown Pelican, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites, Golden Eagle, Yellow Rail, Purple Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt, Curlew Sandpiper, Calliope, Rufous and Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Say's Phoebe, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Sedge Wren, Northern Wheatear, Audubon's, Townsend's, Black-throated Gray, Prothonotary and Swainson's warblers, Summer Tanager, Lark and Harris' Sparrows, and Yellow-headed Blackbird, to name a few.
The bird of the year for many was the Little Shearwater. This was the first ever recorded in New England, and with the many documented photographs, it will likely be the first accepted record in the United States since 1883, when an individual washed up on a beach in South Carolina. Imagine, SIX species of shearwaters on the August 25 "Extreme Pelagic", as Ida Giriunas' trips have been called. Other favorites from the offshore set were Band-rumped Storm Petrel (4) and Bridled Tern (3). The Gray Jay was a crowd-pleaser and the top vote-getter from all who made the trip to the top of Mt Watatic. This was a fantastic year for winter finches. Pine Grosbeaks staged a mini-invasion, something quite rare in recent times. The great flocks of Bohemian Waxwings and both Common and Hoary Redpolls were a treat for birders in eastern Massachusetts and thus were most rewarding experiences. The Swainson's Warbler on Plum Island garnered a few votes, though was frustrating because of its secretive behavior of singing from an invisible perch in a restricted area! The Townsend's Warbler in the busy neighborhood of Cambridgeport was a favorite, as was the other "Townsend" - the Towsend's Solitaire - which had to be one observer's best bird since it was #600 on their ABA list! SIX Black-necked Stilts, all moving together in unison in a salt marsh in South Chatham, was a favorite for several folks that never had seen more than one bird before in Mass. Speaking of firsts for Massachusetts: the Slaty-backed Gulls were noted as the best birds of the year, as well as a life bird, for those who never ventured far away to “New Hampshire” to see one there last year. Sometimes it's the very good look you get: a Dovekie up close at Jodrey Pier, or a Yellow-breasted Chat that tees up in a small tree and is joined by an Orange-crowned Warbler and both STAY there for totally insane looks! There's nothing better than having both a red and a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl take up residence in YOUR backyard. My favorite best bird nominee was the Eared Grebe of Niles Beach, grateful that it shows up each year and for which we'll have to have a celebration of its life if it should die!
It always is interesting to see what the top listers miss; just like on a Big Day or a Christmas Bird Count, there is often some bird that is common but completely missed. One top lister missed Black-billed Cuckoo, hard to do when you are out every weekend. The top vote-getter was the Swainson's Warbler on Plum Island; many heard it, heard it, and heard it again for three days and never saw it. Black Skimmer was listed by several folks who tried often and heard that old refrain "You should have been here...". Seven attempts to see one of the many reported Sandhill Cranes was especially frustrating, as were the many trips to the Hawkwatch site in Truro looking for Mississippi Kite. With all the great birds seen on the pelagic trips, one that just did not get seen was the Leach's Storm Petrel, a first miss for many veteran pelagic birders. The Golden-winged Warbler, once an easy bird to see, has become quite hard to find, and was listed by several as their most disappointing miss. Ruffed Grouse, despite a concerted effort, eluded one birder for the umpteenth year. Missing Arctic Tern for the first time in decades was another disconcerting miss. Coming onto Plum Island late in the day hoping to hear a Whip-poor-will was unfulfilled when the refuge ranger refused entry so late in the day. Connecticut Warbler always gets on the list; this year was no exception, as three folks listed it as a perennial miss. There were many road kill Barred Owls, as well as many noted alive, so it was hard to miss one on another 300-plus lister's list. Breeding birds in the state are hard to swallow when you miss them: Seaside Sparrow, Cerulean Warbler, and Acadian Flycatcher were a few that were mentioned as unnecessary misses.
All in all it was a very good year, really hard to complain. And a great big thank-you to Massbird, the internet, and the great group of birders who share their knowledge and their love of birding. Give yourself a round of applause.
* Plum Island Only
During 2007, the Brookline Bird Club listed 309 species of birds on 213 reported trips, one species more than last year. A total of 245 trips were scheduled, 11 trips less than last year, and 45 trips less than the all- time high number of 290 in 2000. There were 66 all-day, 145 morning, 27 afternoon or evening, six pelagic, and two weekend trips. Of the 33 trips that were not reported, 12 were cancelled by weather, leaving 21 unreported. In Massachusetts the Club reported a total of 298 species, three less than last year, on 206 trips. To put this in perspective, birders throughout the state recorded a total of 377 species during the year, thus the BBC total of 298 is 79% of all the species seen in 2007!
Two new species were added to the overall Brookline Bird Club list of birds. The Club recorded Little or Macaronesian Shearwater on the Hydrographer Canyon trip August 25. This species recently "split" off from several other small "black and white" shearwaters. According to Rick Heil, most European ornithologists have accepted that these forms are distinct, though the American Ornithologist Union (AOU) has not yet voted to accept the DNA research. A special trip to Newport, Rhode Island and nearby areas on February 3 netted great looks at TWO Pink-footed Geese on the grounds of the Newport Country Club, as well as the only report of Cackling Goose in 2007.
For the birder, the weather in 2007 was a mixed bag. January was unusually mild at the start of the month and ended very cold, but the good part was there was just a little snow. February was sunny and dry but very cold, and snow came from one storm on Valentine's Day. March began with a Lion-Lamb truce but was quickly followed by record-breaking cold weather and a nor'easter on the 16th that dumped over 10 inches of snow. April lived up to its reputation with frequent rain, some heavy and much more than average; a high of 86 on April 23 brought on the leaves! May was very warm but with too much rain. June was dry and a bit warmer than usual and July was quite cool with a lot of rain. August was hot, with over six days reaching above 90 in Boston. September continued on the warm side and was nice and dry for fall birding. Sparrow month, October, was also mild and dry and 86 degrees on the 4th broke the record for Boston. After starting out on the mild side, November turned down-right cold which continued into December; a nor'easter on the 16-17th disrupted many of the Christmas Bird Counts.
