Happy New Year MassBirders!

Mark Burns and Laura de la Flor led our 23rd Annual New Year’s Day Birding Trip for the Brookline Bird Club (BBC) today! At 9:00AM, 37 BBCers joined us at the Newburyport  T  Station parking lot where we toasted in the New Year with sparkling apple cider. During the toast, introductions were made and folks told us where they traveled from and what their first bird of the New Year was. (Mine was Black-capped Chickadee and Mark s was American Crow.)

We birded Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and Cape Ann [Jodrey Fish Pier, Eastern Point, Niles Pond, and Bass Rocks] and called it a day at 4:00PM. The temperature ranged from 41df to 53df with wind gusts up to 35mph. We tallied 57 species for the Club list. Following is a complete list of the birds we saw:

Canada Goose – 55

Gadwall   9

American Wigeon – 4

American Black Duck   66

Mallard   40

Ring-necked Duck – 4

Greater Scaup   7

King Eider   1

Common Eider   63

Surf Scoter   70

White-winged Scoter   45

Black Scoter   16

Long-tailed Duck   12

Bufflehead   34

Common Goldeneye   16

Red-breasted Merganser   20

Red-throated Loon   2

Common Loon   12

Horned Grebe – 14

Great Cormorant   3

Bald Eagle   1

Northern Harrier   3

Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1

Cooper s Hawk   1

Red-tailed Hawk   2

Rough-legged Hawk   1

Sanderling   6

Ring-billed Gull   24

Herring Gull   340

Great Black-backed Gull   68

Black Guillemot – 1

Rock Pigeon   130

Mourning Dove   18

Eastern Screech Owl   1

Snowy Owl – 1

Downy Woodpecker   6

Hairy Woodpecker   1

Merlin   1

Peregrine Falcon   2

Blue Jay   25

American Crow   35

Black-capped Chickadee   20

Tufted Titmouse   5

White-breasted Nuthatch   3

Eastern Bluebird – 1

American Robin   14

Northern Mockingbird   8

European Starling   4

Yellow-rumped Warbler   2

Fox Sparrow – 1

American Tree Sparrow  7

Song Sparrow   10

White-throated Sparrow   2

Dark-eyed Junco   4

Northern Cardinal   16

House Sparrow   30

What make this trip so much fun to lead each New Year s Day are those who participate   Thank you for spending part or all of your day birding with us!

Wishing you a very Happy, Healthy, and Birdy 2019!