Date: 2/2/26 3:51 am From: 'evyn' via NHBirds <nhbirds...> Subject: Re: [NHBirds] 4th & Longspurs Superbowl Results - 76 Species and 160 points!
sounds like quite a day! Glad you saw Shirley. Maybe missed our siskin?
On Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 12:33:37 PM UTC-5 Anthony Tzortzakis wrote:
> Thank you for sharing. I live for this! This is truly my superbowl!
>
> On Sun, Feb 1, 2026 at 11:43 AM 'Steve Mirick' via NHBirds <
> <nhb......> wrote:
>
>> Jane and I joined up with Paul Lacourse yesterday for the "Superbowl of
>> Birding" sponsored by the Joppa Flats Education Center of Massachusetts
>> Audubon. Unlike recent years, our "running back" Kurk Dorsey was placed on
>> "personal leave" and we picked up Stuart Varney on waivers who performed
>> more than just admirably filling in for Kurk. His hearing reminds me of a
>> hound dogs sense of smell. Stuart was hearing birds that were beyond the
>> frequencies and range of most human beings! Even better than Jane's
>> hearing and far beyond the abilities of Paul and I. :-( He also makes
>> great breakfast sandwiches!!!!
>>
>> This is the 23nd anniversary for this competitive event. The event is a
>> fun way of beating the winter cold and getting out and finding birds in
>> Essex County, MA and Rockingham County, NH. Our team name is the "4th and
>> Longspurs". We've now competed in NH for 20 years of this event having
>> missed 3 due to a broken elbow and covid. As we've done in the past years,
>> we participated in the category of "Rockingham County, NH only". A weighted
>> valuation system determines the winner, where the rarity of the species
>> determines the number of points awarded.
>>
>> Similar to last winter, this winter has been very cold....more like the
>> older days. But in contrast to last year, we had LOTS OF SNOW after last
>> week's 20" storm. This made things very difficult for roadside birding and
>> even worse on the coast, where snow banks and drifting snow caused lots of
>> troubles. Ragged Neck was plowed out, but most coastal pullouts were NOT
>> and that limited our offshore scans. Our car thermometer bottomed out at
>> -3 and I heard others report down to -7. A very light wind in the morning
>> made it just that much worse. There was plenty of sun, however, and the
>> morning breeze died down quickly. The temperature, however, barely got up
>> to 20F for the day. The seas were flat and visibility offshore was great,
>> but we covered it at low tide which, combined with limited access, made
>> finding alcids difficult.
>>
>> After receiving our breakfast sandwiches at Stuart's at 4:45 AM, we
>> started out with our Owling in Portsmouth and Rye. We struck out (as
>> usual) with owls off Little Harbor Road, but we got Screech Owl and Great
>> Horned Owl off Brackett Road. Unfortunately we arrived just a bit too late
>> to get the Saw-whet Owl that others had on Love Lane and we had no luck
>> with the Barred Owl that wouldn't call back at the Rye Recreation
>> area.....others SAW this bird later in the day! My dawn strategy worked
>> very well as we were able to find the roosting Vultures in Hampton Falls
>> and easily pick out 2 Black Vultures in the Pine Trees as an 8-pointer.
>> The morning rhythm worked reasonably well as we picked up Wild Turkey,
>> Northern Pintail, Rusty Blackbird, and Fox Sparrow. We then headed out to
>> Evy Nathan's feeders and got another easy 8-pointer as her Baltimore Oriole
>> was sitting in the tree as we pulled in!! Back to Exeter, we had terrible
>> luck with the ducks at Gilman Park (frozen!) and Sapsucker....we went 0 for
>> 3 on scouted locations. So......north to Stratham and Newmarket where Jane
>> picked out a "stop-light" Cedar Waxwing and we easily got Savannah
>> Sparrows, Common Mergansers, and OUR THIRD 8-pointer of the day with a
>> scouted Chipping Sparrow in the same thickets of Newmarket where we had one
>> last year!
>>
>> We kept things going with a nice pace in Greenland; missing ducks on
>> Great Bay, but picking up a scouted Yellow-rumped Warbler and finally
>> getting a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Now down to Hampton where we got (on
>> our 2nd attempt) the INCREDIBLE PAINTED BUNTING seen by so many this day.