The fifth Annual Winter Meeting was held at Bedford High School on January 19, 2007. Cape Cod birder Blair Nikula gave a fascinating and comprehensive presentation on the seabirds of Antarctica. The talk, entitled "Penguins, Petrels, and Prions: An Antarctic Adventure," was based on Blair's four week trip on a Russian ship helping gather data on seabird distribution. At our Annual Spring Meeting at Harvard's Geological Lecture Hall, John Rogers, a co-founder of the New York State Bluebird Society, talked about the life history of the Eastern Bluebird and his nest box management of an extensive Bluebird Trail which has fledged over 11,000 bluebirds! Mike O'Connor, the jovial proprietor of the Bird Watcher's General Store in Orleans, had us laughing as he talked about his recently published book: "Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches". Mike also shared some of the questions he has been asked over the years at his store. Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns opened up the start of 2007 by leading their ELEVENTH annual New Year's Day birding trip. Fourteen hardy members came out on a dismal day to begin a New Year of birding. The trip tallied just 38 species from Newburyport, finishing up at Jodrey Pier in Gloucester. Laura and Mark also led us through the seasons with a Vernal Equinox walk on March 24 all around outer Cape Cod, a Summer Solstice Saunter on June 23, and an Autumn Equinox walk on September 22.
The eighth annual Grand Slam Owl Prowl started out at 4:30 a.m. on February 17. The goal of this trip is to locate, either by hearing or sight, all seven species of owls that are regularly found in mainland Massachusetts in one day. (Barn Owls are somewhat regular on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket-but time and cost make it nearly impossible to include the Islands). This year was a marked improvement over the last few years and we ended the day with six species, just missing Saw-whet Owl, which was also missed by the Club all year! The Club also scheduled Woodcock walks in Reading and the Blue Hills. The Club continued co-sponsoring the TASL (Take a Second Look) surveys of the waterfowl of Boston Harbor and a Dawn Heron Census at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. Ongoing were a series of mid-week trips on Cape Ann in search for alcids led by Barbara Volke and Breeding Bird Surveys in Woburn and in Moose Brook Valley, Hardwick. On August 18 heavy seas prevented Mark Burns and Laura de la Flor from leading the Hawaiian Shirt Shorebird Safari over to South Beach, though the group probably caught a few glances from other tourists as they birded the outer cape in tropical attire.
A Fall Hawk watch at Mt. Tom by veteran hawk-watcher Tom Gagnon tallied eight species of raptors with 734 Broad-wings, making quite a show. The group proceeded down to Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary and had both Mourning Warbler and “killer” looks at a Connecticut Warbler. New this year was a three day Cape Cod Blitz, starting on Friday September 7 at Morris Island in Chatham, where 12 members joined up for three full days of birding. In the end, the group tallied 117 species! At the end of the year, the Club suspends scheduled trips so that our members can participate in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). There are thirty-four count circles within Massachusetts.
This year, the Club scheduled six pelagic trips; one trip; the November 17 trip to Nantucket Shoals, had to be cancelled because of high seas. Ida Giriunas, our pelagic trip organizer, also added another unscheduled Hydrographer Canyon trip on August 19 where almost 70 participants enjoyed a record number of Audubon's Shearwaters (17) and killer looks at FIVE Sperm Whales. The first trip to the offshore canyons on July 19 was highlighted by three Bridled Terns and six species of whales and dolphins. Every trip to these waters is an adventure in our discovery of new birds offshore. The trip on August 25 did in fact add a new species to the Massachusetts list of birds, a LITTLE or MACARONESIAN SHEARWATER, which was photographed by many of the participants, providing the first documented sight record for North America! Rounding out our pelagic birding were some half day trips to Stellwagen Bank and Jeffreys Ledge.
A special thank-you goes out to the 65 leaders who guided our members throughout the year; several leaders deserve special mention. Bill Drummond and Ida Giriunas, two of our long term members, led the most with 22 trips each, followed by Linda Ferraresso with 13 trips, and Soheil Zendeh and Bob Petersen with 12 trips each. Glenn d'Entremont led 11 trips mostly on the south shore and Cape Cod and Bob Stymeist also led 11 trips both in the Boston area as well as Bristol and Barnstable counties. Laura de la Flor and Jane Zanichkowsky each led 10 trips. Another nine dedicated leaders accounted for five or more trips each.
The Club visited Essex County most often, with a total of 88 scheduled trips: 49 to the Newburyport/ Plum Island area, 20 to Cape Ann, and 19 to other spots in the county, including five trips to Marblehead Neck Sanctuary. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was a distant second with 37 trips that recorded 115 species. There were also 40 scheduled trips in the Metropolitan Boston area and 19 in the extended Sudbury River Valley, which included six trips at Great Meadows NWR, four trips to Oxbow NWR, three trips to Assabet NWR, and one visit to Bolton Flats. There were 27 trips to the South Shore and to areas on Cape Cod, including two trips to the hot birding spot, Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, and eight trips to areas in Western Mass.
