CBC No. 2 -- Sturbridge

So, after doing the Cape Ann CBC, we were definitely concerned about our first inland count. Especially with a lot of Worcester County still suffering from the ice storm....and some of our sector leaders still without heat and electricity. And we weren't sure what the storm had done to the birds! We had scouted out some areas last weekend and found some good samplings of landbirds, but as anyone who does a CBC knows -- 3 days can be a long time from scouting to actually doing the count. It didn't help that we started out in somewhat windy, drizzly weather....not usually your best bet for pre-dawn owling. While numbers were down we did manage a pair of Barred, as well as a Saw-whet and 3-4 Great Horned owls.
Just at dawn we started at the very flooded Quabog River crossing. While there was lots of water....there were no birds. I think we had 3 Mallards fly across and land in the marsh. Not an auspicious start to the day! So we headed to West Brookfield to check out Lake Wickabog.

Here, at least, we had our first real sightings....good numbers of Common Mergs were still present, along with Canada Geese. We were very excited to find a Horned Grebe tooling along the pond -- not often found on this CBC. It's only been recorded 4 times in the 13 years since the Sturbridge count was started.

However, there are usually good numbers of Hooded Mergs.

One of the first silly photos of the day (and there will be many) was of this White Stork at Wickabog. Luckily we had seen this "bird" earlier in the season, otherwise we would have been freaked. This isn't your usual plastic-flamingo-type fake -- this is a classy fake. In fact you could convince some poor unsuspecting non-birder (and maybe 1 or 2 birders I know) that this is the real thing. Of course after watching it for hours and not seeing it move, even the most trusting soul would catch on.

Since many of the fields and farmland were flooded, we had gulls in places we don't normally have them. This Ring-billed Gull actually seemed to be posing for the camera when we drove by on our way to the southern end of the territory.

As we headed south, we stopped by Comins Pond in Warren to see if there were any ducks on the pond. This is always a weird stop for us, since we're actually standing on the spot where 17-year old lifeguard, Molly Bish, was kidnapped from about 8 years ago. Although her remains were finally found three years later, it's still one of the areas great unsolved mysteries.

Since there was absolutely nothing on the pond, we didn't linger long at all.

We did have a small group of Chickadees in the area, but, alas, nothing unusual was traveling with them.

When we hit the big marsh at the southern end of our count area, we were surprised by a group of about 100 Red-winged Blackbirds foraging in the marsh grass. We usually stand with fingers crossed hoping to get 1-2 putting up at dawn at the Quabog marshes, but a group this large was quite unusual. They were all in the same immature, female-type plumage and disappeared as quickly into the grasses as they had appeared.

There were also good number of Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows in the marsh grasses too.

Stopping by one of our usual spots for Turkeys didn't disappoint. These birds are so regular at this spot, we're wondering when we'll have to start counting them as domestic farm animals.

Speaking of domestic farm animals, on our way back to West Brookfield to meet our friend, Val Miller, to bird the afternoon together, we stopped by for a quick "visit" to one of Mark's favorite domestic animals (the other is the goat). This huge sow was outside, but the babies were running around just inside the barn. The farmer invited us in to see them, but since we were doing a CBC we had to ask for a raincheck.

Since right down the road was one of my favorite domestic animals, we made a slight detour so I could get a photo of the miniature horses in their winter coats. Now I think I have enough photos of these guys to do a seasonal calendar!

We finally met Val at Subway before heading off to finish up our circles in the afternoon. As you can tell, Val doesn't enjoy having her photo taken.....

...although she was oblivious to my camera when we came across these burros who had "escaped" and came running to see us when we stopped the car. They were so friendly that, much to Mark's chagrin, I jumped out and joined Val at this "petting zoo". Once the big, fat orange tabby barn cat joined us I knew we had to get moving.

But it proved to be a good bird stop as well, since in the field next to the car we had 2 flickers and a large group of white-throats and juncos feeding on the ground.

