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NH.Birds for Sunday, November 1, 2009
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Subject: BBC Trip to NH Coast (Eurasian Wigeon, Common Murre, RIVER
OF BLACKBIRDS)
From: Steve Mirick <smirick(AT)comcast.net>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 8:43pm
15 1 birders joined Jane and I for a fun-filled day of birding along the
NH Coast on a trip we led for the Brookline Bird Club. For more
information on the BBC, visit the web site at
http://massbird.org/BBC.
The day started off with a complete change in itinerary as we veered
northward for a staked out Eurasian Wigeon on Great Bay that flew off
just as we arrived! We then visited the Exeter wastewater treatment
plant and then headed east to the coast and worked north stopping at
Hampton Beach State Park, Bicentennial Park, Ragged Neck, Seal Rocks and
then Odiorne Point State Park. A trip extension finished the day at the
Great Bog blackbird roost. Generally land birds were VERY SCARCE along
the coast. Sparrows were in short supply and essentially zero
warblers! A short walk around Odiorne produced almost nothing!
Fortunately, we managed to scare up a few nice birds for the day!
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Partly cloudy and clearing skies
45F-60F
Winds NW 15-25 mph
Total species - 69
---------------------------
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Wood Duck - 5 flying by at dusk near blackbird roost.
EURASIAN WIGEON - 1 male seen by only a few members of group from Sunset
Farm on Great Bay in Greenland. Unfortunately the bird flew with the
American Wigeon as most of the group drove up! :-(
American Wigeon - 4 from Sunset Farm.
American Black Duck
Mallard
NORTHERN SHOVELER - 1 female continues at Exeter WWTP.
Green-winged Teal - 17 at Exeter WWTP
Greater Scaup - A couple hundred+ distant from Sunset Farm on Great Bay
Lesser Scaup - 5 at Exeter WWTP
Common Eider
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead - 2 at Exeter WWTP
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-throated Loon - Including 31 counted on water off Ragged Neck in Rye.
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Northern Gannet - Lots along coast. Most far out, but a few not too far
offshore. Mostly adults.
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
GREAT EGRET - 1 at Sunset Farm on Great Bay. Getting late. Especially
for Great Bay.
Sharp-shinned Hawk - A couple
Red-tailed Hawk - A few along coast. A couple appeared to be migrating.
Peregrine Falcon - Distant views of a bird chasing pigeons near Hampton
beach.
Semipalmated Plover - About 12 at Ragged Neck.
Greater Yellowlegs
Sanderling - 300+ at Jenness Beach. Huge flock continues, but not
carefully counted.
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER - 17 juveniles continue at Ragged Neck in Rye,
NH. Although not rare in early November, this is a large group for the
date.
Dunlin - Including 19 at Sunset Farm on Great Bay.
Wilson's Snipe - 1 at Exeter WWTP
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
ICELAND GULL - 2 first winter birds continue at Exeter WWTP.
Great Black-backed Gull
COMMON TERN - 2 picked out by Nick Barber flying into Hampton Harbor.
Late. Our last tern in NH this fall was on October 4th.
COMMON MURRE - 1 continues in Rye Harbor. Great bird for NH coast and
very odd for one to be hanging out in Rye Harbor. Unfortunately, it may
be an ill bird.....hope it makes it. Only my 3rd record for NH. Here's
my photo again from yesterday:
http://home.comcast.net/~smirick//photos/commonmurre1.jpg
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 vocalizing at Sunset Farm
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark - 7 at Hampton Beach State Park.
Black-capped Chickadee
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 2 at Odiorne Point State Park
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2 at Exeter WWTP
Eastern Bluebird - 1 at Sunset Farm
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Warbler sp. - 1 at Ragged Neck. Incredibly only one warbler for the day
and could not be tracked down. Possible Yellowthroat/Orange-crowned.
American Tree Sparrow - 1 at Odiorne Point State Park. Our first of the
winter??!!!!!
"Ipswich" Savannah Sparrow - 6 including 3+ at Hampton Beach State Park
and great views of 3 feeding together in grasses at Odiorne Point State
Park.
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow - 1 at Exeter WWTP
White-throated Sparrow - A few at Exeter WWTP
Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting - About 311 including 170 at Hampton Beach SP, 16 at Exeter
WWTP, 75 at Ragged Neck and 50 at Odiorne.
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
COMMON GRACKLE - 200,000. For those who stuck around to the bitter end,
we finished the day at the Great Bog blackbird roost and witnessed "The
River" of blackbirds from the parking lot of the Target Store along Rt.
33 at the Greenland/Portsmouth town line. Today it started later than
yesterday....at about 4:15 PM (EST) and continued non-stop until very
late when it finished somewhat abruptly almost exactly at 5:00 PM.
About 25 minutes after sunset! I really don't know how many birds there
are in "The River", but today's flight was significantly longer than
last nights and lasted about 40-45 minutes. Based on input from others,
I decided to up last nights estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 birds
tonight. There may have been more than that and Len seemed to think
closer to 400,000 birds.....who knows? More in a separate post.