Out-of-state trips included a weekend trip to the Machias area and to Rangeley Lakes in Maine. The combined total number of species on the Maine trips was 135 and included some boreal birds such as Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee. Totally unexpected was ZERO terns on Machias!! Both Ida Giriunas and Eddie Giles have been leading these great trips for many years, affording Club members the opportunity to see some northern forest and ocean birds that don't nest in Massachusetts. There were two trips in New Hampshire, one along the coast in winter and one to Pondicherry NWR, where a Black-backed Woodpecker nest was found. A trip to Appledore Island, in the Maine part of the Isles of Shoals, was cancelled due to bad weather. There was one special trip to Rhode Island, where the Club added Pink-footed Goose, a new species for the Club list. This trip also recorded the only Cackling Goose.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist (10/2000) includes all the species that have been identified in the state, as determined by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC). The Club recorded the following species that are listed as rare or as accidental species:
| Greater White-fronted Goose | Concord | October 14 |
| Barnacle Goose | Concord | October 14 |
| Eared Grebe | Gloucester | January 6 |
| Northern Fulmar | Nantucket Shoals area | June 30 |
| Little/Macaronesian Shearwater | 18 miles N of Veatch's Canyon | August 25 |
| Audubon's Shearwater | Hydrographer Canyon | July 21 |
| White-faced Storm-Petrel | Hydrographer Canyon | August 19 |
| Leach's Storm-Petrel | Nantucket Shoals | July 21 |
| Band-rumped Storm-Petrel | Hydrographer Canyon | August 2 |
| Swainson's Hawk | Cumberland Farms | October 6 |
| King Rail | Plum Island | May 14 |
| American Avocet | Plum Island | May 13 |
| Ruff/Reeve | Newburyport Harbor | April 8 |
| Long-tailed Jaeger | Nantucket Shoals | July 21 |
| Bridled Tern | Hydrographer Canyon | July 21 |
| Gray Jay | Mt. Watatic | November 4 |
| Yellow-throated Warbler | Mt. Auburn Cemetery | May 20 |
The following species occur with some regularity in Massachusetts but were missed by the Club during 2007: Northern Bobwhite, Cattle Egret, Northern Goshawk (seen in Maine), Baird's Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Black Skimmer, Thick-billed Murre, Parasitic Jaeger, Northern Saw-whet Owl, and, what unfortunately is becoming a trend, Golden-winged Warbler. The biggest trip list this year was from Bill Drummond's trip around Essex County, recording 137 species on May 20. The best bird on that trip was an American Avocet, though the group had super looks at many warblers (20 species) that were feeding very low in the Old Pines area on Plum Island. The most species for the least amount of travel (a total of 12 miles by car in 10 hours) was a trip just along Sconticut Neck in Fairhaven that recorded a total of 77 species on September 18. In the following table you can see which trip in each month recorded the most species; this may help in planning for a big year of birding:
| Date | Location | # species | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7 | Boston | 65 | Bob Stymeist |
| February 11 | Scituate-Plymouth | 72 | Glenn d'Entremont |
| March 24 | Outer Cape Cod | 66 | Laura de la Flor |
| April 29 | Boston | 93 | Bob Stymeist |
| May 20 | Newburyport area | 137 | Bill Drummond |
| June 2 | Quabbin area | 97 | Eddie Giles & Mark Burns |
| July 9 | Plum Island | 70 | Tom Young |
| August 18 | Outer Cape Cod | 65 | Laura de la Flor & Mark Burns |
| September 9 | Provincetown-Truro | 89 | Bob Stymeist |
| October 14 | Newburyport-PI | 70 | Bill Drummond |
| November 17 | Bourne | 77 | Bob Stymeist |
| November 18 | Fairhaven (tie) | 77 | Bob Stymeist |
| December 2 | Cape Ann | 47 | Ian Davies |
The Club recorded 79% of all the birds that were noted during 2007 - pretty impressive! A total of at least 377 species, four more than last year, were observed and reported by birders across the state during 2007. Other noteworthy species seen during the year but not on the BBC list were: Tundra Swan, Tufted Duck, Brown Pelican, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites, Golden Eagle, Yellow Rail, Purple Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt, Curlew Sandpiper, Calliope, Rufous and Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Say's Phoebe, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Sedge Wren, Northern Wheatear, Audubon's, Townsend's, Black-throated Gray, Prothonotary and Swainson's warblers, Summer Tanager, Lark and Harris' Sparrows, and Yellow-headed Blackbird, to name a few.
ANNUAL LISTS
The bird of the year for many was the Little Shearwater. This was the first ever recorded in New England, and with the many documented photographs, it will likely be the first accepted record in the United States since 1883, when an individual washed up on a beach in South Carolina. Imagine, SIX species of shearwaters on the August 25 "Extreme Pelagic", as Ida Giriunas' trips have been called. Other favorites from the offshore set were Band-rumped Storm Petrel (4) and Bridled Tern (3). The Gray Jay was a crowd-pleaser and the top vote-getter from all who made the trip to the top of Mt Watatic. This was a fantastic year for winter finches. Pine Grosbeaks staged a mini-invasion, something quite rare in recent times. The great flocks of Bohemian Waxwings and both Common and Hoary Redpolls were a treat for birders in eastern Massachusetts and thus were most rewarding experiences. The Swainson's Warbler on Plum Island garnered a few votes, though was frustrating because of its secretive behavior of singing from an invisible perch in a restricted area! The Townsend's Warbler in the busy neighborhood of Cambridgeport was a favorite, as was the other "Townsend" - the Towsend's Solitaire - which had to be one observer's best bird since it was #600 on their ABA list! SIX Black-necked Stilts, all moving together in unison in a salt marsh in South Chatham, was a favorite for several folks that never had seen more than one bird before in Mass. Speaking of firsts for Massachusetts: the Slaty-backed Gulls were noted as the best birds of the year, as well as a life bird, for those who never ventured far away to “New Hampshire” to see one there last year. Sometimes it's the very good look you get: a Dovekie up close at Jodrey Pier, or a Yellow-breasted Chat that tees up in a small tree and is joined by an Orange-crowned Warbler and both STAY there for totally insane looks! There's nothing better than having both a red and a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl take up residence in YOUR backyard. My favorite best bird nominee was the Eared Grebe of Niles Beach, grateful that it shows up each year and for which we'll have to have a celebration of its life if it should die!
