THE 1987 STATISTICAL REPORT

by Robert H. Stymeist, Statistician

During 1987, the Brookline Bird Club listed 290 species and one additional race on 198 recorded field trips. A total of 220 trips were scheduled; eleven were cancelled due to bad weather, and twelve trips went unreported. One additional special trip was organized, and twenty-eight members got to see the Cox’s Sandpiper on Duxbury Beach on September 20, 1987.

The following write-ins to the Massachusetts Audubon Society (MAS) Checklist were reported:

Common Raven                      Quabbin                      1-18

“Ipswich” Sparrow                  Newburyport              3-14

Pacific/Arctic Loon                  Sandy Neck               3-21

Western Grebe                        Sandy Neck                 3-21

Eared Grebe                            Sandy Neck                 3-21

Prothonotary Warbler            Blue Hills                     5-23

Atlantic Puffin                         Machias, ME               7-4

Common Murre                      Machias, ME               7-4

Black-backed Woodpecker     Machias, ME               7-4

American Avocet                    Plum Island                 9-5

Black-throated Gray Warbler Chatham                     9-13

Yellow-headed Blackbird        Chatham                     9-13

Cox’s Sandpiper                      Duxbury                      9-20

Missing from the BBC reports during 1987 were Northern Fulmar, Cory’s Shearwater, Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Wild Turkey, Clapper Rail, King Rail, Ruff, Red-necked Phalarope, Red Phalarope, Parasitic Jaeger, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Dovekie, Common Barn-Owl, Chuck-will’s-widow, Western Kingbird, Sedge Wren, Loggerhead Shrike, Connecticut Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Lark Sparrow, and Pine Grosbeak.

Essex County field trips comprised forty percent of the trips; eighty-nine visits to the area produced 258 species. Mount Auburn Cemetery and nearby Fresh Pond were visited fifty-seven times. The third most-visited location was Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, where a total of seven trips were held. Two trips were scheduled to Maine. The Machias Seal Island trip recorded 106 species and was fully described in the winter bulletin 1987-88.

The Club’s birding experiences are best described by our leaders as the year turns.

January 1. Newburyport area. Forty-seven birders began the year at Newburyport and recorded fifty species, with six Snowy Owls and one Short-eared Owl as highlights.

January 3. Cape Ann area. The leader summed up the day as follows, “The best birding was the first five minutes when two Glaucous Gulls were found at the Fisherman’s Monument, and the last five minutes when the Barred Owls were located at the Grass Rides in Hamilton.”

January 10. Newburyport. The group was able to watch a Long-eared Owl at a distance of forty feet, and a Cooper’s Hawk was observed at a feeding station.

January 18. Quabbin. The trip was cut short by a snowstorm and loss of visibility, but not before locating a Pileated Woodpecker and twenty-five Common Redpolls, not to mention two Coyotes and a Bobcat.

January 18. Cape Ann to Hamilton. A good winter birding day included ten Red-necked Grebes, three species of scoter, a Glaucous Gull, a Thick-billed Murre, and seven Black Guillemots.

January 24. Salisbury-Newburyport. It was cold (5-15 degrees), blustery (15-30 mph NW winds), a brutal day, not fit for birds or people. Only birders were out. The Plum Island road was a river of ice.

February 16. Ipswich-Hamilton. The sun shone on this trip, literally and figuratively. After the coldest weekend of the winter, the weather retreated to the comfortable zone, making conditions perfect for a jaunt in the marsh at the Ipswich Shopping Center to look for rails and snipe. Success on Virginia Rail. At the next stop at a feeder to look for a Red-bellied Woodpecker, our timing was perfect. The bird came in to the suet as soon as the group arrived. The day ended with two Barred and a Northern Saw-whet Owl.

February 28. Cape Ann. Harlequins at Andrews Point as well as a Little Gull pleased twelve happy and cold birders.

March 1. Newburyport. Miserable, heavy rain and sleet (35 degrees with NE wind at 20 mph) greeted the group. It was so bad that the entire team (five crazy birders) did not see a single bird for forty-five minutes in the New Pines. The trip did record three nice birds: Northern Shrike, and both White-winged and Red crossbills. (Not so crazy birders after all.)

March 15. Middleboro area. Owling at 4 A.M. for fourteen early risers produced two Screech, six Horned, one Barred, and one Northern Saw-whet Owl. The trip also recorded two woodcocks in courtship flight and thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds.

March 21. Sandy Neck. It was a good day for seabirds, a Pacific Loon, twenty-nine Common Loons, thirty-five Horned Grebes, one Eared Grebe, and one Western Grebe. Mark your calendars for 1989!

March 22. Winthrop. A dozen stalwarts braved a cold ΝΕ wind and intermittent rain for a Harlequin Hunt, but no Harlequins were to be found. Only the last three diehards saw the King Eider, when they checked the beach for the third time.

