Date: 5/17/25 7:29 pm From: <jacksonwrxt89...> Subject: [NHBirds] Sullivan County Big Day
I did a big day in Sullivan County today as I typically do every May. This years eBird Global Big day was a total washout which ended up being a blessing because I usually find the eBird date is too early for any chance to get the maximum number of species. The weather wasn’t ideal for the first part of the day and as with every big day, luck just isn’t always on your side. My all-time single day total for the county is 116 and today I just fell short with 110. The following are the biggest takeaways
Bird of the day: This is definitely the DICKCISSEL that Jen and Brendan Armstrong found in Claremont. Luckily I was only about 10 minutes away when she got the word out so I was able to swing right over and see it. It seemed to be happily hopping along and foraging in a manure pile while I was there so there’s a chance it could hang around. The lot is where they store manure for the adjacent cornfield and it’s located on River Road right across from a large manufacturing plant called Canam. This is my first spring Dickcissel and the first one I’ve seen in breeding plumage.
Biggest misses: Every big day has one or more “gimmie” species that just seem to be unattainable when you want them most. For me, that was Eastern Bluebird. I checked several haunts I know they frequent and had no luck. Same thing with Hooded Merganser. I also neglected to check Lake Sunapee for Ring-billed Gull which didn’t occur to me until long after I called it a day.
Biggest letdown: I woke up extremely early to get to west Unity to get my first Sullivan Co. Whip-poor-will in a location that seemed pretty reliable for them. When I left my house in Wilmot the moon was out and I thought things might be ideal, but it had clouded over by the time I got there and probably shut them down for the rest of the night. This species continues to elude me after almost 15 years of birding Sullivan.
While the coast area seemed to have a nice fallout today, we weren’t so fortunate. I ended the day with 22 species of Warbler but most were on breeding territories. I had a handful of Tennessee Warblers and a single Wilson’s Warbler. I did run into a Canada and Blue-winged Warbler that I believe were true migrants being out of place at Morningside Flight Park.
The following link is to my trip report for the day:
