Scusset Beach State Reservation - 1/4/2014

Let me quote PB Shelley to describe early Saturday morning January 4th 2014

The cold earth slept below;

Above the cold sky shone;

And all around,

With a chilling sound,

From caves of ice and fields of snow

The breath of night like death did flow

Beneath the sinking moon.

The wintry hedge was black;

The green grass was not seen;

The birds did rest

On the bare thorn’s breast,

Whose roots, beside the pathway track,

Had bound their folds o’er many a crack

Which the frost had made between.

All 6 of us agreed that although we started at temps of -3 F, because there was no wind and we were all dressed for the cold, we were actually not freezing. I have certainly birded Scusset and felt a lot colder.

The birds did not rest however, on the contrary they were very active feeding and amazingly finding seeds on the mostly snow covered ground

Scusset delivered all the expected bird highlights; Horned Larks, Snow Buntings and as many Yellow-Rumped Warblers as I’ve ever seen there.

It seems wherever we turn this winter, we run into Snowy Owls – Scusset proved to be no exception!

Thank you for posing so beautifully!

Because we were trying to get to Warren Harrington’s Memorial on time, we did not have a chance to check out the large raft of Eiders we spotted right at the end of the trip in the middle of the canal – here is hoping the King Eider was not hiding among those…

Below is the full list of birds observed:

Scusset Beach State Reservation, Barnstable, US-MA
Jan 4, 2014 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
1.3 mile(s)
Comments: South Shore Bird Club trip; -3 to 25degF; sunny, deep snow
36 species

Brant 7
Common Eider 400
Surf Scoter 3
Black Scoter 1
Common Goldeneye 5
Red-breasted Merganser 10
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 12
Great Cormorant 2
Northern Harrier 1
Sanderling 1
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Snowy Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher 1 Heard.
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Crow 8
Horned Lark 4
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Carolina Wren 1 Heard.
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 80
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 12
Snow Bunting 60
Yellow-rumped Warbler 30
American Tree Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 32
White-throated Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 5
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 1

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S16227412

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Christine and Steven Whitebread