This column is the third of three in which I describe some of the notable sightings of selected Christmas Bird Counts (hereafter, CBC\u2019s) conducted in Maine from mid-December until early January.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll travel all around the state today.\u00a0 The general results confirm the patterns seen for previously described counts: poor year for irruptive finches and Bohemian Waxwings, great year for Snowy Owls, some remarkably hardy birds that should by rights be far to our south.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go way Down East to the Mooseport-Jonesport area.\u00a0 The CBC there on December 21 yielded 56 species.\u00a0 American Black Ducks are a species of concern.\u00a0 On this count, they outnumbered Mallards by a count of 679 to 89.\u00a0 Fifteen species of waterfowl were tallied including a couple of Harlequin Ducks and 1,395 Common Eiders.<\/p>\n
A Merlin was a nice find.\u00a0 About 800 gulls were found, but not a single Iceland Gull or Glaucous Gull among them.<\/p>\n
Three Bohemian Waxwings, a Northern Shrike, two Northern Mockingbirds and 2 Swamp Sparrows were notable.\u00a0 The only finches were American Goldfinches.<\/p>\n
Up in the County, intrepid Caribou counters welcomed the New Year with a count of 24 species, starting their day with -27 degree cold, warming to a balmy 7 degrees.\u00a0 The two most common species were introduced Rock Pigeons (277) and European Starlings (2,625).\u00a0 Good sightings of native birds included 241 Snow Buntings, four Horned Larks, a Gray Jay and a lone Pine Grosbeak.<\/p>\n
Just a bit south, Presque Isle participants found 35 species on December 28.\u00a0 Some open water must have been available because of the nice count of 132 Mallards and 12 American Black Ducks.\u00a0 Raptors included a Rough-legged Hawk and six (!) Snowy Owls.\u00a0 Three Northern Shrikes were also found.<\/p>\n
The flat, open terrain of the area is great for ground-dwelling birds so the 1,058 Snow Buntings were not unexpected.<\/p>\n
Other notable finds were six Cedar Waxwings, seven Common Redpolls and seven Pine Siskins<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll head south now to the Bangor region.\u00a0 The Bangor-Bucksport count on December 28 yielded a fine count of 52 species.\u00a0 Eight species of waterfowl were detected including five Bufflehead and two Barrow\u2019s Goldeneye.\u00a0 A Red-throated Loon is always a good find away from the coast.<\/p>\n
Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Tufted Titmice and Carolina Wrens are expanding their range northward.\u00a0 All were found on the Bangor CBC with the 64 titmice being particularly impressive.<\/p>\n
Seven Purple Finches were a nice count of a hard-to-find bird this winter.<\/p>\n
Just a bit north, the Orono-Old Town CBC produced a count of 49 species on December 14.\u00a0 Thirteen Barrow\u2019s Goldeneye and a Northern Harrier were excellent sightings.\u00a0 Two Red-bellied Woodpeckers, 32 Tufted Titmice and a Carolina Wren were nice counts.<\/p>\n
Five Cedar Waxwings graced this count.\u00a0 A lone Red-winged Blackbird was perhaps reconsidering its decision to not move south.\u00a0 The only finches were House Finches (2) and American Goldfinches (490).<\/p>\n
Farmington counters braved -20 degree temperatures on January 4 and found 37 species.\u00a0 Highlights included a Northern Shrike, two Horned Larks, 48 Bohemian Waxwings, 22 Cedar Waxwings and a Lapland Longspur.<\/p>\n
Lingering birds included a Hermit Thrush and three Rusty Blackbirds.\u00a0 A Northern Mockingbird was a nice find as well.<\/p>\n
Finches were hard to come by but the diversity was pretty good for this finch-poor winter.\u00a0 Counters found four Purple Finches and a Common Redpoll to go along with four House Finches and 137 American Goldfinches.<\/p>\n
The Hartland CBC is one of the newer counts in Maine.\u00a0 On December 21, Hartland participants found 39 species.\u00a0 Highlights included two Northern Goshawks, two Northern Shrikes, 72 Snow Buntings and 35 Common Redpolls. Lingering birds included a Northern Flicker, two Rusty Blackbirds and a Common Grackle.<\/p>\n
Finally, the Sweden count on December 27 yielded 33 species.\u00a0 Highlights were two Red-bellied Woodpeckers and 116 Snow Buntings.\u00a0 The 176 American Goldfinches were the only finches found.<\/p>\n\n
This column is the third of three in which I describe some of the notable sightings of selected Christmas Bird Counts (hereafter, CBC\u2019s) conducted in Maine from mid-December until early January. We\u2019ll travel all around the state today.\u00a0 The general results confirm the patterns seen for previously described counts: poor year for irruptive finches and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646"}],"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=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":647,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}