Hull, Hingham, & Cohasset - 1/13/2013

10 enthusiastic people joined me to poke around Hull and a small part of Cohasset on Sunday, Jan 13, 2013. The day started quickly with great looks at 57 Horned Larks and 4 Snow Buntings that were feeding on a seemingly barren piece of land at the beginning of Nantasket Beach. The larks have been at this spot all winter. The ocean off Nantasket Beach produced great looks at all 3 Scoters and Red-throated Loons. Other highlights included close encounters with a Glaucous and an  Iceland Gull (Kumlien's), a flock of about 50 Sanderlings on the beach, and beautiful looks at Long-tailed Ducks from Hull Gut. We also heard vocalizations from the Long-tails as well as from the Common Eider. The sounds were loud and somewhat mournful. Our one stop in Cohasset at Lily Pond added some land birds, notably Hairy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Nuthatch. The weather was great! A little damp and chilly in the AM and balmy as the day wore on. This was in stark contrast to last year's trip, when it was so cold and windy, it was hard to breathe. We saw 49 species of birds in about 5 hours of birding today. Everyone was observant and made contributions to our total. A great day! Thanks to Steven Whitebread for the photos and Vin Zollo for keeping the bird list.


Red-throated Loon

 List:
16 Brant (Atlantic)
64 Canada Goose
3 Mute Swan
20 American Black Duck
36 Mallard
162 Common Eider (Atlantic)
195 Surf Scoter
95 White-winged Scoter
5 Black Scoter
200 scoter sp.
65 Long-tailed Duck
78 Bufflehead
23 Common Goldeneye
27 Red-breasted Merganser
6 Red-throated Loon
13 Common Loon
24 Horned Grebe
5 Red-necked Grebe
12 Great Cormorant
1 Great Blue Heron


Great Blue Heron



1 Red-tailed Hawk
45 Sanderling
48 Ring-billed Gull
104 Herring Gull (American)
1 Iceland Gull (Kumlien's)
1 Glaucous Gull
54 Great Black-backed Gull
58 Rock Pigeon
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
6 Blue Jay
6 American Crow
57 Horned Lark
6 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Red-breasted Nuthatch
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 American Robin
2 Northern Mockingbird
120 European Starling
6 Snow Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
6 White-throated Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
4 Northern Cardinal
4 House Finch
2 American Goldfinch
102 House Sparrow

Nancy Swirka