This column is the last of three reviewing the results of the most recent Christmas Bird Counts in Maine.\u00a0 We\u2019ll jump all around the state today.<\/p>\n
Two counts were conducted in Aroostook County, one in Presque Isle and a new count in the Caribou region.\u00a0 The Presque Isle count produced a fine list of 38 species.\u00a0 A bit of open water yielded 11 Mallards, 52 American Black Ducks and seven Common Goldeneyes.\u00a0 Two Great Black-backed Gulls were the only gulls found.<\/p>\n
The 38 Bald Eagles were a new record high for the count as were the seven Northern Cardinals, a species continuing to expand northward in Maine.<\/p>\n
Aroostook County has lots of open countryside so the 461 Snow Buntings and a Horned Lark were not surprising.<\/p>\n
Only two lingering species were found in this colder part of the state: a Northern Harrier and a Common Grackle.<\/p>\n
Northern Finches were scarce with a pair of Pine Siskins and a pair of Evening Grosbeaks being found along with higher numbers of Purple Finches and American Goldfinches.<\/p>\n
A bit further north in Limestone, counters amassed a list of 26 species in the inaugural count for this area.\u00a0 Rain through most of the day certainly depressed the totals.\u00a0 Four species of ducks were found (Mallards, American Black Ducks, Common Goldeneyes and Common Mergansers).<\/p>\n
A Sharp-shinned Hawk was the only diurnal raptor.\u00a0 Five Northern Shrikes made for a nice total.<\/p>\n
The only lingering birds were a pair of hardy American Robins.\u00a0 Two species of finches were found with the highlight being 27 Common Redpolls along with the more numerous American Goldfinches.<\/p>\n
The Misery count near The Forks rivals the Aroostook counts in the severity of the winter.\u00a0 This year, participants found 22 species.\u00a0 As usual, no lingering species were found.<\/p>\n
Eighteen Ruffed Grouse and 12 Gray Jays were both all-time highs for the count.\u00a0 For the fourth year in a row, no Boreal Chickadees were found.<\/p>\n
This count had the best finch diversity of any count in Maine this year with 46 American Goldfinches, 340 Pine Siskins, 34 Purple Finches, four Red Crossbills, 17 White-winged Crossbills and four Pine Grosbeaks.<\/p>\n
The Orono and Bangor counts are within ten miles of each other so I find it interesting to compare these two counts each year.\u00a0 The Orono count produced a list of 48 species while the Bangor count had 50 species.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s focus on the differences.\u00a0 Bangor had an excellent raptor count with one Cooper\u2019s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Merlin and Peregrine Falcon to go along with the 13 Bald Eagles.\u00a0 In Orono, eagles were found along with a Cooper\u2019s Hawk, two Sharp-shinned Hawks and a lingering Northern Harrier.<\/p>\n
In Bangor, six Northern Mockingbirds were braving the winter. Orono highlights were a fine count of 28 Barrow\u2019s Goldeneye and a couple of lingering species (one Common Loon and two Northern Mockingbirds).\u00a0 Red-bellied Woodpeckers were found on both counts.<\/p>\n
Four Pine Grosbeaks and five Pine Siskins were found in Bangor while 105 Pine Siskins and seven Common Redpolls were tallied in Orono.<\/p>\n
The Schoodic Peninsula count had 50 species.\u00a0 The 137 Common Loons was an excellent high count.\u00a0 Ten species of waterfowl were found with the 30 Harlequin Ducks being the most remarkable.<\/p>\n
A Black-backed Woodpecker was an excellent find.\u00a0 Lingering birds included Belted Kingfisher and two Yellow-rumped Warblers<\/p>\n
Four species of finches were found with 37 White-winged Crossbills and 23 Pine Siskins representing the irruptive species.<\/p>\n
Portland usually has the highest number of species of any CBC in Maine and took pride of place this year with 96 species found by the 47 observers.<\/p>\n
Rarities included a Greater White-fronted Goose, a King Eider, two Ruddy Turnstones and a Lark Sparrow.\u00a0 Lingering species included Double-crested Cormorant, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Field Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow.<\/p>\n
[Originally published on February 5, 2012]<\/p>\n\n
This column is the last of three reviewing the results of the most recent Christmas Bird Counts in Maine.\u00a0 We\u2019ll jump all around the state today. Two counts were conducted in Aroostook County, one in Presque Isle and a new count in the Caribou region.\u00a0 The Presque Isle count produced a fine list of 38 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}