The Isles of Shoals Christmas Bird Count sailed on January 1. For the third year in a row, I scheduled the boat at the last minute. And for the first time since 1979 (!) the CBC has sailed in three consecutive winters. This wait-and-see approach rewarded us with calm seas and minimal wind on New Year's Day, although temperatures were below freezing. To best take advantage of tides, we started at 10:30 am and travelled directly from Boon Island before travelling south through the Isles of Shoals and making a 1-hour stop on Star Island. We made a brief tour of the other islands before traveling west to port. Due to time constraints(we stopped for a lot of Puffins), we didn't spend as much time travelling around the other islands as we have in past years.
-- As is often the case on this count, ducks and seabirds were the star of the show and land birds were notably absent. We obliterated the high count for Black Scoter (964 in 2022) with 1935 individuals, and the calls from a large flock (counted at 1535 - Thanks Steve!) were conspicuous while on shore at Star Island. We also recorded a new high count of Atlantic Puffin with 16 and Common Murre with 11. The puffin count is one of the highest ever recorded on any Christmas Bird Count. We also recorded three new species for the count: Pomarine Jaeger (there are 2 prior records of Jaeger sp. which almost certainly pertain to this species), Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Palm Warbler. In addition to these highlights, there was an unidentified loon that may have been an extremely rare Pacific Loon. Unfortunately views were inadequate to confirm the identification.
Thanks as always to the Star Island Corporation for hosting us, Bryan Soares and Jon Long for expertly managing the boat, Alex de Steiguer for helping us get ashore on Star Island, Steve Mirick for narrating the trip, and of course all of the participants for participating!
Official Count Numbers can be found here:
And an eBird trip report with photos of many of the highlights can be found here:
Ben Griffith
Somersworth, NH
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maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
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