Superbowl of Birding XI: RESULTS

Looking for Short-eared Owls at dusk

On January 25, for the sixth consecutive year, the North Branch Nature Center represented Vermont in the Superbowl of Birding! Our team, the Chocolate-headed Cowbirds (with sprinkles), scoured Essex County, MA, for every bird we could find.  A biting and blustery wind didn't slow us down!  Here are some of our highlights:

 - 4 Snowy Owls, including one owl dive-bombing another in flight!
 - Short-eared Owls hunting in the distance at dusk. 
 - A Red-headed Woodpecker in a residential area of Ipswich.
 - Pacific Loon off the coast at Plum Island.
 - A Eurasian Wigeon in Black Rock Creek at Salisbury Beach State Reservation.
 - Black Guillimot close to shore in Gloucester.
 - Calm weather at Andrew's Point, with Harlequin Ducks close to shore.

In the Superbowl of Birding, each species is assigned a point-value based on how easy or difficult it is to find.  Easy birds like chickadees are worth 1 point, and hard birds like Dovekie are worth 5.  Even some of the 1-point birds are absent from Vermont, so we enjoyed both the common birds as well as the rare.  Our total of 69 species and 128 points broke our previous record, setting a new personal best.  The complete checklist from the trip is shown below:

1 point (plain text)
2 points (bold)
3 POINTS (BOLD, CAPS)
4 POINTS (BOLD, CAPS, ITALICS)
5 POINTS (BOLD, CAPS, ITALICS, UNDERLINED)

Canada Goose	Northern Gannet	NORTHERN FLICKER
Gadwall	Great Cormorant	Blue Jay
EURASIAN WIGEON	Bald Eagle	American Crow
AMERICAN WIGEON	Northern Harrier	COMMON RAVEN
American Black Duck	COOPER'S HAWK	Horned Lark
Mallard	Red-tailed Hawk	Black-capped Chickadee
RING-NECKED DUCK	ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK	Tufted Titmouse
Greater Scaup	SANDERLING	White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Eider	Purple Sandpiper	Carolina Wren
Harlequin Duck	Ring-billed Gull	American Robin
Surf Scoter	Herring Gull	Northern Mockingbird
White-winged Scoter	Iceland Gull	European Starling
Black Scoter	GLAUCOUS GULL	LAPLAND LONGSPUR
Long-tailed Duck	Great Black-backed Gull	SNOW BUNTING
Bufflehead	RAZORBILL	American Tree Sparrow
Common Goldeneye	Black Guillemot	SAVANNAH SPARROW
Hooded Merganser	Rock Pigeon	Song Sparrow
Common Merganser	Mourning Dove	White-throated Sparrow
Red-breasted Merganser	SNOWY OWL	Dark-eyed Junco
RUDDY DUCK	SHORT-EARED OWL	Northern Cardinal
PACIFIC LOON	RED-HEADED W..DPECKER	House Finch
Common Loon	RED-BELLIED W..DPECKER	American Goldfinch
Horned Grebe	Downy Woodpecker	House Sparrow