CBC 2018 Peterborough, Hancock NH

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Brown Creeper

Where were all the birds? Our greater Peterborough, NH CBC yesterday had expected species and some puzzles, such as where were the Blue Jays (we had just 1 in our section), robins (we had 0 in our section) juncos (we had 0 in our section) and goldfinches (low numbers)? This was the talk of the countdown party at our house, where participants got together to tally up the numbers. In this area there is a real lack of fruit, such as crab apples and it is not a big year for acorns. Also there was a population boom of Grey Squirrels this year (many were road killed in fall) and the remaining ones stripped all the crab apples that did fruit leaving little for robins and other fruit eating birds. So some species that depend on these foods have just left the area and gone to..... maybe your area?? There were also frigid temps in Nov. and there is snow cover perhaps prompting other birds to move on. On the plus side there are still good numbers of chickadees and a number of Bald Eagles were sighted. A few of the unusual finds were the Sharp-shinned Hawk at our feeder (the only one of the count), a Northern Shrike, and 2 Pine Grosbeaks found by Phil Brown and Ken Klapper. Evening Grosbeaks were all in one big flock of over 40 birds with just one lone individual found elsewhere. The countdown party was lots of fun and a good opportunity for the awesome birders in this area to connect.