March 28. Newburyport. Twenty observers recorded a high count of sixty-one species for the month. Among the highlights were thirty Northern Gannets, four Barrow’s Goldeneyes, a Northern Goshawk, a Red-shouldered Hawk, eight snipe, two Eastern Phoebes, four Fox Sparrows, and eleven Red Crossbills.

April 11. Boxford. The group found Louisiana Waterthrushes singing, Eastern Phoebes building a nest, and Northern Goshawks warning not to get too close to their nest, plus a little red newt, three Painted Turtles, and a Garter Snake.

April 14. Ipswich River Sanctuary, Topsfield. Twenty-nine birders watched the sky dance of the Timberdoodle at dusk.

April 18. Ipswich. A misty rain fell on seven observers who trekked through the muddy cornfields on Northgate Road to flush ninety Common Snipe.

April 19. Lincoln. The day’s finds included a Great Horned Owl, ten Eastern Phoebes, and three nests containing approximately 250 jelly beans!

May 6. Mt. Auburn. Not many warblers were around but a big white rabbit and a skunk walked by the group.

May 10. Mt. Auburn. Two trips, including one for beginners, were held. A total of sixty members recorded sixty species, one for each participant. A total of eighteen species of warblers was tallied.

May 10. Bolton Flats and Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge. A good day in May. The group had outstanding views of a pair of American Bitterns in full courtship display a hundred feet away in perfect light. Continuous pumping and display of the white back feathers took place in virtually the open for fifteen minutes. The group also got perfect views of Yellow-throated Vireos and a pair of Blue-winged Warblers.

May 16. Newburyport area. On this big trip of the year, 116 species were recorded with the leader modestly saying, “We did all right in spite of a generally poor birding day.” Six species of hawks, thirteen species of shorebirds, seventeen species of warblers, and six species of sparrow helped get the day’s species total to well over a hundred.

May 20. Newburyport. An adult male King Eider at Emerson Rocks was a surprise for the ten lucky birders on the trip.

May 23. Mt. Auburn. The winds shifted to the northeast, and the temperature dropped. Many squirrels, one raccoon, one muskrat, and very few birds were the day’s net. The leader bemoaned that this was probably the worst day in Mt. Auburn since 1857!

May 23. Blue Hills. The group had good views of a pair of Prothonotary Warblers as one bird called and visited a hole two or three times. Ten Prairie Warblers, three Louisiana Waterthrushes and a single Pine Siskin rounded out a good morning.

May 30. Plymouth Beach. Twenty-nine birders hiked down to the end of the beach to check off Roseate, Common, Arctic, and Least terns-all on their breeding grounds. Also noted were three Piping Plovers and fifty Ruddy Turnstones.

June 6. Tynsboro Bluebird Walk. At Lillian Files’ house, nineteen people watched two adult Eastern Bluebirds feed two juveniles. The trip also found nesting chickadees, Bank Swallows, and a kingfisher.

June 8. Crane’s Beach, Ipswich. This evening walk looked at the new Least Tern colony in front of the parking lot, with twenty-five tern nests and two pairs of nesting Piping Plovers. At dusk, five Common Nighthawks were seen. On Castle Hill, a pair of red-phased Eastern Screech-Owls called, one with a whinny call and one with a monotone. Two almost fully-grown Great Horned Owls joined an adult bird at last light.

June 13. Western Massachusetts. This Western Massachusetts trip seems to be jinxed. Back in 1983 the leader totaled her car and in 1987 two birders had a rear-end collision with each other, putting one car out of commission for the weekend. The day started off foggy but rapidly warmed up and burnt off the fog. The group was very congenial, and all were delighted to see a few good birds in a leisurely fashion.

June 20. Quabbin. Clear weather with a light wind and temperatures in the low eighties made it a great day for seeing forty-one species of breeding birds and six species of butterflies.

June 21. Sudbury River Valley. Six members enjoyed watching a Great Horned Owl while it was being mobbed by crows at Weir Hill Center.

June 29. Plum Island. Birds were way down in numbers compared with last year, but the weather was beautiful. Twenty cars and over fifty participants made birding as a group difficult.

July 6. Plum Island. Warm and windy weather with no insects created good conditions for seeing two Least Bitterns together at Hellcat, plus a beautiful sunset, ten deer (two in velvet) and not a single bunny.

July 18. Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The group had good views of eight Virginia Rails, three Soras, fourteen Great Blue Herons, eight Green-backed Herons, seven Black-crowned Night-Herons, and over three hundred Wood Ducks.

July 18. Blueberry Plains, Maine. Three observers had excellent repeated views of six Grasshopper Sparrows and ten Vesper Sparrows, as well as four Upland Sandpipers.