It always is interesting to see what the top listers miss; just like on a Big Day or a Christmas Bird Count, there is often some bird that is common but completely missed. One top lister missed Black-billed Cuckoo, hard to do when you are out every weekend. The top vote-getter was the Swainson's Warbler on Plum Island; many heard it, heard it, and heard it again for three days and never saw it. Black Skimmer was listed by several folks who tried often and heard that old refrain "You should have been here...". Seven attempts to see one of the many reported Sandhill Cranes was especially frustrating, as were the many trips to the Hawkwatch site in Truro looking for Mississippi Kite. With all the great birds seen on the pelagic trips, one that just did not get seen was the Leach's Storm Petrel, a first miss for many veteran pelagic birders. The Golden-winged Warbler, once an easy bird to see, has become quite hard to find, and was listed by several as their most disappointing miss. Ruffed Grouse, despite a concerted effort, eluded one birder for the umpteenth year. Missing Arctic Tern for the first time in decades was another disconcerting miss. Coming onto Plum Island late in the day hoping to hear a Whip-poor-will was unfulfilled when the refuge ranger refused entry so late in the day. Connecticut Warbler always gets on the list; this year was no exception, as three folks listed it as a perennial miss. There were many road kill Barred Owls, as well as many noted alive, so it was hard to miss one on another 300-plus lister's list. Breeding birds in the state are hard to swallow when you miss them: Seaside Sparrow, Cerulean Warbler, and Acadian Flycatcher were a few that were mentioned as unnecessary misses.
All in all it was a very good year, really hard to complain. And a great big thank-you to Massbird, the internet, and the great group of birders who share their knowledge and their love of birding. Give yourself a round of applause.
| John Hoye | Wayland | 336 |
| Audrey McCarthy | Wayland | 331 |
| Oakes Spalding | Cambridge | 330 |
| Linda Ferraresso | Watertown | 326 |
| Steve Grinley | Newburyport | 322 |
| Kevin Ryan | Easton | 321 |
| Ida Giriunas | Reading | 320 |
| Herman D'Entremont | Somerville | 319 |
| Margo Goetschkes | Cambridge | 318 |
| Davis Noble | Marblehead | 318 |
| Mollie Taylor | Danvers | 311 |
| Glenn d'Entremont | Stoughton | 311 |
| Chris Floyd | Lexington | 310 |
| Bev Chiasson | Newton | 303 |
| Karsten Hartel | Arlington | 290 |
| Bob Stymeist | Arlington | 287 |
| George Gove | Southboro | 279 |
| Fred Bouchard | Belmont | 273 |
| Tom Wetmore | Newburyport | 262* |
| Laura de la Flor | Salem | 243 |
| Jonathan Center | Chelmsford | 237 |
| Shane Hunt | Brookline | 237 |
* Plum Island Only
Labels: StatisticalReport
2006 Statistical and Year End Report
By Robert H. Stymeist, Statistician
During 2006, the Brookline Bird Club listed 306 species of birds on 208 reported trips, one species more than last year. A total of 256 trips were scheduled, seven trips less than last year. The all time high number of scheduled trips was 290 in 2000. There were 67 all-day, 147 morning, 30 afternoon or evening, five pelagic, and two weekend trips. The record-breaking rain during May and June was the major factor in trip cancellations this year. Of the 48 trips that were not reported, 36 were cancelled by weather, leaving 12 unreported. In Massachusetts the Club reported a total of 301 species, four more than last year, on 206 trips. To put this in perspective, birders throughout the state recorded a total of 373 species during the year; thus, the BBC total of 301 is an astonishing 81% of all the species seen in 2006!
Three new species were added to the overall Brookline Bird Club list of birds. The Club recorded White-faced Storm Petrel on the Hydrographer Canyon trip August 26; Bell's Vireo on November 25 in Wood's Hole, and Western Reef Heron in New Hampshire on September 3.
For the birder, the weather in 2006 was a mixed bag. January was unusually mild with below normal snow. February had wide temperature swings and a big snowstorm on the 12th. March came in like a lion but was very dry. April was warm and dry with exceptionally warm temperatures at the end of the month, advancing the foliage by two weeks. May was wet, with nearly 13 inches of rain in the Boston area. The songbird migration was awful but the storm-driven birds were awesome. June continued the extremely wet pattern, setting a new high for a two consecutive month total rainfall. July was hot, August was cool, and September through December was near normal to above normal in temperature as well as dry.
The fourth Annual Winter Meeting was held at Bedford High School on January 20, 2006. Phillip Hoose, a widely-acclaimed author, gave a lively talk on his multi-award winning book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, a story on the extinction of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. At our Spring Meeting at Harvard, David Bird, Professor of Wildlife Biology at McGill University of Montreal, gave an entertaining program entitled “How Birds Do It”. And our Fall Meeting featured our own Norman Smith of Mass Audubon's Trailside Museum who presented a program on Snowy Owls and Saw whet Owls that featured his assistants growing up with owls.
Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns opened up the start of 2006 by leading their tenth annual New Year's Day birding trip. Nineteen members enjoyed an almost perfect winter day with a dusting of new snow, no wind, and an overcast sky that added some drama to the landscape. The trip tallied 61 species from Newburyport to Dunback Meadow in Lexington. Laura and Mark also led us through the seasons with a Vernal Equinox walk on March 18, a Summer Solstice Saunter on June 24, and a Autumn Equinox walk on September 23.
