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The competition lasts 12 hours from 5am to 5pm and covers all of Essex country in Massachusetts and Rockingham County in New Hampshire. It doesn't start getting light until after 6-something this time of the year so the early hours are really dedicated mostly to finding owls.
I picked up the team at the hotel at 4:20am on Saturday and we headed out to our first location - a pond where a group of waterfowl roost and keep a bit of open ice near to the roadway. At 5 sharp we started counting - and picked up our first birds of the competition in the dark - Mallards, Black Ducks, Hoodies, Canada Geese, and Coot (the real reason I wanted to start here). After that we worked our way up towards Gloucester, stopping in a few locations that had potential for for owls. Unfortunately, the winds were against us, and I was knew that we were going to have quite a hard time of it. Nathan does excellent Eastern Screech and Barred Owl calls. In no time we added Eastern Screech, and at my friend Denise's house we picked up Great Horned Owl. But no amount of hooting from any of us could convince a Barred to reply to us. (Even Corey's basso-profundo Barred Owl that could be heard miles away wasn't effective - I thought the sound waves alone would knock one out of a tree for us.) As dawn began to lighten the sky, we started picking up some of the feeder birds that we'd need for the day, and waited patiently for a Pileated Woodpecker, which decided that it was going to sleep in that day (I understand that he didn't emerge from his cavity until at least a half hour later than usual on this particular Saturday). From there, we were off and running at breakneck speeds, and the day started to blur - the harbor, fish pier, jetty, and little nooks and crannies in Gloucester for gulls, other waterfowl, and seabirds. No amount of searching would turn up Black-headed or Ivory Gulls though. Finding some species and missing others is par for the course on a day like this, where you really cannot devote too much time to any one location. Of course, one team member spotting an interesting bird will put the brakes on - you need to get a majority of the team to id the bird to count it. In this way we picked up Dovekie in Brace Cove - a 5 point bird that garnered an extra 3 points for being the first team to call one in and a lifer for many on the team (and the only lifer for Patrick on the trip). At Bass rocks, we searched in vain for the King Eider, but were able to lay eyes upon a pair of Black Guillemot - the only lifer for Corey (and I suspect, one of the main reasons he came along). I am not even going to try to recount the life birds for Nathan and Quintus - neither of these two excellent birders had any birding experience in this area, and they were racking them up . (I'm pretty sure that by the end of the weekend, they each had over ten lifers.)
All throughout the competition we were joking, laughing, and having a rollicking good time - and even the big 'misses' didn't slow us down much. We continued on through Rockport and found an Eastern Towhee and Double-crested Cormorant (both 4 pointers!), and stopped at a suet feeder where Yellow-bellied Sapsucker comes regularly (missed it by a few minutes) and then stopped at a feeder where there was a potential for a reported Lincoln's Sparrow, but couldn't turn one up. We then headed off towards Salisbury where there were several 'good' birds to be had. We made a few detours and quick stops, as well as skipping others - time is critical, and we needed to be able to devote time in Salisbury, as well as Plum Island. In Salisbury, we stopped at a feeder that had been hosting a very lost Yellow-headed Blackbird for a few weeks, and where somebody had a Dickcissel earlier in the day. We missed on both, but still a worthwhile stop as we picked up Redpolls and Pine Siskin (a bird that only a few of us saw earlier, but couldn't count) at another feeder there. At the state reservation up the road, we added more birds to our growing list, including the very cooperative White-winged Crossbills and Lapland Lonspurs that have spent much of this winter there. Unfortunately it was getting late, and we couldn't stop to take photos at this point - a point I make simply because we are a team of bird bloggers, and there were a few cameras floating around to try and document the day. But, by the time we hit PI the sun was setting and glaring off the snow that covered the marsh, making it virtually impossible to spot any Snowy Owls that might be out there. Other target birds on the refuge also eluded us as the sun was setting on both the day and the competition - Rough-winged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Horned Lark, Northern Harrier. A small consolation was a fly-by Northern Pintail, a far from common bird this time of the year. And right to the last moment, we kept our eye's peeled for Short-eared Owl, which usually shows up right about 5pm, but alas not for us today.
You will note that throughout my (rather disjointed) description of the day, I noted a lot more of our 'misses' than our successes. On a day like this, when every species counts, I think it's natural to concentrate on the birds that you missed rather than all the ones you did see. As we were heading to the reception and accounting, we reviewed our checklist, and weren't feeling as optimistic as we had when we started the day. "How could we miss this bird?" "Too bad we couldn't get everybody on that bird" etc. The reception was nice, with food provided and a large number of door prizes (which three of our team members took).
But when all was said and done, we tallied up a very respectable list of sightings: 72 species for 136 points, which placed us in 4th place for species and 6th place for points. We managed to get most of the 1, 2, and 3 point birds, as well as a few higher point ones as well. With just a little bit of luck and a few more birds, we could've taken it all - but it's easy to say that in retrospect. If we had stayed 10 minutes longer in one spot and picked up one bird, who knows if we might have missed two others? Next year we will be back, with the same talent, a bit more experience, and the confidence that we can take it all.
Take a good look all you other SOB teams - next year this is the team to beat:
Nathan, Patrick, Corey, Quintus, ChristopherHonestly, so much occurred throughout the day, that I am having a hard time recalling it all now. I really recommend that you check out the blogs of the other Bloggerhead Kingbirds o get other takes on the day and see some photos!
Patrick at the Hawk Owl's Nest
Corey at 10,000 Birds
Quintus at the Owl Box Blog
Nathan at The Drinking Bird
For those that are interested, here is the list of birds that we did record, and their point values:
Canada Goose (1)
Mute Swan (1)
Gadwall (2)
American Black Duck (1)
Mallard (1)
Northern Pintail (3)
Greater Scaup (2)
Common Eider (1)
Harlequin Duck (2)
Surf Scoter (1)
White-winged Scoter (1)
Black Scoter (2)
Long-tailed Duck (1)
Bufflehead (1)
Common Goldeneye (1)
Hooded Merganser (2)
Red-breasted Merganser (1)
Wild Turkey (3)
Red-throated Loon (2)
Common Loon (1)
Horned Grebe (1)
Red-necked Grebe (2)
Double-crested Cormorant (4)
Great Cormorant (1)
Sharp-shinned Hark (3)
Cooper's Hawk (3)
Red-tailed Hawk (3)
Peregrine Falcon (3)
American Coot (4)
Purple Sandpiper (2)
Ring-billed Gull (1)
Herring Gull (1)
Iceland Gull (2)
Glaucous Gull (3)
Great Black-backed Gull (1)
Dovekie (5+3)
Black Guillemot (2)
Rock Pigeon (1)
Mourning Dove (1)
Eastern Screech Owl (2)
Great Horned Owl (3)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (3)
Downy Woodpecker (1)
Hairy Woodpecker (2)
Blue Jay (1)
American Crow (1)
Black-capped Chickadee (1)
Tufted Titmouse (1)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (2)
White-breasted Nuthatch (1)
Brown Creeper (3)
Caroline Wren (2)
American Robin (1)
Northern Mockingbird (1)
European Starling (1)
Cedar Waxwing (2)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (3)
Eastern Towhee (4)
American Tree Sparrow (1)
Song Sparrow (1)
White-throated Sparrow (1)
Dark-eyed Junco (1)
Lapland Longspur (3)
Snow Bunting (3)
Northern Cardinal (1)
Brown-headed Cowbird (3)
House Finch (1)
White-winged Crossbill (4)
Common Redpoll (3)
Pine Siskin (3)
American Goldfinch (1)
House Sparrow (1)
