Trip Highlights

What better way to start the new year than by venturing out for a day of coastal birding.  Six members were game to go, and rather than follow the scheduled route of birding Falmouth, Sandwich and Plymouth, we checked the latest rare bird reports and decided to head straight to Eastham.  A Western Kingbird was the draw, and the views of the kingbird were plenty of reward for the extra drive, but we were also rewarded with eye-dropping views of a Lark Sparrow and four Savannah Sparrows, perched all together in low vegetation on the visitor center grounds.

With some advice from local birders, we went to Herring Pond next, also in Eastham, and counted large numbers of many types of waterfowl, including 58 Ring-necked Ducks, 26 Ruddy Ducks, 20 Wigeon, 15 Red-breasted and 12 Hooded Mergansers, 5 Bufflehead and one stunning male Redhead Duck. At Town Cove in Orleans, we added 2 Belted Kingfishers, a Coot, 4 Gadwall, 5 Greater Scaup, and 25 Black Ducks.  That completed our pond birding, but we were anxious to see what the ocean waters held for us.  

We headed to Nauset Beach on the Nantucket Sound side of the Cape, where the waters were calm and the sky was eerie, as New England was expecting a northeaster to begin that evening.  Maybe the Razorbills knew, because we counted 55 of them spread out, mostly in small groups. Also there were 5 Red-throated and 2 Common Loons, 10 Gannets relatively close in and diving for food, 45 Black Scoters and single digit presence of White-winged and Surf Scoters, as well as Long-tailed Ducks.

From there we drove north to bird the bay side of the Cape, with the first stop being Corporation Beach in Dennis.  The number of seabirds was not quite as impressive, but the variety was good, and we added Horned Grebe to the day’s list.  We traveled just a short way to visit Dennis Chapin Beach and it turned out to be a perfect choice.  The tide was still out and the beach stretched far out into the bay.  There were over a hundred Dunlin, some close in, some farther away.  With the more distant Dunlin were over 50 Sanderlings, and very close in were two Black-belled Plovers.  As we packed up our scopes and walked back to the parking lot, one of us notice a Red Fox making its way across our path, and then we all saw a second Red Fox follow in pursuit.

We were hoping to get on the road early in an effort to beat the snowy forecast, but there was one last spot in the offing and that was Town Neck Rd in Sandwich.  We found the Treehouse Brewery parking lot to be quite busy, with just a few spaces available.  There was a large raft of Common Eider not far offshore, 5 Razorbills, some Black, White-winged and Surf Scoters, a dozen or so Red-breasted Mergansers, one Goldeneye and over 50 Robins flying about the hedge at the edge of the lot and swirling everywhere we looked as we exited.

For a cloudy day with temperatures hovering in the mid-30s and just a light northeast breeze, it’s a wonder most of us still felt cold at some point during the day. We ended as darkness approached with a total of 54 species and many moments of laughter to make the day even more memorable.

This was our 33rd year of participation as Cobble Mtn Circle in National Audubon’s Christmas Count.  Here’s a rundown of how we did this year compared to past years.  We brought in a total of 66 species, down three species from last year, but still three over average.  Observer number was down by one birder and hours in the field was down by seven, but both were above average for the count.  Water was unfrozen for the most part, excepting some thin ice on the edges of still, shallow waters. The temperature ranged between 20-40 degrees F, the morning had clear skies, but clouds prevailed in the afternoon with a light breeze out of the S at 0-5 mph.

You could say things were ho-hum this year, with most species and numbers coming in about average.  There was one species found in a higher number than usual and that was Golden-crowned Kinglet.  We counted 35 kinglets, 5 above average, and we must go back to 2009 to find a higher count of 47.

There was also one species found in notably lower numbers than usual.  It was the House Sparrow.  At 174 individuals, it was 200 below average and the lowest number ever recorded on the count.  YAY!!!

We were fortunate to find some rarer species.  It seems Congamond always comes through for us, and this year the lakes gave us two American Wigeon (first time recorded), two Green-winged Teal (seen only one other time over the last 10 years), and 4 Greater Scaup (highest number of individuals to date). Pine Siskins had the highest count in the last 15 years at 37.  And finally, a Pine Warbler and a Vesper Sparrow were found for the first time ever in count history.

An unfortunate miss for this year was Sharp-shinned Hawk. The year 2013 was the only other count where this species was not recorded.  

