Christmas Bird Count Tallies Underway on Cape & Islands

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

TRURO – Volunteers on the Cape and Islands have been compiling Christmas Bird Counts for the region over the past several weeks. This week, the Truro count was the last one on the Cape.

The Martha’s Vineyard Count will take place next week.

The Christmas Bird Count takes place across the country between December 14 and January 5 in designated areas–a 15-mile radius–where volunteers count as many birds as they can over a 24-hour period.

The count takes place officially on the designated day from midnight to midnight.

The results of the count can help to create a snapshot of the health of birds and therefore the environment of the region.

There are several teams counting during each count in order to cover the area. In Truro, five teams were covering the count area.

Mark Faherty, science coordinator at the Massachusetts Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, was the compiler for the Truro count which took place on December 30. He said he has been doing the count for 10 years.

Taking a break from the count Tuesday, Faherty said, the day was cold but clear and the count totals in his group had been typical for the annual count in Truro.

“There’s always the potential for some rare things. As the compiler, I’m always hoping that my teams will come in at the end of the day with some crazy rare bird that we’ve never had before. That’s kind of the excitement of it,” he said.

The count last year was cancelled because of snow, Faherty recalled.

He began the count in the morning hours, but there are some people who count all through the night, he said.

“Occasionally you get the real hardcore person who starts going out for owls literally at midnight and goes through the night and all through the next day,” he said.

But typically birders meet for the count around 7 a.m. which is first light and count until dark, Faherty said. Then everyone gets together at the compilation and the different teams go over their numbers and the compiler puts it all together and submits it to Audubon.

Tuesday’s count was going well by the afternoon, he said. “We have limited habitat. We have some good ocean spots. We have the Pamet River watershed and the Herring River watershed on the east side of Route 6.” By midway through the count, the group had been to areas in South Truro and North Wellfleet, Longnook Beach and Ballston Beach for sea birds.

The group was planning to go to some kettle ponds in Wellfleet in the afternoon to look for ducks, when the songbirds are quieter, he said. “We’ll end the day at Gull Pond in Wellfleet, is typically what we do.”

So far, the birders on the Truro count, Faherty said, had seen some dovekies over the ocean and thicket birds like hermit thrushes, catbirds and towhees that winter over in small numbers. “We’re getting tons of those,” he said.

Birders last year saw many snowy owls, but they are not in as great abundance this year. “It’s not like last year. There are not as many snowy owls as there were last year,” he said. One of the birders who goes to Great Island in Wellfleet has a better chance of seeing a snowy owl, he said.

He said he has heard some preliminary numbers from other Cape Cod counts.

“The Mid Cape Cod Count, which includes Sandwich to Dennis, often gets the highest number of species,” he said. This year, the birders counted 39 species in that count on December 26, he said. He said he heard the Cape Cod count centered in Chatham got 131 species.

 

 



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