The Presque Isle Christmas Bird Count was run last Saturday (Dec 28) and though it was thought to be a "down" winter for birds in northern Maine, we turned up a near-average 34 species. This was the 52nd year the Presque Isle count has been conducted.
-- The highlight of the year was certainly the abundance of Snowy Owls. Though there were possibly more, we can confirm there were at least SIX Snowies seen on the count, which beats the old record of two from back in 1987.
Bill Sheehan
Woodland, Aroostook Co., Maine
http://northernmainebirds.blogspot.com/
We also tallied highest-ever number of Mallards, topping the previous record set just a few years ago in 2010. Interestingly only 12 American Black Ducks were seen which is well below average.
23 Horned Larks was the second-most ever recorded on the count. Snow Bunting (1058), Blue Jay (178) and Mourning Dove (167) tallies were all higher than average. A Rough-legged Hawk and three Northern Shrikes were also good.
Other rarer finds this year were a second-ever Sharp-shinned Hawk, our third-ever Red Crossbills (4), Brown Creeper, White-throated Sparrow and an American Robin. Small numbers of Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls were the firsts of either species reported this season. A count-week Lapland Longspur photographed by Paul Cyr in his Snow Bunting flock on Tuesday left a couple of us wondering if we missed it on count day!
Snow cover was deep this year and limited the walking and as a result we probably missed some forest birds. Woodpeckers were down a bit and Pileated was completely missed this year!
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The Caribou / Limestone count will be run tomorrow. (We postponed it from New Years Day and its not clear that we gained much comfort by doing so...)
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Other notables in the area are flocks Pine and Evening Grosbeaks and bucket-loads of Purple and Goldfinches being seen in the woods of northern Maine now. Neither the grosbeaks nor the Purple Finches are showing up much at area feeders indicating plenty of natural foods in the woods.
The Mt Chase Carolina Wren was last seen on Christmas Eve.
My Common Grackle has survived a dozen subzero nights and is still showing at the feeders here in Woodland.
Good Birding!
Woodland, Aroostook Co., Maine
http://northernmainebirds.blogspot.com/
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