Hi all,
Yesterday, Zane Baker joined Jeannette and I in our 12th annual coverage of the "West Freeport territory" of the Brunswick-Freeport Christmas Bird Count. It was absolutely frigid, especially at sunrise with a temperature of -16F. The high temp was 6, but was back down to 2 with light snow when we finished at dusk. We walked a combined 16.6 party miles (about 11-12 miles per person), and drove for 18.3 miles.
This territory covers a lot of the suburban/exurban roads west of I-295, mostly of Freeport, but also including a corner of Yarmouth and Durham and a sliver of Pownal. There are a lot of feeders, but we had absolutely no open water, depressing our usual paltry waterbird counts.
Our count perfectly exemplified what happens when it's really cold and snowy out. Remember when everyone was complaining about "no birds at feeders"? this past fall (full story here: https://mebirdingfieldnotes.blog/2017/11/02/why-there-are-no-birds-at-your-feeders-right-now/), well, as you know, they're back! So despite some impressive conspiracy theories to the contrary, a record mild fall, no irruptives, and a plethora of natural food sources is what reduces concentrations of birds at feeders. This day, however, feeders - and especially neighborhoods with well-stocked feeders - was where much of the action was.
Because of the lack of irruptives and no open water (we have one open brackish tidal creek in most years now), we had our third lowest total of 30 species. However, we had the second highest total of 1,222 individuals! In other words, there are plenty of birds out there right now!
The highlight was the rediscovery of "our" DICKCISSEL at a feeder on Desert Road (first record for our territory), about a mile from the store. We also had our territory's second-ever Northern Mockingbird, and a bunch of new record high counts.
Cooper's Hawk: 2
Wild Turkey: 11
Herring Gull: 3
Rock Pigeon: 57
Mourning Dove: 48 (very low, no doubt due to snow and ice cover)
Downy Woodpecker: 41 (new record high count)
Hairy Woodpecker: 29 (new record high count)
Pileated Woodpecker: 6 (new record high count)
Blue Jay: 96
American Crow: 63
Common Raven: 1
Black-capped Chickadee: 266 (our second-lowest total, likely due to lack of supplemental migrants/irruptives from points north)
Tufted Titmouse: 63 (new record high count)
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 14
White-breasted Nuthatch: 31
Brown Creeper: 9 (record high count)
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 12
American Robin: 61 (mostly southbound overhead)
NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD: 1 (second-ever for our territory)
Cedar Waxwing: 3
European Starling: 15
American Tree Sparrow: 17
Song Sparrow: 2
White-throated Sparrow: 3
Dark-eyed Junco: 106 (new record high)
Northern Cardinal: 35 (new record high)
DICKCISSEL: 1 immature male.
House Finch: 9
American Goldfinch: 205 (new record high, by far!)
House Sparrow: 12
-Derek
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Derek and Jeannette Lovitch
Freeport Wild Bird Supply
541 Route One, Suite 10
Freeport, ME 04032
207-865-6000
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