1st Annual Worcester County Winter Bird Rally

I saw three White-Tailed Deer as I left my neighborhood on my way out to participate in the 1st Annual Worcester County Winter Bird Rally (coordinated by Facebook Group Central Mass Birders).  My team of 4 birders met in Worcester at 6AM and covered the following towns:  West Boylston, Princeton, Worcester, Spencer, Leicester, Auburn, Rutland and Paxton.  It was warmer than yesterday, but it sure didn't feel like it.  I literally had cold feet the whole day.

We had fun exploring these towns from a birding perspective (much of it new to two of us) and ended up with 42 species of birds for the day.

When we started out, an owl flew across the road right in front of the car.  We lost sight of it in some trees, and none of us had a good enough look at it to positively ID it, so we had to take it as a loss.  At our first stop, among other birds, we heard Red-Breasted Nuthatches but never saw them.  I haven't seen any since last May, so it was nice just to hear them again.  The most common birds we saw throughout the day were American Robins and American Crows.  We enjoyed spotting about a dozen White-Tailed Deer along the shores of the icy Wachusett Reservoir.  We struggled to find open water all day, hoping to check gulls and ducks off our list, but it was nearly impossible.  We only saw Common, Red-Breasted and Hooded Mergansers, Mallards, and Canada Geese.   At Jordan Farm in Rutland, we had several great bird sightings.  First, there was a huge flock of Wild Turkeys (close to 50).  They were far enough away that we didn't get photos.  While I was watching them in my binoculars, I saw a good-sized flock of small white birds lift out of the field behind the turkeys.  We drove closer and found a flock of Snow Buntings (at least 30) with three Horned Larks flying among them.  A Canada Goose turned out to be one of our last species to be added to the list for the day.  Who would ever have guessed that would be a difficult bird to find?  Some that we thought would be easy also proved difficult, such as Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

The best two sightings were a Ruffed Grouse at Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow and a flock of Cedar Waxwings in a residential neighborhood in Leicester.  While we were watching the Cedar Waxwings, the sun even popped out for a few quick minutes, making for prettier photos.

I can't remember all the species and tallies, but I'll add the eBird list once it has been submitted by the team leader.  It was my first time doing an all-day bird outing!  I was happy to get home, change clothes, turn on the fireplace, heat up some hot chocolate, sit down and cover up with a blanket until I was toasty warm again!

Total = 42 Species

This list shows only the high count for a species from all the locations we visited.

Canada Goose	2
Mallard	5
Hooded Merganser	1
Common Merganser	6
Red-breasted Merganser	3
Ruffed Grouse	1
Wild Turkey	50
Turkey Vulture	2
Cooper's Hawk	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	1
Red-tailed Hawk	2
Ring-billed Gull	60
Herring Gull	20
Great Black-backed Gull	3
Rock Pigeon	20
Mourning Dove	3
Great Horned Owl	1
Downy Woodpecker	3
Hairy Woodpecker	1
Merlin	1
Peregrine Falcon	1
Blue Jay	3
American Crow	20
Common Raven	1
Horned Lark	8
Black-capped Chickadee	10
Tufted Titmouse	5
Red-breasted Nuthatch	1
White-breasted Nuthatch	4
Eastern Bluebird	3
American Robin	50
Northern Mockingbird	1
European Starling	10
Cedar Waxwing	25
Snow Bunting	60
American Tree Sparrow	10
Song Sparrow	2
Dark-eyed Junco	20
Northern Cardinal	4
House Finch	2
American Goldfinch	4
House Sparrow	10

Note:  I am not counting the Red-Shouldered Hawk because the bird identified as such was sitting right next to a smaller Red-Tailed Hawk.  I doubted that two hawks of different species would be that comfortable with each other.  After asking my birding mentor Alan M. for his opinion, I removed the Red-Shouldered Hawk from my list.  He agreed that it would be unlikely that two hawks of different species would be side-by-side but that it was a good indication of a mating pair, and as with most raptors, the male is smaller than the female.  I did not count the Great Horned Owl either, because I did not hear it call although the others on my team did.