The seventh annual Grand Slam Owl Prowl started out at 4 a.m. on February 18. The goal of this trip is to locate, either by hearing or sight, all seven species of owls that are regularly found in Massachusetts in one day. Reports of Long-eared and Short-eared owls had been few and in the end, those two species eluded the group. But all five owls that were seen were photographed! The Club also scheduled Woodcock walks in Reading and the Blue Hills. The Club continued co-sponsoring the TASL (Take a Second Look) surveys of the waterfowl of Boston Harbor and a Dawn Heron Census at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. Ongoing were a series of mid-week trips on Cape Ann in search for alcids led by Barbara Volke and Breeding Bird Surveys at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, Salem Woods, Woburn, and Dartmouth. On August 5, Mark Burns and Laura de la Flor led the now annual Hawaiian Shirt Shorebird Safari where 16 members in tropical attire tallied 51 species, which included 74 American Oystercatchers, 230 Willets, over 3000 Semipalmated Plovers, and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
Fall Hawk watch locations included Mt Wachusett, Mt Watatic, and Mt Tom, which had a very impressive flight of over 1200 Broad-winged Hawks as well as five Bald Eagles. On November 25, Glenn d'Entremont found a Bell's Vireo on the grounds of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on a trip that was co-sponsored with the Cape Cod Birding Club. This was just the third record for the state and the first record not from Manomet Bird Observatory. This, needless to say, was a first for the Club as well as the throngs of birders that descended on the site the following day! New this year was a visit to the Wing Island Banding Station in Brewster. It was a slow day, with the leader wishing it was one day later when two Connecticut Warblers were netted! At the end of the year, the Club suspends scheduled trips so that our members can participate in the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). There are thirty-four count circles within Massachusetts.
This year, the Club scheduled five pelagic trips. A scheduled trip to Hydrographer's Canyon on August 26 was again a smashing success. The "Extreme Pelagic", as it has been called now for the third year in a row, was again a most memorable trip for the 75 birders who departed Hyannis Harbor in the dark. We cruised the length of Hydrographer Canyon into water more than 4000 feet deep, with a water temperature of 74 degrees F along the shelf edge. The trip followed the shelf edge for nearly twenty miles before setting course back across Nantucket Shoals and back to Hyannis, where we arrived in the dark. Three White-Faced Storm-Petrels were found and the Captain followed them, maneuvering the boat, allowing fantastic views of a life bird for most of the birders on board. Another highlight was a distinctly smaller and slender shearwater that was readily picked out and observed from a roosting flock of Cory's and Greater Shearwaters. Many photos were taken and sent around to seabird experts with the possibility that the bird could be a Cape Verde Shearwater, for which there is one record from off Cape Hatteras. The November pelagic, again organized by Ida Giriunas and led by Rick Heil and Steve Mirick, was about as placid as could be for early winter. Sixty-five members enjoyed almost continuous groups of shearwaters, gannets, and kittiwakes. Before the boat left the dock there was a very early morning migration of loons; in about 30 minutes the group tallied over 130 Common and nearly 300 Red-throated Loons. At the edge of the shoals, a spectacular flock of thousands of Greater Shearwaters, about 20 Northern Fulmars, Northern Gannets and hundreds of Black-legged Kittiwakes were feeding along with Minke and lob-tailing and breaching Humpback Whales!
A special thank you goes out to the 62 leaders who guided our members throughout the year. Several leaders deserve special mention. Bill Drummond led the most trips with 26, followed by Steve Grinley with 18. Ida Giriunas led 17 trips despite falling on the ice and snow in February at Dunback Meadow, which put her in a cast for several weeks. Soheil Zendeh was listed as leader 16 times. Linda Ferraresso led 13 trips, Glenn d'Entremont led 12 trips, mostly on the south shore and Cape Cod, Bob Stymeist and Jonathan Center each led 11 trips, and Laura de la Flor and Bob Petersen each led 10 trips. Another 11 dedicated leaders accounted for five or more trips each.
The Club visited Essex County most often, with a total of 100 scheduled trips: 60 to the Newburyport/ Plum Island area, 20 to Cape Ann, and 20 to other spots in the county, including eight trips to the Marblehead Neck Sanctuary. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was a distant second with 27 trips that recorded 105 species. There were 40 scheduled trips in the Metropolitan Boston area and 15 trips in the extended Sudbury River Valley, including Great Meadows NWR, Oxbow NWR, Bolton Flats, and the new Assabet NWR. There were 20 trips to the South Shore and to areas on Cape Cod, including three trips to the birding hot spot, Wompatuck State Park in Hingham. And there were 10 trips to areas in Western Mass. Out of state trips included a weekend trip to the Machias area and to Rangely Lakes in Maine. The combined total number of species on the Maine trips was 143 and included some boreal birds such as Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee. Both Ida Giriunas and Eddie Giles have been leading these great trips for many years, affording Club members the opportunity to see some northern forest and ocean birds that don't nest in Massachusetts. There were just two trips in New Hampshire, with one trip especially targeted for the Bicknell's Thrush. Unfortunately this trip was cancelled due to heavy rain. An extension of Bill Drummond's September 3 trip to Portsmouth, NH was successful in adding Western Reef Heron to the Club list. And yet another trip extension by Bill to Odiorne State Park from Cape Ann on November 19 added Fork-tailed Flycatcher to the list. This bird put on quite a show as it fed on the bittersweet.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist (10/2000) now includes all the species that have been identified in the state, as determined by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC). The Club recorded the following species that are listed on the new list as rare or as accidental species.
The following species occur with some regularity in Massachusetts but were missed by the Club during 2006: Least Bittern, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Marbled Godwit, Short-eared Owl, Common Nighthawk, White-eyed Vireo, Golden-winged, Cerulean, and Connecticut warblers.
The biggest trip list this year was Bill Drummond's trip around Essex County, recording 110 species on May 27. In Bill's notes he states “It was a fine day at Plum Island with some of the best birding in the thickets opposite the salt panes. It took over an hour to get the 50 participants on the Mourning Warbler at that location”. Bill was able to show the fifty participants 10 species of shorebirds and 17species of warblers. The most species for the least amount of travel was a trip totally within the town of Wellfleet that recorded a total of 80 species on September 16. In the following table you can see which trip in each month recorded the most species; this may help in planning for a big year of birding.
