{"id":959,"date":"2018-02-25T11:40:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T15:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/?p=959"},"modified":"2018-02-25T11:40:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T15:40:55","slug":"highlights-of-maine-christmas-bird-counts-i-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/2018\/02\/25\/highlights-of-maine-christmas-bird-counts-i-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Highlights of Maine Christmas Bird Counts – I"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 118th<\/sup> Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season has finished. In the next three posts,\u00a0 I will discuss the highlights of some of the Maine Christmas Bird Counts.\u00a0 These standardized censuses are a valuable tool to monitor the abundance of winter birds throughout North America and beyond. The data provide a lens to see how our Maine birds are doing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m expecting some strong weather effects this year. The first part of the count period (December 16-24) was seasonably cold with a few inches of snow on the ground. Christmas brought a big snowfall to much of the area and brutally cold temperatures that show no signs of abating until the second week of January.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll concentrate on any changes in regularly wintering birds, the arrival of erratic winter wanderers and records of any lingering birds whose wintering areas are well to our south. A rarity or two may pop up as well.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start with Lewiston-Auburn count, held on December 16. The counters enjoyed a fine day, accumulating a list of 53 species. The 342 Common Goldeneyes and 96 Lesser Scaup were all-time highs for this count. These waterfowl were joined by 10 other species including a Ruddy Duck, two Red-breasted Mergansers, 14 Greater Scaup and a Northern Pintail.<\/p>\n

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was a great find along with five Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Two falcons were spotted, a Merlin and a Peregrine Falcon.<\/p>\n

The most surprising songbirds were a Gray Catbird and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Dark-eyed Juncos seem to be very common this winter; the 383 support that observation. Sixty Northern Cardinals set a new count record.<\/p>\n

Black-capped Chickadees and American Crows were present in lower numbers than expected. A local aberration we hope.<\/p>\n

The Mount Desert CBC was also held on December 16. Participants found 58 species. This count always produces lots of Common Eiders; 829 this year did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

Only one Red-throated Loon was seen along with 64 Common Loons, 54 Horned Grebes and 71 Red-necked Grebes. Only four species of gulls were found, the most notable being eight Black-legged Kittiwakes.<\/p>\n

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and a Northern Flicker would have normally migrated south by mid-December. A Black-and-white Warbler and an American Pipit were excellent finds.<\/p>\n

Three species of northern finches were found: Purple Finch, Red Crossbill and Pine Siskin. All were in low numbers. So far, this winter does not look good for northern finch irruptions.<\/p>\n

The Thomaston-Rockland count, also on December 16, yielded a fine count of 83 species. Nineteen species of waterfowl appeared, an excellent tally. Highlights were a Wood Duck, an American Wigeon, two King Eiders and a Ruddy Duck.<\/p>\n

Two species of sandpipers were represented by two Dunlin and a dozen Purple Sandpipers.<\/p>\n

Very late birds included a Pied-billed Grebe, a Turkey Vulture, a Belted Kingfisher, two Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Northern Flicker, five Eastern Bluebirds, a Vesper Sparrow two Savannah Sparrows and a Baltimore Oriole.<\/p>\n

The best bird of the count was a Yellow-throated Warbler, a species whose nesting range is well to the south of Maine.<\/p>\n

Two White-winged Crossbills were the only northern finches.<\/p>\n

The Bunker Hill CBC was conducted on December 18. This count circle is in Lincoln County, including Nobleboro, Alna and Jefferson. A total of 55 species appeared this year.<\/p>\n

Ten species of waterfowl were counted, the most notable being five lingering Ring-necked Ducks. Wild Turkeys put in a strong appearance with 181 birds sighted.<\/p>\n

Four Red-shouldered Hawks make an excellent total for Maine in the winter. These hawks were joined by Cooper’s Hawks, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a dozen Bald Eagles and eight Red-tailed Hawks for an excellent hawk total.<\/p>\n

Lingering terrestrial species included 11 Eastern Bluebirds, a Red-winged Blackbirds and two Brown-headed Cowbirds. American Robins and Dark-eyed Juncos were particularly common this year with 377 and 462 individuals, respectively.<\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 118th Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season has finished. In the next three posts,\u00a0 I will discuss the highlights of some of the Maine Christmas Bird Counts.\u00a0 These standardized censuses are a valuable tool to monitor the abundance of winter birds throughout North America and beyond. The data provide a lens to see how our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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\/959"}],"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=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/mainebirds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}