Our Christmas Bird Count 2019

 Don looking for the Tree Sparrow

 Eastern Towhee

 Cooper's Hawk

Belted Kingfisher

Northern Mockingbird

 Can you find the mockingbird?

Dawn

 

An Eastern Towhee was our best bird yesterday when we participated in the Christmas Bird Count for the greater Concord, MA area which includes parts of 18 towns. Our section in Acton had good habitat and the towhee was found in a shrubby area near a pond. Other highlights were Belted Kingfisher, Cooper's Hawk, Bald Eagle, Golden-crowned Kinglet, American Tree Sparrow (found in the wetland near Don) 2 Northern Flickers and Raven, considered less common here. For big numbers we had 58 Mallards and 142 Canada Geese. If you can find a big patch of Multiflora Rose (unfortunately an invasive) you can find a Northern Mockingbird and we found 2. Mockingbirds can form a winter territory around a good berry food source. Our Bald Eagle was seen while we were looking up searching the trees for a kinglet. You just never know where something will pop up, that's the fun! Temps started out below freezing and rose to the 40's, much better than today's sleet storm! We ended the day with 32 species and saw 457 birds for our small section of the total count area where last year they tallied 88 species and 52,501 birds (some of that number included an amazing count of over 20,000 robins). The countdown party is on Thursday so we will see what the numbers are for this year. There are always surprises. (Photos were taken just for records in the field with the canon SX 50 or cell phone, not for high quality portraits of the birds, I was too busy recording birds!)