As we drove through the apple orchards and farmlands in the southeast part of our circle we wondered whether this farmer was making a political statement or just advertising his own name. While we figured it was the latter, it was fun to speculate that he was going to set these trees on fire as a farewell to this administration!

We continued to turn up small pockets of landbirds (like this White-throated Sparrow) but nothing terribly exciting put in an appearance.

Finally, after tallying each of our sections, the 3 of us headed off to The Bird Store and More (in Sturbridge) for the compilation. Here's part of the crew enjoying pizza after the final tallying for the day was done.

We recorded 69 species on the whole count for the day. Not our lowest number -- but rather ho-hum in general. Now it's on to the Worcester count this Saturday, although with a foot of snow forecasted starting Friday afternoon, who knows if the count will even come off. Now I know why most birds (and lots of older people) head south in winter!

Enjoy....

Cape Ann Christmas Count - Gloucester

This year I decided to try to document the 5 Christmas Bird Counts that we do. Our first one was yesterday, and it's the one we've been doing the longest (over 20 years) and it's also one of the longest-standing ones on record...over 100 years! I've had the opportunity to look at the historical records and it's fascinating to see the changes. We are the sector leaders for the Gloucester/Eastern Point section of the Cape Ann CBC. We've subdivided our section and usually Simon Hennin and John Liller do a segment, but this year Simon was unable to do it due to the ice storm and power problems. So John was joined by his wife, Kim Kastner, and Kevin Bourinot. The area Mark & I do is from the Gloucester Fisherman's statue to the tip of Eastern Point. And John and his team do the area along Atlantic Avenue, including Bass Rocks and out to the Rockport line, including Good Harbor Beach and Salt Island. We usually stay up there overnight, so we can get up and owl. But the last two years we've driven up very early so that we can give Gremlin his meds before we leave. It makes for a very long day....but a fun one. Yesterday as we were owling we had a turkey start calling from the middle of the road out on Eastern Point. It's strange to see turkeys so far out near the ocean, but this is the 3rd or 4th year that we've had them there.

Also calling in the just-dawn light were several Carolina Wren and Hermit Thrush. In fact, we don't always get Hermit Thrush on our section of the count, so to get 11 for the day was really quite exciting.

As dawn broke we were out on the tip of Eastern Point at the Coast Guard station and the morning was perfect. If you click on this photo you can see that we were able to view Boston in the early morning light!

The view over to Hammond Castle in the early light was beautiful as well and definitely made you feel like you were someplace other than Massachusetts in December.

We checked a number of fishing boats as they came into the harbor...looking for strange gulls. You have to realize that the Gloucester count is THE GULL count (at least for us). This year we spent extra time on Eastern Point looking for the Thayer's Gulls that had been reported, plus hoping for something even more exotic like a Slaty-backed Gull. We did get at least 2 first winter birds, but nothing close enough for me to photograph.

The ducks are another highlight, and these Common Eider were in absolute pristine plumage and some of the males were even displaying.

But the gulls were definitely the show. This shot of Niles Pond gives you an idea of the patience you have to exhibit in order to find just that one unusual gull....

Luckily, this Glaucous Gull was standing off by himself, so it wasn't too hard to distinguish him. So I left Mark pouring over the gull flock on Niles and walked the roads hoping to find some lingering landbird who wanted her photo taken. I did have a winter wren, but not one willing to pose for me.

This immature Black-crowned Night Heron was more obliging. Of course, that's probably because he wasn't going anywhere until the pond opened up a bit. We've had BCNH on the count before, but it is not normally to be expected. At first I get so excited because it's an unusual find....then I think about the poor bird and hope he finds an open marsh with enough food to sustain him for the winter or at least give him the energy to get a little further south.

