Uxbridge CBC - 01/01/2011

I agreed to take over a sector for the Uxbridge CBC because the leader was "retiring" after many years.  Unfortunately, the Quabbin CBC was on the same day and Beck and I usually help out Mark and Sheila with their area, which is inside gate 40 (the old town Dana). It's a wicked fun count and I was bummed we couldn't do it this year. Hopefully they won't be on the same day next year.

My area is in the towns of Blackstone and Millville, which are directly on the Rhode Island border. A good chunk of the Blackstone River runs through this block and open water this time of year is a magnet for wintering waterfowl. There are good tracts of power lines and a few areas with conifers.

This was my last count of the CBC season so I would need to give it my all; that means no bathrooms, no eating, not talking, no breaks, no phone calls. Just count. I ended up breaking a few of these rules as the day went on.

Walking to my car at about 3:30AM I was glad to hear my yard Great Horned Owls dueting again. I'm not sure where they'll nest, but there is good habitat all over. I got to the sector at about 4:30AM to perfect weather for owling. I ended up getting two Eastern screech and five Great Horned owls. When the sun came up I immediately drove to the Blackstone river to get some ducks, but my first non-owl ended up being this Cooper's Hawk, which likely lives off the group of pigeons in its view.

I made it to the river while ticking away common landbirds on the way like this Dark-eyed Junco.

Pair of Northern Cardinals

Mourning Dove

 White-throated Sparrow

 Song Sparrow

 Northern Mockingbird

There was a good variety of waterfowl on the river.

Wood Ducks

American Black Ducks

 Hooded Merganser (male)

This Belted Kingfisher was fishing the area as well

There is a mill building, which was converted into apartments. Check out how the residents let their cats out!

While driving around I noticed a flock of European Starlings with one different bird in the flock. I had no idea what it was until about 20 minutes later when I spotted this leucistic starling sitting on a wire.

I was pretty excited to find 2 Winter Wrens since I completely dipped on my other counts.

I had quite a few Red-tailed hawks throughout the day.

 Northern Flicker

 I turned up a Field Sparrow.

 I had a nice flock of Greylag Geese on the banks of the Blackstone River.

I saw a Turkey Vulture soaring around and I eventually found the roost with 11 more vultures, but it was outside the count circle in Woonsocket.

Overall, it was a pretty decent count with unbelievable weather and some late species lingering around.  

Here's the list:

Canada Goose (11)
Wood Duck (12)
American Black Duck (10)
Mallard (168)
Hooded Merganser (17)
Common Merganser (18)
Great Blue Heron (1)
Turkey Vulture (1)
Cooper's Hawk (4)
Red-tailed Hawk (6)
Ring-billed Gull (39)
Herring Gull (1)
Great Black-backed Gull (3)
Rock Pigeon (102)
Mourning Dove (37)
Eastern Screech-Owl (2)
Great Horned Owl (5)
Belted Kingfisher (2)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (7)
Downy Woodpecker (18)
Hairy Woodpecker (1)
Northern Flicker (3)
Blue Jay (144)
American Crow (156)
Black-capped Chickadee (171)
Tufted Titmouse (133)
White-breasted Nuthatch (34)
Brown Creeper (1)
Carolina Wren (18)
Winter Wren (2)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (19)
American Robin (66)
Northern Mockingbird (5)
European Starling (184)
Cedar Waxwing (34)
Field Sparrow (1)
Song Sparrow (43)
White-throated Sparrow (44)
Dark-eyed Junco (282)
Northern Cardinal (51)
House Finch (34)
American Goldfinch (99)
House Sparrow (401)

Kevin

In Memoriam

I've been keeping track of bird deaths at work. The construction of this colossal building was completed about a year and a half ago, and since that time many of us have been seeing a huge number of window strikes around the buildings and starvation deaths in the parking garage stairwell. Devens has some great habitat including tracts of early succession forest, ponds and large fields. The Nashua river runs nearby and much of the land surrounding the building is actually in Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge as well as the Nashua River Watershed IBA (Important Bird Area). All I can do is document the photos I've taken. There are at least 3 birds that don't currently have photographic documentation; 2 European Starlings (1 window, 1 garage starvation) and 1 Eastern Bluebird (window).

Yellow Warbler #1 (spring migration) - Garage

 Chipping Sparrow #1 - Garage

 Tufted Titmouse #1 - Window Strike

 Brown-headed Cowbird (immature) #1 - Window Strike

 Blackpoll Warbler #1 - Window Strike (this bird eventually flew off to continue its grueling fall migration) 

 Chipping Sparrow #2 - Window Strike

 White-breasted Nuthatch #1 - Window Strike

 Chipping Sparrow #3- Window Strike

Tufted Titmouse #2 - Garage Starvation

Barn Swallow - Window Strike

Gray Catbird - Garage strike

Baltimore Oriole - Window Strike (survived)

Central Mass Barrow's Goldeneye Identification

We found 3 female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE on Lake Quinsigamond during the Worcester Christmas Bird Count on December 18th. Two of these birds were classic Barrow's, but one looked a little off. It's bill was overall orange with some small dark blotches. Its bill was much duller than the others and seemed a bit larger. Its head shape seemed consistent with Barrow's as compared to the many Common Goldeneye that were present. I "phone-scoped" a bunch of photos of these birds (phone-scoping is taking photos with a cell phone through a spotting scope).

Female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE #1

Female BARROW's GOLDENEYE #2



Questionable Female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE

On the same day Mark Lynch and Sheila Carroll had an adult male Barrow's at South Bay of Wachusett Reservoir. This makes an astounding 4 Barrow's in Worcester county. They checked again a few days later and found a female had joined the male. I checked these birds out last Thursday and found that it was a classic female Barrow's. This morning, December 26, I checked out the extreme Northern end of Wachusett reservoir (gate 40) in Clinton and found a group of Common Goldeneye. This was a different group than the one in South Bay. In this group was a female with an orange, but dull bill with some black blotching. It looks a lot like the questionable bird on December 18th at lake Quinsigamond. I haven't checked Quinsigamond since the count, but those birds may be moving to Wachusett as the lake freezes over. A poor quality, phone-scoped photo is below.

The Wachusett Bird seen today

Here's an example of 2 female COMMON GOLDENEYEs taken last February at Wachusett for comparison.

David Sibley's blog (updated 02Mar10) has a great entry on distinguishing between female Barrow's and Common goldeneyes. Check it out here: David Sibley's Blog on Common Vs. Barrow's Goldeneye Identification

Kevin

Old Photo Policy

I'll sporadically post old photos from my archives. Here's a Garter Snake at Oxbow NWR on 10/2/2010.

Reasons for this Blog

I decided to start a blog to share my birding adventures. I normally post my photos and rants on facebook and pbase.com, but there are so many great birding blogs out there I thought I'd give it a try. The problem with this idea is I'm not the most consistent person when it comes keeping journals. Most likely I'll post entries for about a month and then it will taper off to once a year. I'll try my best to stick to it.