July 25. Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Four Sora rails were well seen on the edge of the marsh; no tape-recorded calls were needed. Butterflies were active; a Monarch and a

Viceroy (its mimic) were perched near each other, enabling observers to see the differences between the species.

July 27. Plum Island. Between 6:30 and 7:30 P.M., the group observed a birding spectacular, a total of 263 Snowy Egrets came in to the evening heron roost. The egrets were landing every five seconds, making it look like the runways at Logan the afternoon before Thanksgiving. Don’t miss this late summer show at Plum Island in 1989.

August 8. Plum Island. Seventy-seven species, the high species count for August, were tallied. The group analyzed and agonized over the distinguishing features of Long-billed versus Short-billed dowitchers, had twenty-three Stilt Sandpipers, a Little Blue Heron, and Tricolored Heron.

September 5. Plum Island. This was a very good day for shorebirds with seventeen species, including a winter-plumaged American Avocet in the salt pannes. The other notable shore-birds included three Lesser-Golden Plovers, one Baird’s and one Buff-breasted sandpiper.

September 7. Ipswich. Viewing was good on the Neck. Highlights were a Black Tern at Eagle Hill tidal flats and swarm of Purple Martins on the top of the water tank and sitting with Tree Swallows on the wires.

September 13. Boston to Chatham. Leader Bill Drummond, undaunted by the cancellation of the scheduled pelagic trip due to high winds, led the fifteen folks who did not get word of the

cancellation to Morris Island in Chatham. Probably more birders wish that they had come because on the run through Chatham Bill logged in three very good write-ins: a Black-throated Gray Warbler, a Prothonotary Warbler, and a Yellow-headed Blackbird.

September 19. Plum Island. A dreary, drizzly dull day with northeast winds kept the landbirds out of sight. But it was a great Merlin day. Merlins were seen several times, and one caught a shorebird while the group watched.

September 20. Duxbury Beach. This was an impromptu trip scheduled through the Hot Line to get birders down Duxbury Beach to see the controversial shorebird. Twenty-eight birders shuttled down the beach in three four-wheel drive vehicles in the rain to see the first North American record of Cox’s Sandpiper.

September 26. Plum Island. It was a good raptor day with two Ospreys, five Northern Harriers, two Sharp-shinned Hawks, two kestrels, a Merlin, and two Peregrine Falcons.

Mammal observations included four White-tailed Deer, one Red Fox, and three River Otters.

October 3. Nantucket Weekend. A total of 117 species were seen on this extended weekend. Winds with a gale of 85 mph forced the cancellation of the ferry until Monday afternoon.

Highlights included two Bald Eagles, four Merlins, two Peregrine Falcons, one Short-eared Owl, 150 Palm Warblers, one Yellow-breasted Chat, two Blue Grosbeaks, a Clay-colored Sparrow, and a Rusty Blackbird.

October 11. Quabbin. Rain and cold; miserable conditions for a hike. But there was an amazing concentration of birds at Dana Commons. It was too bad that the weather prevented leisurely looks at sixty-four Pine Warblers and forty-six Eastern Bluebirds!

October 24. Fresh Pond. Duck numbers were increasing, but landbird numbers were way down. Probably too many dogs and too many joggers.

October 25. Stellwagen Bank Pelagic Trip. A total of 101 members cruised out for a great day at sea, including a hundred Greater Shearwaters, one Manx Shearwater, the only Pomarine Jaeger of the year, and both Iceland and Glaucous gulls.

October 31. Halloween at Plum Island-Newburyport area. It was an unexpectedly splendid day with a sharp northeast wind. The wind was blustery enough to kick up white caps in the Bill Forward Pool. The bird of the day was probably a male Redhead at Cherry Hill, but three American Bitterns on the island were a close second choice. The heavy winds kept the passerines down for the most part, but there was a late Yellow Warbler at Parking Lot #1 and a Magnolia Warbler at Hellcat.

November 1. Ipswich. A good trip on a beautiful day. Fifteen Water Pipits were seen, including one which perched for several minutes in a bare tree. Over 550 Snow Buntings were counted at the Crane’s Beach parking lot. Luckily a couple of Lapland Longspurs were with them.

December 13. Winthrop and Revere. Only three participants turned up for the last trip of the year, but they found better birds than the leader expected. Ducks included 500 Brant, 1000 Common Eiders, one drake King Eider, and an immature Peregrine Falcon turned up at Belle Isle. Mammals seen included one Harbor Seal and two brown rats.

And so ended another BBC birding year complete with high points and low moments, northerly winds that chilled birders in May and rewarded them in November, sunny days that brought folks out in flocks and miserable penetrating rains that fogged the glasses and souped up scopes, expected treats and rare surprises but filled with the joy and fellowship that BBC trip participants experience so often.