Before we left Eastern Point and headed over to the fish pier, we found a Yellow-breasted Chat hopping on someone's driveway right in front of an open garage door! Mark thought for sure the bird was going to hop in, but there were so many thickets in the area the bird disappeared deep in the tangles....and wouldn't reappear for a photo. We checked back several times throughout the morning but couldn't bring him out.

Things were a little quiet at the Jodrey fish pier, even as some of the boats came in. Most of the gulls seemed to drop off nearer to the Eastern Point jetty, so after checking the various roofs for roosting gulls, and of course the clock tower for the resident Peregrine, we headed off to finish up at Rocky Neck before meeting John's team for lunch. BTW we did get the Peregrine twice...once buzzing the shore along Eastern Point and then later sitting on the far side of the clock tower.

We always check from Rocky Neck for two key birds -- the Eared Grebe and Barrow's Goldeneye. Neither bird could be found this year. The grebe hasn't been reported by anyone so far, so it's possible that this bird has now passed on and a yearly Eared Grebe for Massachusetts' birders can no longer be counted on.

One of the best places on Rocky Neck to look for the Barrow's is at the end of Fremont Street looking out at Ten Pound Island. This was one of the favorite haunts of the Gloucester Sea Serpent who supposedly visited Cape Ann and made appearances for several summers in the early 1800's. While I often hope to see a sea serpent on 10 Pound Is., I often settle for numbers of ducks, usually lots of Goldeneye with a Barrow's among them. This year there was nothing there. Maybe because the count is earlier than ususal, but the Goldeneye seemed somewhat lacking. We had very few; and even when we added John's numbers with ours, there was only a total of 36 in our section of the count circle.

We did, however, have a Snowy Owl. We had also heard that one had been visiting the beach at Rocky Neck periodically and were delighted when we found her at the end of Fremont Street tucked up on one of the stairs to the gazeebo behind some condos. She seemed to staying out of the wind that had kicked up and was quite content. Several hours later John & Kim had her sitting in the same spot when they stopped to check on her before leaving Cape Ann.

The gazeebo is actually on the other side of this old paint factory which is one of the great landmarks as boats pass into the inner harbor or the Jodrey fish pier.

One of the other most fascinating landmarks as you leave Eastern Point is this "homage to toys". I don't really know what to call it, but in the 30+ years that we've been going to Cape Ann, this outdoor "shrine" has always intrigued me. Is it someone's work of art? A tribute to a lost child? Or just a crazy person's side yard? I don't know....and I'm not sure I really want to. But this time I decided to photograph it for posterity!

After meeting the other team for lunch we decided to check out the road around Bass Rocks to see if we could find the King Eider that John's team had found.

Often this bird is found right along Atlantic Avenue (near the Elks club) but this year they seem to be hanging out just to the left of Bass Rocks.

We sat for a few minutes and had not only a good chance to photograph the bird, but to study it within a small flock of Common Eider. It's important to be able to get a sense of what to look for in a huge flock of Common Eider.

As we mapped out our strategy for finishing up the day, I wanted a shot of the famous Fisherman's Memorial (which existed before "The Perfect Storm" and the logo on Gorton's fish packages!) This monument was created in 1925 to memorialize the hundreds of fishermen lost at sea between 1623-1923 and commemorate Gloucester's long-standing link to the sea. It was odd to watch a mother pose her 3 small daughters in Christmas garb (obviously for a card) in front of this statue which has such a solemn representation.

We spent mid-afternoon poking into the various fish piers in downtown Gloucester and "mopping up" lots of rock pigeons, starlings.......and of course House Sparrows. We had this flock of well over a hundred behind the high school and we tried (in vain) to find a Dickcissel among the birds.

So "The Gull" CBC is now behind us for another year.....

Next up.....Sturbridge!!!

Scouting for the Sturbridge CBC

This morning we decided to head out to the count circle for the upcoming Christmas Count for Sturbridge. We wanted to check and see if we would be putting people in harm's way by holding the count so soon after this ice storm. As we left Worcester via Rt. 9 we wondered what we would find, especially after seeing huge numbers of crews working in Leicester trying to restore power.

