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Christmas Bird Count Turns Up Rare Gifts

February 18, 2009 - The Maine Christmas Bird Counts conducted from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5 yielded particularly high numbers of sightings of common species, of irruptive species like Bohemian waxwings – and of the rarities whose discovery makes a Christmas Count so exciting.

Perhaps the most remarkable species in this winter’s count are the pine siskin and white-winged crossbill. Both are irruptive species, visiting Maine in the winter when their food supplies are depleted to our north.

The pine siskin irruption this year has been nothing short of spectacular. These wanderers have been absent from many Maine Christmas Bird Counts over the past decade. Consider the sightings from this year’s counts: 92 in Augusta, 297 in the Belfast area, 361 in Waterville and 350 in Biddeford-Kennebunkport.

Interestingly, pine siskin numbers were quite low on counts dominated by spruce-fir forest that normally have the highest numbers of these sprites. The Misery township (just south of Jackman) and the Schoodic Peninsula counts yielded only four.

The number of pine siskins sighted in Maine has continued to increase over the past month. Peter Vickery of Richmond saw a Eurasian siskin among the pine siskins at his feeder. Get your niger seeds out there for the siskins!

White-winged crossbills have also staged an impressive invasion this winter.

Many counts shattered their previous records for this species. The Portland counters found 672 white-winged crossbills – the previous record was eight. Similarly, the Waterville count produced 216, dwarfing the previous high of five.

The Misery count usually produces the most white-winged crossbill sightings, but this year none were found there. I saw lots of white-winged crossbills this summer in coastal Washington County, but none were found in the Moose Island-Jonesport count. The crossbills seemed to have pushed south of their typical winter range.

Common redpolls generally show a biennial pattern of irruption into Maine. Last year, these birds staged a major invasion into the state. One therefore expects this winter to have a light flight of these finches.

Although a number of counts recorded redpolls, numbers were usually low except for the 147 in the Augusta count.

As is typical, Bohemian waxwings had a patchy distribution in Maine over the count period. The Bangor-Bucksport count produced 1,794 Bohemians (and 792 cedar waxwings) and 670 were in the Farmington count. Elsewhere, Bohemians were mostly absent, or present in single digits.

Red-bellied woodpeckers staged a strong invasion into Maine this fall, and a number of them were found by Christmas count participants.

The Portland count had 15 red-bellies, eclipsing the former record of four. Six were found in Bangor-Bucksport, eight were found in Augusta and 17 in Biddeford-Kennebunkport.

Blue jays show an intriguing winter movement called partial migration. Some blue jays spend the entire year in Maine, while a proportion will migrate to more southerly areas, particularly if food supplies are low.

Blue jays depend heavily on acorns during the winter. The acorn crop must have been more than adequate this year as higher than normal numbers of blue jays were counted in many Maine counts. In Augusta, the 674 blue jays shattered the previous high count of 61.

Maine Christmas Counts usually yield a number of lingering birds that will likely be forced to migrate or perish before the winter is over.

Great blue herons are a case in point. Hardy herons showed up on the Biddeford-Kennebunkport, Portland, Thomaston-Rockland, Waterville, Augusta, Moose Island-Jonesport and the Schoodic Peninsula counts. Other lingering species included a common tern, Eastern bluebirds, hermit thrushes, Carolina wrens, yellow-rumped warblers, a yellow-breasted chat, a summer tanager, Eastern towhees, fox sparrows, a white-crowned sparrow, a grasshopper sparrow and a Baltimore oriole.

Not surprisingly, most of these showed up on counts in the southern part of the state, especially along the coast where the weather is not quite as severe as in northern and inland areas.

As usual, the Portland count recorded the highest number of species in the state. The 114 species tallied represent a new record for the count. Four species were found that had never been recorded on that count: ruddy turnstone, blue-headed vireo, clay-colored sparrow and red crossbill.

As expected, the Misery count yielded the lowest number of species in this challenging environment. Fifteen species were counted, including gray jays, pine grosbeaks and red crossbills.

To see the complete totals for the Maine Christmas Bird Counts, visit www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc

Herb Wilson teaches ornithology and other biology courses at Colby College. He welcomes reader comments and questions at whwilson@colby.edu

HERB WILSON, Portland Press Herald, February 12, 2009


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