The Club recorded nearly 81% of all the birds that were noted during 2006 - pretty impressive! A total of at least 373 species, 13 more than last year, were observed and reported by birders across the state during 2006. Other noteworthy species seen during the year but not on the BBC list were: Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, Tundra Swan, Eurasian Wigeon, Western Grebe, Yellow-nosed Albatross, White and Brown Pelicans, Magnificent Frigatebird, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites, Golden Eagle, Gyrfalcon, Purple Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt (Bill Drummond extended his Plum Island trip for this but missed it), Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Royal Tern, Dovekie, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Green-tailed Towhee, to name a few.
The Yellow Rail that was discovered by Ron Lockwood on October 9 in the marshes known as Plum Bush was the top vote getter of five birders who sent in their lists. It is truly amazing that the bird was even re-found and that it was seen so well and photographed. Birders slogged through waist-high water, some tripping, falling, getting their binos wet, but all were most satisfied seeing this truly elusive bird. Ida Giriunas, the Energizer Bunny as I like to call her, managed to get out there with the aid of two ski poles and see this bird through Chris Floyd's scope. Chris was ecstatic about this bird, which he never dreamed of seeing in Massachusetts, and his greatest experience was re-finding it for so many birders. It always is exciting when you find a good bird and then are able to share it with everyone. The Bell's Vireo located by Glenn d'Entremont in Woods Hole was his most memorable find and on a Club trip, no less. Spotting the first Northern Fulmar on a Club pelagic was especially rewarding for another birder, as was finding my own Sandhill Crane at Bolton Flats after missing others. One birder heard the song of a Bicknell's Thrush on Mt. Greylock in July, a bird that used to be standard fare when Lee Jameson ran the Greylock camping weekend thirty plus years ago, but which has been absent now for as many years there. The White-faced Storm-Petrel gathered several votes as a favorite and no wonder - three of these were seen on the "Extreme Pelagic" at close range on a calm sea! A quick trip to Martha's Vineyard for a Gray Kingbird that spent only two days on the island was mentioned as a best bird. Rare among warblers, a Cape May in top plumage was present for several days affording “killer" looks at eye level at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan. Another spring nor'easter brought a great tern show at Sandy Point on Plum Island. Other birds that made folks smile were Black-tailed Godwit, Black-necked Stilt, Rufous Hummingbird, Bell's Vireo, LeConte's Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee, and the White-tailed Hawk (even though it was an escape) Lastly, the Western Reef Heron also got a few votes, even though it was in New Hampshire.
It always is interesting to see what the top listers miss; just like on a Big Day or a Christmas Bird Count, there is often some bird that is common but completely missed. One birder missed Eastern Screech Owl, another Ruffed Grouse, both common breeding birds in the right areas. Cape May warbler was on several lists; this bird used to be common but has been in steady decline for a number of years. Another warbler, the Golden-winged, has become extremely rare and now is almost thought as likely as a Townsend's or Hermit Warbler. Other misses include Long-eared Owl, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Goshawk (on 3 lists), Olive-sided Flycatcher, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Connecticut and Mourning Warblers, and LeConte's Sparrow. Of course, many birders lamented not being at Plum Bush to tell their story about getting very wet to see a Yellow Rail!
During 2006, the Brookline Bird Club listed 306 species of birds on 208 reported trips, one species more than last year. A total of 256 trips were scheduled, seven trips less than last year. The all time high number of scheduled trips was 290 in 2000. There were 67 all-day, 147 morning, 30 afternoon or evening, five pelagic, and two weekend trips. The record-breaking rain during May and June was the major factor in trip cancellations this year. Of the 48 trips that were not reported, 36 were cancelled by weather, leaving 12 unreported. In Massachusetts the Club reported a total of 301 species, four more than last year, on 206 trips. To put this in perspective, birders throughout the state recorded a total of 373 species during the year; thus, the BBC total of 301 is an astonishing 81% of all the species seen in 2006!
Three new species were added to the overall Brookline Bird Club list of birds. The Club recorded White-faced Storm Petrel on the Hydrographer Canyon trip August 26; Bell's Vireo on November 25 in Wood's Hole, and Western Reef Heron in New Hampshire on September 3.
For the birder, the weather in 2006 was a mixed bag. January was unusually mild with below normal snow. February had wide temperature swings and a big snowstorm on the 12th. March came in like a lion but was very dry. April was warm and dry with exceptionally warm temperatures at the end of the month, advancing the foliage by two weeks. May was wet, with nearly 13 inches of rain in the Boston area. The songbird migration was awful but the storm-driven birds were awesome. June continued the extremely wet pattern, setting a new high for a two consecutive month total rainfall. July was hot, August was cool, and September through December was near normal to above normal in temperature as well as dry.
The fourth Annual Winter Meeting was held at Bedford High School on January 20, 2006. Phillip Hoose, a widely-acclaimed author, gave a lively talk on his multi-award winning book The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, a story on the extinction of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. At our Spring Meeting at Harvard, David Bird, Professor of Wildlife Biology at McGill University of Montreal, gave an entertaining program entitled “How Birds Do It”. And our Fall Meeting featured our own Norman Smith of Mass Audubon's Trailside Museum who presented a program on Snowy Owls and Saw whet Owls that featured his assistants growing up with owls.
Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns opened up the start of 2006 by leading their tenth annual New Year's Day birding trip. Nineteen members enjoyed an almost perfect winter day with a dusting of new snow, no wind, and an overcast sky that added some drama to the landscape. The trip tallied 61 species from Newburyport to Dunback Meadow in Lexington. Laura and Mark also led us through the seasons with a Vernal Equinox walk on March 18, a Summer Solstice Saunter on June 24, and a Autumn Equinox walk on September 23.