For the most part once we left the high spot in Leicester and moved into Spencer we were delighted to see the effects of storm dropping off the further west we moved.

By the time we hit the beginning of the count circle just west of Spencer we saw very little ice damage, except along some high points in West Brookfield where the grounds were okay but the distant treetops still showed signs of Friday's storm.

We circled through most of the western sections of the count area and then stopped by Bill & Nancy's store in Sturbridge to see if they had heard of any tree problems or power problems in the area.

Bill mentioned that he heard parts of Charlton had been hit hard and also some problems around South Pond near Quabog. We had noticed a closed road in the area, but were able to get around fairly well. We were concerned about Charlton however since Bill seemed to think that the roads near Orlando's (where the Barnacle Goose had been) were in pretty bad shape. So we decided to head there and then go back to Worcester via Stafford Street.

Not only were we able to get to Orlando's with no problem, we were shocked to find the Barnacle Goose feeding in the grass near the edge of the pond with several Canada Geese. This was right before 11, so I really didn't expect to see any geese at all based on last week's trip.

Since this is 3 days before the Sturbridge CBC, the bird officially can go down as a "count week" bird....and since I got photos we have the documentation already to send in!

Hopefully, John will be as lucky on Tuesday as we were today!

Regards.....Sheila

Icy Friday in Worcester....yuk!

So after being up since about 2 a.m. listening to the trees and major limbs crack and fall, we were finally able to survey the damage... can't use the front walk or stairs too well....

And the street overall definitely had that winter look. Now even though this is yukky (that's a technical winter term) we weren't hit 1/2 as hard as some of the surrounding towns. I know several people that have had to move in with relatives due to power outages and trees blocking many of the roads in the area But even though this morning was a disaster, we did have a Peapod delivery! We couldn't believe it when the Peapod Stop&Shop truck showed up at 6:25 a.m. So not matter what happens this evening (as long as the electricity stays on) at least we'll have food.....

Of course, we made sure the backyard birds had a food delivery as well....

It's amazing that just to the east of us, there's no sign of an ice storm at all...not sure what this signals for the rest of the winter.

Getting ready for Christmas Counts

We spent this past weekend checking out various sections of the Sturbridge Christmas Count. This is 1 of 5 counts that we do, and this one is the newest count -- Mark created it and submitted it for approval only about six years ago. We actually started out just before 7 a.m. at Orlando's Pond in Charlton looking for (and finding) the Barnacle Goose. By 7:10 all the geese had left the pond and we spent the next several hours checking for geese in all the fields we could in the general area, hoping we could find where they go during the day....but to no avail. Hopefully the Barnacle will stay for the Christmas Count (12/16) and John Liller will get it at Orlando's! While we were searching for the goose we were kept company by this interesting group of large bulls....

As we surveyed other areas throughout the weekend, we found that Tree Sparrows had put in in good numbers....

and a tree-ful of Cedar Waxwings had us looking for that one "different" bird....

No Bohemians were to be found, but a small group of hardy Bluebirds were at Coy's Brook in West Brookfield on Sunday.

And we found the usual large flock of Turkeys on Old Wickabog Road near the barn where the owners obviously keep them well-fed during the winter.

Probably my highlight for the weekend was this great Red-shouldered Hawk we found right off Rt. 20 in Sturbridge -- just down the road from Bill & Nancy Cormier's wonderful store (The Bird Store and More).

It's always fun to check out the area before the Count, and you just hope that the birds you find will stay....unfortunately, they don't always cooperate. But it does give you a sort of "target list" since you do know what's around.

The Sturbridge count is one of my favorites....it's local, we have the compilation in Bill & Nancy's store, and it's always before Christmas, so I can pick up one or two last minute gifts at the compilation!

Enjoy......Sheila