This year we found a whopping 176 species of birds consisting of over 36,000 individuals from in just our small sliver of Massachusetts from Quincy, to Lakeville, to Plymouth! Despite what could have been a dicey day with the hurricane, the weather ended up with light winds and relatively clear skies, in some areas reaching 80 degrees.
The day saw good diversity and numbers of both migrant passerines and shorebirds, and of course there were several highlights. This year we had a count first with Black Vulture which is somewhat surprising that it was our first but nonetheless significant, and a clear indicator of their encroachment northward. Also a first was a Lawrence's Warbler, which is a hybrid between Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers. Both were found by the Inland team. Another notable observation was two Red-headed Woodpeckers on the count, one found by the Quincy team (Squantum) and another found by Hingham (World's End). Due to the proximity one might suspect they were the same bird, but thanks to the excellent photographs by each team there is irrefutable evidence of two birds! Check out photos on the eBird lists for the Quincy team here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150124957 and Hingham team here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150100476 . In that same vein, two Black Skimmers were observed by both the Duxbury and Plymouth teams at different points in the day. As opposed to the Red-headed Woodpeckers, surely these skimmers were the same two birds milling around Plymouth and Kingston Bay throughout the day, so these birds were only counted once!
Species #individuals
Canada Goose 767
Mute Swan 130
Muscovy Duck 1
Wood Duck 94
Blue-winged Teal 9
Gadwall 2
Mallard 739
American Black Duck 65
Mallard x Black Duck (1)
Green-winged Teal 39
Ring-necked Duck 4
Common Eider 131
White-winged Scoter 1
Hooded Merganser 1
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Wild Turkey 51
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Rock Pigeon 318
Mourning Dove 184
Common Nighthawk 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 31
Virginia Rail 7
Sora 5
Sandhill Crane 8
American Oystercatcher 17
Black-bellied Plover 237
American Golden-Plover 2
Semipalmated Plover 305
Piping Plover 5
Killdeer 32
Whimbrel 1
Ruddy Turnstone 23
Red Knot 39
Sanderling 434
Dunlin 13
Least Sandpiper 20
White-rumped Sandpiper 28
Semipalmated Sandpiper 693
Western Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 29
Wilson's Snipe 4
Spotted Sandpiper 15
Solitary Sandpiper 12
Greater Yellowlegs 134
Willet 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 26
Shorebird sp (167)
Laughing Gull 3410
Ring-billed Gull 824
Herring Gull 3150
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 338
Gull sp (440)
Caspian Tern 1
Black Tern 1
Roseate Tern 1
Common Tern 936
Forster's Tern 4
Tern sp (200)
Black Skimmer 2
Common Loon 10
Northern Gannet 2
Great Cormorant 4
Double-crested Cormorant 2157
Great Blue Heron 137
Great Egret 251
Snowy Egret 109
Little Blue Heron 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 34
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 53
Osprey 26
Northern Harrier 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3
Cooper's Hawk 20
Bald Eagle 21
Red-shouldered Hawk 18
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 40
Eastern Screech-Owl 33
Great Horned Owl 25
Barred Owl 10
Belted Kingfisher 27
Red-headed Woodpecker 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 68
Downy Woodpecker 119
Hairy Woodpecker 24
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 103
American Kestrel 3
Merlin 8
Peregrine Falcon 8
Eastern Wood-Pewee 8
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2
Least Flycatcher 3
Eastern Phoebe 67
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 4
Philadelphia Vireo 4
Warbling Vireo 8
Red-eyed Vireo 40
Blue Jay 590
American Crow 337
Fish Crow 43
Common Raven 24
Black-capped Chickadee 456
Tufted Titmouse 274
Horned Lark 6
Tree Swallow 3303
Bank Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 130
Cliff Swallow 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 18
White-breasted Nuthatch 159
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 6
House Wren 56
Marsh Wren 3
Carolina Wren 201
European Starling 997
Gray Catbird 455
Northern Mockingbird 47
Eastern Bluebird 46
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 3998
Cedar Waxwing 82
House Sparrow 272
American Pipit 58
House Finch 147
American Goldfinch 182
Chipping Sparrow 117
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 11
White-throated Sparrow 1
Sharp-tailed Sparrow sp 1
Savannah Sparrow 61
Song Sparrow 276
Lincoln's Sparrow 7
Swamp Sparrow 49
Eastern Towhee 68
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Bobolink 186
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Red-winged Blackbird 824
Brown-headed Cowbird 60
Common Grackle 5113
Ovenbird 3
Northern Waterthrush 2
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid) (1)
Black-and-white Warbler 24
Tennessee Warbler 4
Nashville Warbler 24
Connecticut Warbler 4
Mourning Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 96
American Redstart 50
Cape May Warbler 4
Northern Parula 26
Magnolia Warbler 19
Bay-breasted Warbler 2
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 11
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Blackpoll Warbler 60
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 93
Pine Warbler 69
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
Prairie Warbler 8
Black-throated Green Warbler 27
Wilson's Warbler 11
Warbler sp (63)
Scarlet Tanager 2
Northern Cardinal 193
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
Indigo Bunting 2
Dickcissel 3
Passerine sp. (1)