The seventh annual Grand Slam Owl Prowl started out at 4 a.m. on February 18. The goal of this trip is to locate, either by hearing or sight, all seven species of owls that are regularly found in Massachusetts in one day. Reports of Long-eared and Short-eared owls had been few and in the end, those two species eluded the group. But all five owls that were seen were photographed! The Club also scheduled Woodcock walks in Reading and the Blue Hills. The Club continued co-sponsoring the TASL (Take a Second Look) surveys of the waterfowl of Boston Harbor and a Dawn Heron Census at Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. Ongoing were a series of mid-week trips on Cape Ann in search for alcids led by Barbara Volke and Breeding Bird Surveys at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, Salem Woods, Woburn, and Dartmouth. On August 5, Mark Burns and Laura de la Flor led the now annual Hawaiian Shirt Shorebird Safari where 16 members in tropical attire tallied 51 species, which included 74 American Oystercatchers, 230 Willets, over 3000 Semipalmated Plovers, and two Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
Fall Hawk watch locations included Mt Wachusett, Mt Watatic, and Mt Tom, which had a very impressive flight of over 1200 Broad-winged Hawks as well as five Bald Eagles. On November 25, Glenn d'Entremont found a Bell's Vireo on the grounds of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on a trip that was co-sponsored with the Cape Cod Birding Club. This was just the third record for the state and the first record not from Manomet Bird Observatory. This, needless to say, was a first for the Club as well as the throngs of birders that descended on the site the following day! New this year was a visit to the Wing Island Banding Station in Brewster. It was a slow day, with the leader wishing it was one day later when two Connecticut Warblers were netted! At the end of the year, the Club suspends scheduled trips so that our members can participate in the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). There are thirty-four count circles within Massachusetts.
This year, the Club scheduled five pelagic trips. A scheduled trip to Hydrographer's Canyon on August 26 was again a smashing success. The "Extreme Pelagic", as it has been called now for the third year in a row, was again a most memorable trip for the 75 birders who departed Hyannis Harbor in the dark. We cruised the length of Hydrographer Canyon into water more than 4000 feet deep, with a water temperature of 74 degrees F along the shelf edge. The trip followed the shelf edge for nearly twenty miles before setting course back across Nantucket Shoals and back to Hyannis, where we arrived in the dark. Three White-Faced Storm-Petrels were found and the Captain followed them, maneuvering the boat, allowing fantastic views of a life bird for most of the birders on board. Another highlight was a distinctly smaller and slender shearwater that was readily picked out and observed from a roosting flock of Cory's and Greater Shearwaters. Many photos were taken and sent around to seabird experts with the possibility that the bird could be a Cape Verde Shearwater, for which there is one record from off Cape Hatteras. The November pelagic, again organized by Ida Giriunas and led by Rick Heil and Steve Mirick, was about as placid as could be for early winter. Sixty-five members enjoyed almost continuous groups of shearwaters, gannets, and kittiwakes. Before the boat left the dock there was a very early morning migration of loons; in about 30 minutes the group tallied over 130 Common and nearly 300 Red-throated Loons. At the edge of the shoals, a spectacular flock of thousands of Greater Shearwaters, about 20 Northern Fulmars, Northern Gannets and hundreds of Black-legged Kittiwakes were feeding along with Minke and lob-tailing and breaching Humpback Whales!
A special thank you goes out to the 62 leaders who guided our members throughout the year. Several leaders deserve special mention. Bill Drummond led the most trips with 26, followed by Steve Grinley with 18. Ida Giriunas led 17 trips despite falling on the ice and snow in February at Dunback Meadow, which put her in a cast for several weeks. Soheil Zendeh was listed as leader 16 times. Linda Ferraresso led 13 trips, Glenn d'Entremont led 12 trips, mostly on the south shore and Cape Cod, Bob Stymeist and Jonathan Center each led 11 trips, and Laura de la Flor and Bob Petersen each led 10 trips. Another 11 dedicated leaders accounted for five or more trips each.
The Club visited Essex County most often, with a total of 100 scheduled trips: 60 to the Newburyport/ Plum Island area, 20 to Cape Ann, and 20 to other spots in the county, including eight trips to the Marblehead Neck Sanctuary. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was a distant second with 27 trips that recorded 105 species. There were 40 scheduled trips in the Metropolitan Boston area and 15 trips in the extended Sudbury River Valley, including Great Meadows NWR, Oxbow NWR, Bolton Flats, and the new Assabet NWR. There were 20 trips to the South Shore and to areas on Cape Cod, including three trips to the birding hot spot, Wompatuck State Park in Hingham. And there were 10 trips to areas in Western Mass. Out of state trips included a weekend trip to the Machias area and to Rangely Lakes in Maine. The combined total number of species on the Maine trips was 143 and included some boreal birds such as Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Gray Jay, and Boreal Chickadee. Both Ida Giriunas and Eddie Giles have been leading these great trips for many years, affording Club members the opportunity to see some northern forest and ocean birds that don't nest in Massachusetts. There were just two trips in New Hampshire, with one trip especially targeted for the Bicknell's Thrush. Unfortunately this trip was cancelled due to heavy rain. An extension of Bill Drummond's September 3 trip to Portsmouth, NH was successful in adding Western Reef Heron to the Club list. And yet another trip extension by Bill to Odiorne State Park from Cape Ann on November 19 added Fork-tailed Flycatcher to the list. This bird put on quite a show as it fed on the bittersweet.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist (10/2000) now includes all the species that have been identified in the state, as determined by the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC). The Club recorded the following species that are listed on the new list as rare or as accidental species.
| Pacific Loon | Cathedral | Ledge, Rockport | January 7 |
| Pacific Loon | Hull (TASL trip) | January 29 | |
| Eared Grebe | Gloucester | January 7 | |
| Northern Fulmar | at sea | July 8 | |
| Audubon's Shearwater | at sea | August 26 | |
| Leach's Storm-Petrel | at sea | August 26 | |
| White-faced Storm-Petrel | at sea | August 26 | |
| King Rail | Plum Island | May 31 | |
| Sandhill Crane | Cumberland Farms | October 8 | |
| Black-tailed Godwit | Plum Island | July 17 | |
| Ash-throated Flycatcher | Halibut Point, Rockport | December 13 | |
| Bell's Vireo | Woods Hole | November 25 | |
| Bohemian Waxwing | Halibut Point | January 7 | |
| Kentucky Warbler | Marblehead Neck | May 7 |
The following species occur with some regularity in Massachusetts but were missed by the Club during 2006: Least Bittern, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Marbled Godwit, Short-eared Owl, Common Nighthawk, White-eyed Vireo, Golden-winged, Cerulean, and Connecticut warblers.