Three count week species were added by Dave McLain and Kim Jones.  On the day after the count, they found 18 Lesser Scaup, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, and 1 Ruddy Duck on Congamond.

Special thanks to Joanne Fortin, who hosted the compilation and is always generous and gracious about sharing her home with the group.

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2023 Cobble Mtn CBC

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2023 SPFLD CBC Results

Nine members, including one new and very welcome member, enjoyed mild temps and winds from the south around 10 mph throughout the day while searching for seabirds along the coasts of Cape Ann.  We came to a total of 51 species for the day.  Locations visited and birding highlights below.

Green Landing and Marsh – 18 Bufflehead, 5 Black Duck, 1 Scoter sp

Jodrey’s Fish Pier – 5 RB Merganser, 7 C Loon, 225 C Eider, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 10 Surf Scoter, Herring, Blk-back, Ringed-B Gulls, but no white-winged gull present

Rocky Neck – 35 RB Merganser, 20 Purple Sandpiper, C Loon, 20 C Eider, 4 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Surf, a WW, a Black Scoter, RN Grebe, 12 Bufflehead

Niles Beach – 2 RB Mergansers, 30 Surf Scoter, 2 Long-tailed Ducks, Bufflehead

Eastern Point – 1 Gadwall, 4 Blk Duck, 34 C Eider, 1 Bufflehead, 9 RB merganser, 1 C Loon, 8 Surf Scoter, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 RT Hawk, 1 Horned Lark

Niles Pond – 83 Ruddy Ducks, 16 Ring-necked Duck, 10 Bufflehead, 1 Greater Scaup, 2 Hooded Merganser, 1 C Loon, 2 Coot, 1 DC Cormorant

Elks Club – 3 No Gannet, 1 Blk Guillemot, 1 RN Grebe, 4 C Loon, 6 C Eider, 11 Bufflehead, WW Scoters, 1 DC Cormorant, 75 Purple Sandpiper, 9 Sanderlings

Stop and Shop for rest stop and birding the adjacent marsh – Cooper’s Hawk, Great Blue Heron

Pebble Beach – 4 Surf Scoter, 2 Bufflehead, 18 DC Cormorants, 8 C Eider, 1 C Loon

Loblolly Cove – 1 GW Teal, 3 C Loon, 12 Harlequin Duck, 2 Horned Grebe, 2 WW Scoter, 7 Bufflehead, 7 RB merganser, 2 Purple Sandpiper

Granite Pier – 2 Iceland Gull, 6 Surf Scoter, 1 C Loon, 1 DC and 2 Great Cormorants, 5 C Eider, 10 Harlequin Duck

Andrews Point – 7 Long-tailed Duck, 15 C Eider, 8 Surf, 5 Blk, and 3 WW Scoters, 80 Harlequin, 20 RB Merganser, 2 C Loon, 2 Purple Sandpiper

Halibut Point – 12 No Gannet, 2 Dovekie, 2 C Loon, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 4 Surf, 100 Black, and 1 WW Scoter, 15 Harlequin, 2 Blk Duck and 30 Mallards in Quarry

Five members turned out for the annual trip to the lakes.  Although the waterfowl were not too numerous, we did end up with 41 total species.  The weather was pleasant, but on the cool side.  In addition to numerous geese and mallards, we saw quite a large number of both Common and Hooded Mergansers. Two species of grebes were spot-ted - a distant, hard-to-id Pied-billed at Cheshire and later, from the fishing pier on Ono-ta, a Horned.  The pier also gave us our only Long-tailed Duck. A Wigeon and two Pin-tails were seen at Cheshire, Green-winged Teal at Pontoosuc, and a pair of Wood Duck at Onota causeway.  Loons delighted us more than once - first a distant Red-throated from the Bull Hill stop on Pontoosuc and then from Narragansett, 3 more Red-throated and 3 Common.  Richmond Pond did not disappoint.  There we had two Less-er Scaup (which were close enough to study well), three Bufflehead, and 18 Ruddy Duck, in addition to two flyover Red-tailed Hawks, and two Ravens.  A Bald Eagle was seen by some, and a Merlin gave a brief but good view to one attentive participant.  Other land birds of note included a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, only one Cedar Waxwing, and a Pileated seen by the leaders after we departed our last stop at Bartlett’s Orchard.  See complete species list below.