Quincy Christmas Bird Count - 12/14/2013

The Quincy CBC was held on Saturday (12/14) in less than ideal conditions.  Snow squalls along the coast made visibility impossible and thus some things were missed which under normal conditions would not be, such as Black Scoter and Northern Gannet.  The quiet before the storm was almost deafening; Hingham could only muster 5 chickadees!  No surprises (no small yellow birds this year!) and we were well below the most recent 15 year average of 95 with 86 species. 

Brant 39 (lowest since 1973; only regular since 1968) 
Canada Goose 2561 (annual only since 1968) 
Mute Swan 25 
American Black Duck 596 
Mallard 686 
Mallard X Black Duck 2 
Green-winged Teal 1 
Ring-necked Duck 108 (surprisingly the second highest count; not annual) 
Greater Scaup 23 (birds short-stopping in the Great Lakes feeding on invasive Zebra Mussels) 
Lesser Scaup 27 (NEW HIGH) 
scaup, sp 7 
Common Eider 876 
HARLEQUIN DUCK 2 (maybe every 10 years) 
Surf Scoter 100 
White-winged Scoter 49 (lowest since 1955!) 
Long-tailed Duck 86 
Bufflehead 341 
Common Goldeneye 106 (what's happening?  Downward trend over the last 7 years) 
BARROW's GOLDENEYE 2 (less than annual, although regular in numbers during the 80's) 
Hooded Merganser 151 
Common Merganser 34 
Red-breasted Merganser 122 (lowest since 1965) 
Ruddy Duck 13 
Wild Turkey 11 
Red-throated Loon 2 
Common Loon 25 
Horned Grebe 19 
*Red-necked Grebe missed for the first time since 1989 
Double-crested Cormorant 2 
Great Cormorant 58 
Great Blue Heron 7 
Northern Harrier 1 
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 
Cooper's Hawk 3 
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 
Red-tailed Hawk 21 
AMERICAN KESTREL 1 (was annual from 1946 until 1992 with counts as high as 22) 
American Coot 3 
Sanderling 8 
Dunlin 2 
AMERICAN WOODCOCK 1 (maybe one every 10 years) 
Ring-billed Gull 596 
Herring Gull 842 (LOWEST COUNT EVER, only count less than 1000 was 1946 with 875!!!!) 
ICELAND GULL 1 (1W) at the Quincy Reservoir 
Great Black-backed Gull 100 (lowest since 1954) 
Rock Pigeon 441 
Mourning Dove 76 
Eastern Screech-Owl 16 
SNOWY OWL 2 (first on count day since 1996) 
Belted Kingfisher 2 
Red-bellied Woodpecker 20 
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 1 
Downy Woodpecker 64 
Hairy Woodpecker 10 
Northern Flicker 10 (lowest since 2004) 
Blue Jay 136 
American Crow 85 (lowest since 1968) 
Fish Crow 1 
Horned Lark 42 (highest since 1981) 
Black-capped Chickadee 196 
Tufted Titmouse 111 
White-breasted Nuthatch 54 
Brown Creeper 6 
Carolina Wren 42 
Winter Wren 2 
Golden-crowned Kinglet 35 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 
Hermit Thrush 4 
American Robin 1532 
Gray Catbird 2 
Northern Mockingbird 19 (lowest since 1972) 
European Starling 926 (lowest since 1947) 
Cedar Waxwing 114 
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4 (lowest since 1966) 
Eastern Towhee 1 
American Tree Sparrow 62 
Field Sparrow 1 
Savannah Sparrow first miss since 1992 
Song Sparrow 189 
Swamp Sparrow 3 (lowest since 1986) 
White-throated Sparrow 196 
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 1 
Dark-eyed Junco 538 (NEW HIGH) 
Northern Cardinal 133 
Red-winged Blackbird 2 
Brown-headed Cowbird 1 
House Finch 81 
COMMON REDPOLL 15 (flock flying over in Hull) 
American Goldfinch 75 (lowest since 1991) 
House Sparrow 556 

Glenn d'Entremont