The biggest trip list this year was Bill Drummond's trip around Essex County, recording 110 species on May 27. In Bill's notes he states “It was a fine day at Plum Island with some of the best birding in the thickets opposite the salt panes. It took over an hour to get the 50 participants on the Mourning Warbler at that location”. Bill was able to show the fifty participants 10 species of shorebirds and 17species of warblers. The most species for the least amount of travel was a trip totally within the town of Wellfleet that recorded a total of 80 species on September 16. In the following table you can see which trip in each month recorded the most species; this may help in planning for a big year of birding.
| Date | Location | # species | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7 | Westport | 77 | Bob Stymeist |
| February 19 | Cape Ann | 55 | Linda Pivacek |
| March 26 | Western Mass | 47 | Ida Giriunas |
| April 15 | Newburyport area | 62 | Steve Grinley |
| May 27 | Newburyport area | 110 | Bill Drummond |
| June 4 | Newburyport area | 88 | Steve Grinley |
| July 1 | Quabbin Gate 10 | 51 | Glenn d'Entremont |
| August 20 | Newburyport area | 69 | Steve Grinley |
| September 17 | Provincetown-Truro | 87 | Bob Stymeist |
| October 29 | Newburyport-PI | 60 | Steve Grinley |
| November 4 | Bourne | 77 | Bob Stymeist |
| December 10 | Newburyport-PI | 65 | Steve Grinley |
The Club recorded nearly 81% of all the birds that were noted during 2006 - pretty impressive! A total of at least 373 species, 13 more than last year, were observed and reported by birders across the state during 2006. Other noteworthy species seen during the year but not on the BBC list were: Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, Tundra Swan, Eurasian Wigeon, Western Grebe, Yellow-nosed Albatross, White and Brown Pelicans, Magnificent Frigatebird, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Swallow-tailed and Mississippi Kites, Golden Eagle, Gyrfalcon, Purple Gallinule, Black-necked Stilt (Bill Drummond extended his Plum Island trip for this but missed it), Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Royal Tern, Dovekie, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Green-tailed Towhee, to name a few.
Annual Lists
The Yellow Rail that was discovered by Ron Lockwood on October 9 in the marshes known as Plum Bush was the top vote getter of five birders who sent in their lists. It is truly amazing that the bird was even re-found and that it was seen so well and photographed. Birders slogged through waist-high water, some tripping, falling, getting their binos wet, but all were most satisfied seeing this truly elusive bird. Ida Giriunas, the Energizer Bunny as I like to call her, managed to get out there with the aid of two ski poles and see this bird through Chris Floyd's scope. Chris was ecstatic about this bird, which he never dreamed of seeing in Massachusetts, and his greatest experience was re-finding it for so many birders. It always is exciting when you find a good bird and then are able to share it with everyone. The Bell's Vireo located by Glenn d'Entremont in Woods Hole was his most memorable find and on a Club trip, no less. Spotting the first Northern Fulmar on a Club pelagic was especially rewarding for another birder, as was finding my own Sandhill Crane at Bolton Flats after missing others. One birder heard the song of a Bicknell's Thrush on Mt. Greylock in July, a bird that used to be standard fare when Lee Jameson ran the Greylock camping weekend thirty plus years ago, but which has been absent now for as many years there. The White-faced Storm-Petrel gathered several votes as a favorite and no wonder - three of these were seen on the "Extreme Pelagic" at close range on a calm sea! A quick trip to Martha's Vineyard for a Gray Kingbird that spent only two days on the island was mentioned as a best bird. Rare among warblers, a Cape May in top plumage was present for several days affording “killer" looks at eye level at the Boston Nature Center in Mattapan. Another spring nor'easter brought a great tern show at Sandy Point on Plum Island. Other birds that made folks smile were Black-tailed Godwit, Black-necked Stilt, Rufous Hummingbird, Bell's Vireo, LeConte's Sparrow, Green-tailed Towhee, and the White-tailed Hawk (even though it was an escape) Lastly, the Western Reef Heron also got a few votes, even though it was in New Hampshire.
It always is interesting to see what the top listers miss; just like on a Big Day or a Christmas Bird Count, there is often some bird that is common but completely missed. One birder missed Eastern Screech Owl, another Ruffed Grouse, both common breeding birds in the right areas. Cape May warbler was on several lists; this bird used to be common but has been in steady decline for a number of years. Another warbler, the Golden-winged, has become extremely rare and now is almost thought as likely as a Townsend's or Hermit Warbler. Other misses include Long-eared Owl, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Goshawk (on 3 lists), Olive-sided Flycatcher, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Connecticut and Mourning Warblers, and LeConte's Sparrow. Of course, many birders lamented not being at Plum Bush to tell their story about getting very wet to see a Yellow Rail!
| John Hoye | Wayland | 325 |
| Audrey McCarthy | Wayland | 321 |
| Oakes Spalding | Cambridge | 319 |
| Herman D'Entremont | Somerville | 311 |
| Glenn d'Entremont | Stoughton | 308 |
| Chris Floyd | Lexington | 308 |
| Steve Grinley | Newburyport | 307 |
| Linda Ferraresso | Watertown | 304 |
| Karsten Hartel | Arlington | 298 |
| Davis Noble | Marblehead | 290 |
| Bob Stymeist | Arlington | 276 |
| Jonathan Center | Chelmsford | 275 |
| Fred Bouchard | Belmont | 269 |
| Laura de la Flor | Salem | 234 |
| Ida Giriunas | Reading | 196 |
Labels: StatisticalReport