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
House Sparrow
Mammals
----------
White-tailed Dear
Red Squirrel
Gray Seal - Now regular along NH coast
Harbor Seal
Herps
------
Painted Turtle - 1 at Exeter WWTP
Insects
-------
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur - Many
RED ADMIRAL - 1 at Ragged neck (late?)
American Lady - 1 or 2
COMMON GREEN DARNER - 1 at Ragged Neck
Meadowhawk sp. - A few along coast including pair flying in tandem
(likely Autumn Meadowhawk)
Steve & Jane Mirick
Bradford, MA
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Subject: Common Murre has returned
From: lauren.kras(AT)gmail.com
Date: 1 Nov 2009 11:59am
Len Medlock just called to report that the Common Murre has returned to Rye
Harbor.
Lauren Kras
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Subject: Fwd: eBird Report - Dick Brown Pond, Bridgewater , 11/1/09
From: John Williams <John(AT)2young.us>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 5:40pm
Begin forwarded message:
Found some nice ducks in Bridgewater today. Not much else about and
only Mallards, Ca. Geese and 1 Common Loon on Newfound.
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: How many blackbirds?
From: Steve Mirick <smirick(AT)comcast.net>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 9:31pm
Counting birds is a very difficult and challenging exercise. I have no
idea how Rick Heil and Blair Nikula estimate their huge numbers of
seabirds; however, years of experience certainly helps. Estimating a
"river" of blackbirds is probably easier than other species because of
their uniform flow, but it still very daunting, to say the least! For
an excellent overview of counting birds, visit these e-bird articles:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/bird-counting-101
http://ebird.org/plone/ebird/news/bird-counting-201
and if you think your good......give it a shot with this game..........
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/live/birds/index.html
Tonight, the blackbirds at the Great Bog blackbird roost in Portsmouth,
NH flew over from about 4:15 to 5:00 PM. Although the rate varied, it
never stopped, and at times there were two rivers. If I estimate that
there were 200,000 birds, that means that an average of over 4,000 birds
per minute should have flown by. Tonight there were two primary routes
that the birds followed, likely conforming to the easterly and southerly
shorelines of Great Bay. We chose to bird from the parking lot at
Target for ease of parking and for viewing a wider area. This was great
for following the "east river", but the majority of birds followed the
"west river" according to this map and flew roughly over the McDonald's
at the intersection of Ocean Road. An accurate count would require a
couple of teams of counters carefully estimating birds coming in from
different directions. Here's a map...
http://home.comcast.net/~smirick//blackbirdroost.jpg
Here's a beautiful photo of "the river" passing in front of a full moon
this evening taken by Len Medlock. A challenge........how many
blackbirds are there?
http://www.pbase.com/lmedlock/image/118952550/original
Answer to follow............
Steve Mirick
Bradford, MA
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Subject: Tom Carrolan's blog on hawks
From: "Jim Berry" <jim.berry3(AT)verizon.net>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 6:58pm
Tom Carrolan, one of the northeast's best hawkwatchers, has moved to upstate
New York but has kept in touch. His website has morphed into a blog site,
but the link has remained the same: www.hawksaloft.com. Tom is a great
writer, and he makes hawk ID (among other things) very interesting. It's a
good site to bookmark if you want to keep up on hawk ID problems and hawk
matters in general.
Jim Berry
Ipswich, Mass.
jim.berry3(AT)verizon.net
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: Weekend report from southern NH
From: "Kevin Klasman" <kevinklasman(AT)hotmail.com>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 11:25pm
Location: Great Meadow, Hollis
Observation date: 10/31/09
Notes: A leisurely walk along the Beaver Brook Association trail along
Great Meadow (aka Parker Meadow on Google Maps). Our first visit to this
location.
Number of species: 7
Canada Goose 27
American Black Duck 6
Mallard 8
hawk sp. 1 just a brief glimpse...
Belted Kingfisher 1
Blue Jay 2
American Robin 4 probably many more.
Wood Duck 1 Only saw this bird when reviewing my
photographs
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Location: Battery Point, Lake Massabesic, Auburn
Observation date: 11/1/09
Number of species: 2
Very quiet here today. No ducks at all on the lake, at least around the
Audubon property.
Dark-eyed Junco 10
sparrow sp. 1
Snow Bunting 4 Images at http://pbase.com/kklasman/snow_bunting
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Location: Livingston Park, Manchester
Observation date: 11/1/09
Number of species: 5
My first ever visit to this beautiful little park in Manchester. Thanks to
Jon Woolf for telling me about this spot. Was hoping to see a Ruddy Duck,
but did not see it.
Mallard 20
Hooded Merganser 8
Great Blue Heron 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
sparrow sp. 4 probably many more
Red-winged Blackbird 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/nh)
[ << | >> | ^^ ]
Subject: RE: Common Murre has returned
From: Rich stanton <rich_stanton2003(AT)yahoo.com>
Date: 1 Nov 2009 2:45pm
Yes on the Common Murre as of 1435 hrs on 1 Nov 2009 in Rye Harbor.
lauren.kras(AT)gmail.com wrote:
> Len Medlock just called to report that the Common Murre has returned to Rye
Harbor.
> Lauren Kras
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