Plum Island and vicinity, January 19, 2019

Three individuals and I spent the morning searching the frozen marshes and coastal waters for any signs of life. As you can imagine, numbers were low, but what we did find was worth the effort.

Most of the birds found were on the ocean, primarily at Emerson Rocks. The highlight there was a male King Eider. I had seen the bird a week earlier, and was surprised it was still around.

A gentleman from Pennsylvania came up to us inquiring about any snowy owl sightings as he was there for the day with his family. Unfortunately, I had nothing for him. I then mentioned we had a King Eider, and his stance perked up with him stating, "that it would be a life bird for me". I got it back in the scope and he took a nice long look. A satisfying moment, getting someone a lifer.

Otherwise, the birds were few and far between. Land birding was nearly none existent with only a chickadee, modo and a few robins.

We did manage to do well with birds of prey and alike. We had both light and dark phase Rough-legged Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and Bald Eagle. At a very long distance, we had a kettle of 5 Turkey Vultures, circling over the town.

We chased a reported Snow Owl, but was never able to catch up with it.

Below is a summary of our day.

Mike


NAME                               Count 
Canada Goose                       350     
Mute Swan                                5       
Mallard                                   50      
American Black Duck              5       
King Eider                                1       
Common Eider                       23      
White-winged Scoter             10      
Black Scoter                          50      
Long-tailed Duck                  12      
Bufflehead                             15      
Common Goldeneye             25      
Hooded Merganser                 1       
Red-breasted Merganser       10      
Horned Grebe                         7       
Rock Pigeon                         50      
Mourning Dove                      1       
Sanderling                              5       
Ring-billed Gull                    X      
Herring Gull                          X      
Great Black-backed Gull       3       
Red-throated Loon                3       
Turkey Vulture                      5       
Northern Harrier                   2       
Cooper's Hawk                     2       
Bald Eagle                            1       
Red-tailed Hawk                  2       
Rough-legged Hawk            2       
American Crow                    3       
Horned Lark                       10      
Black-capped Chickadee     1       
American Robin                  6       
Northern Mockingbird         3       
European Starling              30      
Dark-eyed Junco                 3