ccrsl@bu-cs.UUCP (Robert S. Lewis Jr.) (03/09/85)
Stanley, I too have been unable to go birdwatching recently, but I can tell you what was at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in December. (Parker River is in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on the Atlantic Ocean.) Both red-throated and common loons were abundant, red-throated close to shore, commons about 200 yards off shore. Out with the common loons were all three species of scoter, white-wings predominating, blacks scarce, many red-breasted mergansers, and a few oldsquaw. Cormorants (double-creasted) were getting conspicuously scarce. (Does anyone know a good place to find Great Cormorants in Southern New England?) Nothing too interesting in gulls -- Herring, Ring-billed, Great Black-backed, a few Laughing -- terns are long-gone. Geese were still very common. Small flocks of sanderling occaisionally concealed a stray dunlin. I saw one yellowlegs, probably a greater. An immature northern harrier continues to hunt over the mid-portion of Plum Island (Plum Island is the piece of land between Parker River and the Atlantic Ocean). Land birds were not very abundant with the notable exception of snow buntings in huge flocks. A few lapland longspurs and horned larks were mixed in with the buntings. Nothing much else to report -- not very interesting for New England, but some of these birds might be a treat in California. A brief comment about your bird feeder. Throughout the fall, nothing came to my feeder. There were plenty of seed-eating birds around; juncos, white-throated sparrows, house, purple, gold finches, titmice chickadees, cardinals. None of them showed the slightest interest in sunflower, thistle, or any other type of seed. Several other people in Massachusetts reported the same disturbing phenomenon. Maybe wild food was exceptionally abundant. When the weather got bad, things picked up a bit, but blue jays and morning doves drove most of the smaller birds away. I'd do anything to get a white-throated sparrow at my feeder now. If I get to Plum Island this weekend, I'll send a report. Bob Lewis Boston University (bucsa on CSNET, bostonu on BITNET; account name is ccrsl)