Trip Highlights

Eleven members joined today’s successful hotline trip, identifying our target bird and a total of 25 species. We met up at 8:00 a.m. and birded in some pretty cold and windy weather until 11:30 a.m.  Thankfully, we birders are hardy and enthusiastic!

We began with a visit to Mt Holyoke College campus pond, giving us wonderful, close-up views of the reported Greater White-fronted Goose, along with almost 300 Canada Geese, 13 Mallards, a Black Duck, and a Bluebird calling as we exited our vehicles.

Next, we headed to Hadley’s Honey Pot, where we missed a continuing Smith’s Longspur.  We were rewarded, however, with very nice views of several raptors, including a beautiful male Northern Harrier, a cooperative Merlin, a perched and puffed-up Red-tailed Hawk and a Cooper’s Hawk. Also seen were several flocks of Horned Lark totaling over 200 birds, along with at least 3 Snow Buntings.  Alone male Common Merganser was all to be found on the river.

Aqua Vitae Rd was our last stop, and after some searching, we got on a couple of large flocks of Horned Larked that landed in the field on the riverside of the road.  They were quite active on the ground, but we were able to pick out three more Snow Buntings in their midst.  Other land birds there were Mourning Dove, Downy, Red-bellied and Pileated Woodpeckers, Blue Jay, Tree Sparrow, Junco, and a pair of Cardinals.

Five members participated and racked up 52 species, including some special finds.  I’ll share our birding spots and some highlight birds we identified.

Sider’s Pond, Falmouth – 60 Red-breasted and 20 Hooded Mergansers, a Red-throated Loon, and a Great Blue Heron

Salt Pond and ocean viewing across the street – 32 Bufflehead, 6 Goldeneye, 1 Surf Scoter, 2 Razorbills, 15 Long-tailed Ducks, 30 Common Goldeneye, 250 Common Eider, 1 Horned Grebe, 1 Common Loon

Ashumet Pond, Falmouth – 75 Ring-necked Ducks, 60 Coot, 5 Ruddy Ducks, 60 Bufflehead, 75 Common Goldeneye and a Barrow’s Goldeneye hybrid

Mashpee Pond-Attaquin Park, Mashpee – 1 Western Grebe, 2 Common Loon, 35 Bufflehead

Marstons Mills Pond, Marstons Mills – 15 Northern Pintail, 1 Ring-necked Duck, 2 Hooded Merganser, 3 American Wigeon, 20 Gadwall and a Kingfisher

Shawme Lake, Sandwich – 1 Eurasian Wigeon (close and excellent views) and 95 American Wigeon

Town Neck Rd, Sandwich at the Treehouse Brewery parking lot – 8 Razorbills, 75 Common Eider, 1 Black, 25 White-winged and Surf Scoters, and 2 Common Loons

Cape Cod Canal – Added 8 more Razorbills at close range, 1 Gannet, 75 Common Eider, 15 White-winged Scoters, 2 Red-throated Loons, and 8 Common Loons

Skipping Plymouth altogether in hopes of getting a reported Barrow’s Goldeneye at Little Quitticus Pond in Lakeville, we headed straight there.  The bird was not to be found, nor did we get the Short-eared Owls hoped for at our last birding spot, Cumberland Farms in Middleborough.  Despite ending the trip with missed birds, we did enjoy a great day of coastal birding!

This was our 32nd 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 69 species, the second highest species count ever and the highest since 2001.  Observer number and hours in the field were on the high side of average, and miles covered was a bit lower than average.  Water was unfrozen for the most part. The temperature ranged between 45-49 degrees F, but clouds prevailed and the winds were almost constant out of the NW at 10-25 mph.

There were several species found in higher numbers than usual.  Of these, three species that continue to extend their winter range, an all-time high of 8 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers and 45 Carolina Wrens, and the second high count of Red-bellied Woodpeckers at57.  Also high were counts of American Tree Sparrow at 89, highest count since 2006, and Swamp Sparrow at 4, highest count since 2004.

There was just one species found in notably lower numbers than usual.  The Cedar Waxwing count of a single bird this year was the lowest ever in count history.  

We were fortunate to find some rarer species.  An American Coot and a Ruddy Duck were spotted on Congamond.  The last time these species were recorded was in 2014. The Ruddy Duck is very sporadic on the count and the Coot has been sporadic over the last 20 years.  Two Pine Siskins were spied on a feeder in Granville.  It is only the second time this species was counted in the last ten years.  We also got Eastern Towhee for the first time in 11 years.  The count for towhee has been sporadic throughout.  Merlin was counted by two teams and has been spotted only three other times in the Cobble Mtn Count.  Saw-whet Owl was heard in Granville for the first time since 2015.  Finally, a Killdeer was found for the first time ever in count history.

Unfortunate misses this year were Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, Horned Lark, and Eastern Screech Owl.  

One count week bird was added by Dorrie Holmes, and that was Bufflehead.

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2022 Cobble Mtn Count Results

Highlights of the Dec 17, 2022 - Springfield Christmas Count

Total Species: 67

Total Individuals: 13,750

1 Rufous Hummingbird

5 Eastern Towhee

3 Red-Shoulder Hawk

1 Barrow's Goldeneye - Ct River from Longmeadow

3 Fish Crow

1 Iceland Gull - Ct River from Longmeadow

1 Merlin - Springfield

2 Yellow-rump Warbler - West Springfield

10 Ravens - all over

106 Horned Larks - most West Road Longmeadow

123 Hooded Merganser -  all over

16 Bald Eagles

‍

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2022 Springfield CBC Results

Eleven members faced a stiff, cold breeze all day in hopes of finding some good birds on the north shore. The surf was up in the ocean and choppy waters ruled the day, making siting birds more difficult, but we managed all three Scoter species, Common Loon, Bufflehead, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and Common Eider at many locations, and a total of 44 species.

Jodrey’s Pier gave our first anticipated bird of the day, a close-up look at a Razorbill.  Next, we went to Rocky Neck and picked up three Horned Grebes.  At Niles Beach, Chris got looks at a Black Guillemot flying, and we spotted our first Long-tailed Ducks.  Eastern Point added 7 Purple Sandpipers out on the dog bar, 7 Gadwall up close, and 7 Gannets off the point.  We were welcomed by calm waters at Niles Pond and good views of 4 Hooded Mergansers, 3 Lesser Scaup, 6 Ring-necked Ducks and a Pied-billed Grebe.  At the Elks Club on Atlantic Ave, we spotted five more Gannets and our first White-winged Scoters.  We got good looks at Harlequins from Granite Pier and Cathedral Rocks. We were lucky enough to find ample parking at Andrews Point and were rewarded for our walk to the lookouts with a Purple Sandpiper, 20 more Harlequins and another Long-tailed Duck. More Gannets and Harlequins were spotted at Halibut Point, and on the last stop of the day we found a Red-throated Loon at Plum Cove. Great day of birding was had by all, despite the weather!