>> THANK YOU to Grace McCullough and Alicia McLaughlin for setting up this
>> ONE DAY ONLY visitation. Things continued on a roll.....Paul whistled in a
>> scouted Eastern Towhee while Stuart picked out a surprise flyover Fish Crow
>> in Hampton Falls and Hooded Mergansers continued in the creek. A side trip
>> to the Hampton WTP failed to produce any new birds, but it did provide us
>> with perhaps the rarest sighting of the day. A falconer was
>> flying/training an adult EURASIAN GOSHAWK! While I'm not in favor of
>> falconry, I respect this man's love and respect for birds of prey. And
>> these birds are incredible to see up close.
>>
>>
>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevemirick/55071218336/in/photostream/lightbox/ >>
>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevemirick/55072436059/in/photostream/lightbox/ >>
>> Off to Hampton Harbor in Seabrook where things continued to go well. Jane
>> picked out a nice adult Peregrine Falcon sitting in the saltmarsh and when
>> I put up my scope for a (rare for location) Greater Scaup, I was shocked to
>> see a nice adult male Barrow's Goldeneye. While the Lakes Region and
>> downtown Manchester have enjoyed these annual winter visitors, they are
>> (for some reason) rare on the seacoast.
>>
>> The whole day then went downhill fast when we hit Hampton Beach State
>> Park!!!!! I'm not sure what happened, but the day was never the same!
>> First there were the snow drifts, I struggled to walk through them to get
>> to the beach to scan offshore, but when I turned around, only Stuart
>> followed me! 5 minutes later, Jane showed up, panting and exhausted. But
>> Paul never appeared! We almost sent out a rescue dog to search for him,
>> but it turns out he just said "screw this"! After post-holing down to his
>> thighs for the 3rd time in the snow drifts he just went back to the car!
>> But that wasn't the worst of it! We filled in a few gaps with common
>> offshore birds....nothing we didn't see later. But as we were leaving, we
>> noticed a poor, confused, elderly, French-speaking man who had gotten his
>> car stuck in the snow! What were we to do?!?!? I spent 10 minutes trying
>> to push him out and then, because he spoke very poor English, and was very
>> old and confused, I spent another 20 minutes using his cell phone to try to
>> call AAA to come and pull him out......by the way, I don't know what the
>> heck has gone wrong with AAA, but now you can't get directly connected to a
>> human voice any more!!!! They send you a text message so you can click a
>> link that leads you to a confusing on-line questionnaire!!!! What the heck
>> is going wrong with society! :-(
>>
>> We probably wasted a solid hour at Hampton Beach State Park with no
>> significant birds. Stuart suggest that this act of goodwill would give me
>> good Karma. HE WAS WRONG! We traveled up the coast, filling holes, and
>> ticking off some common coastal birds, but we missed Pipit, Snow Bunting
>> and Razorbill. We even missed "Mr. and Mrs. Piney" the Pine Warblers that
>> have been hand-fed meal worms at a feeder in Rye. Despite the fact that
>> "Mrs. Bud" came out with fresh meal worms! And the final shoe to drop was
>> missing Swamp Sparrow at the Portsmouth Hospital marsh at 5 PM......where
>> we had 7 on January 11th before the storm.
>>
>> We ended the day with a total of 76 species. This is well below our
>> record high of 87, and below our average for recent years, but I think an
>> excellent total considering the horrendously cold and snowy winter. Phil
>> Brown's team beat us with 77 species, BUT we beat them by a single point!
>> (160 to 159). We'll have to wait and see whether either of us wins any
>> awards as the final results will be announced tonight.
>>
>> Total species - 76
>> ------------------------
>> Canada Goose
>> Mallard
>> American Black Duck
>> Northern Pintail - Female at duck pond in Hampton Falls
>> Greater Scaup - Great Bay frozen as far as you could see. But a few
>> around Great Boar's Head and in Hampton harbor.
>> Common Eider
>> Surf Scoter
>> White-winged Scoter
>> Black Scoter
>> Long-tailed Duck
>> Bufflehead
>> Common Goldeneye
>> BARROW'S GOLDENEYE - One of the surprises for the day. This may be my
>> first Coastal record of an adult male since March 2014!
>> Hooded Merganser - Taylor River along Rt. 1
>> Common Merganser - Newfields Landing on Squamscott River
>> Red-breasted Merganser
>> Wild Turkey - Groups in Hampton and Greenland.
>> Horned Grebe
>> Red-necked Grebe
>> Mourning Dove
>> Rock Pigeon
>> Sanderling - A couple of spots on seacoast.
>> Purple Sandpiper - Scarce this winter. Small flock from Little Boar's
>> Head picked out by Stuart.
