Rain, wind, fog. Fog, wind, rain. Repeat. This describes the weather on December 27, the day of the Nantucket Christmas Bird Count. This island-wide count began in 1956 and was conducted as part of the effort first started in the United States in 1900 to survey overwintering birds.
The weather made for tough going for both the birders and the birds themselves. Land birds stayed low and elusive, seeking out what shelter they could find with berries or bugs to eat. Seabirds and ducks could only briefly be seen from shore thru the dense fog and while being buffeted by the gusty winds. Raptors and Turkey Vultures for the most part seemed to prefer to hunker down and wait out the weather altogether. Indeed not even one Turkey Vulture was seen that day!
As stated in last week’s report the mild temperatures and abundant food so far this winter has allowed birds that have by now usually migrated south to survive in our region. So while the numbers of individual birds tallied were very low, the quality of the sightings were very high!
9 species of Warblers were found on Nantucket. 8 Orange-crowned Warblers (including a flock of 4), 2 Nashville, many Yellow-rumped, 31 Pine, 2 Prairie, 11 Palm, 1 Wilson’s, and 3 Yellow-breasted Chats and a Bay-breasted Warbler were seen. This is the very first time since the count began here that a Bay-breasted Warbler was recorded! Another remarkable new sighting for a Christmas count on Nantucket was 2 Manx Shearwaters!
Waterfowl highlights included 35 Canvasbacks, 25 Redheads, 2 Barrows Goldeneye, 71 Rudy Ducks, and 6,382 Long-tailed Ducks.
Birders were surprised to find 2 American Woodcocks conducting display flights first thing in the morning in the fog and happy to locate 13 Wilson’s snipe and 2 Killdeer later in the day. A Laughing Gull, a Black -headed Gull, and 269 Black-legged Kittiwakes were good sightings, while a whopping 186 Lesser Black-backed Gulls was amazing! 276 Razorbills were also seen.
3 Snowy owls were a far cry from the 33 found on island several winters ago. 4 Northern Saw-whets and 3 Barn Owls were noted as well. 2 Eastern Phoebes, a Blue-headed Vireo, and an almost equal number of Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches were counted. This made for an interesting find on an island where the former is most often found wintering.
At this writing the number of species of birds reported on the Nantucket Count is hovering around 123. Several additional reports are currently being vetted. “Count Week” birds (those seen on the 3 days before and 3 days following the count day, but not found on the day itself) are still being received.
Among the counts on the Cape and Islands there is a bit of a friendly competition to see just which one yields the highest number of species. There is no prize involved, just bragging rights for the victor. There are still several counts yet to be conducted, such as the Mid Cape and Martha’s Vineyard’s counts. Tune in next week for a few additional Christmas Count highlights as well as to find out just which group will be boasting about their bird sighting prowess over the coming year!
