Last week I had the pleasure of heading out to Monhegan Island with Charlie Duncan, Paul Miliotis, William Nichols, and Peter Vickery to conduct the Christmas Bird Count on the 3rd. The weather was frigid but surprisingly nice on count day allowing us to tally 53 species (58 count week). A huge thanks to my parents for hosting such a wild bunch of birders and I also need to thank those birders for freeing up their time to make the count possible.
Highlights from the count included:
Snow Goose (SNGO) - first count record; there were five of these birds being reported by island residents, literally everyone we talked to, but they gave us a brutal time locating them. Funny that a group of five of the largest birds on the island, which are WHITE, would be so hard to find.
Northern Harrier - first count record, kinda overdue
Great Blue Heron - third for the count; most surprising because the ice pond is frozen over
Pomarine Jaeger (POJA) - first count record; seen in the morning while seawatching from Burnt Head
Red-bellied Woodpecker - second count record; first seen last year and I'd expect this to be annual from now on
White-breasted Nuthatch - second count record but only on cw; seen in town the day before and on my feeders the day after...
Hermit Thrush - third count record; nice to have two birds this year
Chipping Sparrow (CHSP) - first count record; visiting feeders
Red Crossbill - second count record
I've posted a complete list and a little more narrative about the count on: monheganbirds.com
Good birding,
Doug Hitchcox
Hollis, ME
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