>> Black Guillemot - FOUR at Odiorne.....but no Razorbills.
>> Ring-billed Gull
>> American Herring Gull
>> Great Black-backed Gull
>> Red-throated Loon - One at Hampton Beach SP and 3 more at Odiorne.
>> Common Loon
>> Great Cormorant - Rye Ledge
>> BLACK VULTURE - Two perched up in roost trees at dawn in Hampton Falls.
>> Turkey Vulture - Didn't count. Perhaps 20+ at roost.
>> Cooper's Hawk
>> Bald Eagle - 7 total for the day
>> Red-tailed Hawk
>> Eastern Screech-Owl - One off Brackett Road
>> Great Horned Owl - At least 3
>> Red-bellied Woodpecker
>> Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - FINALLY got one in Greenland. After dipping
>> at 3 spots in Exeter.
>> Downy Woodpecker
>> Hairy Woodpecker
>> Northern Flicker - One at Autumn Lane in East Kingston only.
>> Peregrine Falcon - One adult in Seabrook marshes.
>> Blue Jay
>> American Crow
>> FISH CROW - Only our 2nd ever for Superbowl. Nice bird calling very
>> vociferously as it flew over our heads in Hampton Falls.
>> Common Raven - Two for the day
>> Black-capped Chickadee
>> Tufted Titmouse
>> Horned Lark - Ragged Neck
>> Golden-crowned Kinglet - Nicely picked out by Stuart Varney by call note
>> from 1/2 mile away!
>> Cedar Waxwing - Incredible single bird in fruit trees in Stratham.
>> Spotted by Jane at stop light! Rare on seacoast this winter.
>> Red-breasted Nuthatch - At Bud's feeders. Rare on seacoast this winter.
>> White-breasted Nuthatch
>> Carolina Wren
>> Northern Mockingbird
>> European Starling
>> Eastern Bluebird
>> American Robin
>> House Sparrow
>> House Finch
>> American Goldfinch
>> CHIPPING SPARROW - 8 pointer at feeder in Newmarket. Took a little
>> effort and a lot of pisshing, but finally came in!
>> FOX SPARROW - Cooperative bird at Dave Kellam's house in Exeter.
>> American Tree Sparrow
>> Dark-eyed Junco
>> White-throated Sparrow
>> Savannah Sparrow - Very easy at Stuart Farm in Stratham.
>> Song Sparrow
>> EASTERN TOWHEE - Cooperative female staked out in Hampton Falls.
>> BALTIMORE ORIOLE - Female nicknamed "Shirley" at Evy Nathan's feeder in
>> Kingston. Wish they were all as easy as this drive-up bird!!
>> Red-winged Blackbird
>> RUSTY BLACKBIRD - Cooperative bird at Painted Bunting feeder.
>> Yellow-rumped Warbler - Surprise that this bird has made it through the
>> storm. Scouted by Stuart in Greenland.
>> Northern Cardinal
>> PAINTED BUNTING - Female in Hampton reported at feeders for the first
>> time only 2 days earlier!!!! Where was it before then???? OUR FIRST EVER
>> for a Superbowl and our 162nd (!!!) species recorded for this event over
>> the years by our team! Thank you Grace McCullough and Alicia McLaughlin!
>>
>> The infamous list of birds MISSED included:
>> ---------------------------------------------------------
>> Snow Bunting - They've been widely scattered and common lately along coast
>> Lapland Longspur - Four today at Hampton Beach SP. None yesterday.
>> Pine Warbler - Mr. & Mrs. Piney
>> Merlin - Two recently in Hampton area. None.
>> Northern Harrier - Not sure why we've had such bad luck with this
>> Red-shouldered Hawk - Apparently there was one in Rye. No luck
>> Brown Creeper - Stuart heard one at dawn, but we failed to work for it
>> and never had another one.
>> American Pipit - Recent rarity could not be found
>> Razorbill - Disappointing miss. I scanned for several minutes at
>> Odiorne, but no luck.
>> Green-winged Teal - I don't know of any recent reports of the male that
>> had been seen in Gilman Park.
>> Iceland Gull - No luck
>> Great Blue Heron - We generally get these about 50% of the time. It is
>> actually no surprise that we missed one this winter!
>> Pileated Woodpecker
>> Winter Wren - No luck with scouted bird at Blakes Lane.
>>
>>
>> Steve Mirick for "4th & Longspurs"
>> Bradford, MA
>>
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>
