Birdnotes: BIRD NOTES ~ 12.29.07

Bird Notes

I stopped down river road off 142 in Northfield, MA yesterday and found a flock of about 30 HORNED LARKS and here in Putney, I have a flock of about 30 REDPOLLS along with all of our other feeder friends...at C&S on the corner of Old Ferry Road in Brattleboro, a hundred CEDAR WAXWINGS and several PINE GROSBEAKS in the fruit trees just inside the front entrance.

---Marilyn Tillinghast, Putney

For three days we had several male and female pine grosbeaks eating the berries on our crabapple tree right outside our picture window. Lovely - haven't seen them before, and we've lived here more than eight years.

---Judy Myrick, West Brattleboro

For those Vermont birders who are interested in gulls: there are two SLATY-BACKS at Cape Ann, Mass. Today (12/25), Taj Schotland and I had one, possibly two of them at Gloucester, together with a DOVEKIE, a TOWNSHENDS SOLITAIRE, about 50 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, several KUMLEINS and GLAUCOUS GULLS, plus all the usual HARLEQUINS, KITTIWAKES, RAZORBILLS, etc. For more details on the slaty-backs go to Massbirds website. Well worth the trip across. http://www.virtualbirder.com/bmail/massbird/latest.html

---Hector Galbraith PhD

Friday morning, W. Brattleboro-10 PINE GROSBEAKS and 4 EVENING GROSBEAKS flocking about and a flock of ~30 CEDAR WAXWINGS. Brattleboro, Upper Dummerston Rd area- 6 BLUEBIRDS, 1 RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, 20 CEDAR WAXWINGS, 3 PINE GROSBEAKS, 2 REDPOLLS hanging out with 4 HOUSE FINCHES and 4 GOLDFINCHES.

---Dave Johnston, W. Brattleboro

There are 30-40 COMMON REDPOLLS coming to the feeders of Carol Schnable on Green River Road in Guilford. While driving on Hinesburg Road this morning we came across a small flock of Pine Grosbeaks feeding in the right lane of the road. They were probably picking up grit.

About the Brattleboro CBC

We always look forward to the Christmas Bird Count as the last big event of the year. It is always a fun time for being with friends, and pursuing our hobby of birdwatching. This, believe it or not, was the 45^thparticipation in the CBC for Barb and I.

We arrived in Vermont in 1979 and soon after became involved. We didn’t know many birders back then but the late Louise Mullen was the local naturalist that wrote an article on nature and birds in particular, for the Brattleboro Reformer. At the time she was working for John Kristensen’s Law Office that was located on Grove Street. It was in one of the meeting rooms there that we met after a day in the field, to talk over the sightings for the day and to tabulate the count. I can’t recall just who all attended, but I do remember Louise, John, Al Watson, Doug Wilson and Whit Nichols. It was a small group in comparison to the way we do it today. Back then our repast consisted of hot tea/coffee and cookies. Wouldn’t you know that I would remember the food part of it. It wasn’t long before we started hosting a pot luck supper for the event. Then it spread to others in the group as it became more popular. The last several years Hollie Bowen and Paul Love have been the gracious hosts.

This year on the 15^th of December we had 26 people making up seven teams in the field. Temperatures varied from 9 degrees in the morning to 18 degrees in the afternoon. Wind was NW 0-5, with 8” of snow on the ground. Rivers, streams and ponds were mostly frozen. Skies were partly cloudy.

The area covered is the usual 15 mile diameter circle with its center off Sunset Lake Road near Rt9. To give you an idea of the area, it is Marlboro to the west, Newfane to the north, Chesterfield, NH to the east, and Green River to the south. We also had several people doing feeder counts that came up with 450 individuals. These were added to the sum of the field birds for a grand total of 3,380 individuals.

The number of species counted was 56 including 8 species seen during the count week. Two new species were added: YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER and AMERICAN WOODCOCK. This brings the CBC cumulative total to 101 species.