ECOC 110th Canoe Trip – Essex County Ornithological Club

110th Ipswich River Bird Survey

May 21, 2016

This was the 110th annual Ipswich River trip of the Essex County Ornithological Club (ECOC). We put in on Rt. 97 and took out at the Ipswich line, meaning the entire trip was in Topsfield, and most of it in the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary (IRWS). Miles and party size are estimated. We had excellent weather–sunny and mild with almost no wind. There were highlights and lowlights. The latter were low numbers of some species and the missing of some normally observed species (e.g., killdeer, solitary sandpiper, hummingbird, mockingbird, several migrant warblers, eastern towhee).

This year’s participants:

Trip leader: Dave Brewster

Constance Lapite, Diana Fruguglietti, Jim Berry, Jim MacDougall, Mariana Ovnic, Robert Buchsbaum

78 species and 1 other taxa

Canada Goose	108	Almost half of these were young. That river is a goose factory.
Wood Duck	5
Mallard	11	low
Wild Turkey	2
Double-breasted Comorant	3
Great Blue Heron	7
Great Egret	4
Green Heron	4
Glossy Ibis	1
Turkey Vulture	2
Accipiter species	1	probable Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk	1	surprisingly few raptors today
Virginia Rail	2
Sora	2	Both soras and one of the VIRAs were in Bunker Meadow of the IRWS. One of the soras considerately flew onto a log in front of us as we were stopped there and posed for photos.
Spotted Sandpiper	6
Lesser Yellowlegs	1
Rock Pigeon	1	feral pigeon
Mourning Dove	12
Black-billed Cuckoo	2
Barred Owl	1
Common Nighthawk	2	plus 4 more later at MacDougall’s place near the river
Chimney Swift	6
Belted Kingfisher	2
Red-bellied Woodpecker	14
Downy Woodpecker	7
Hairy Woodpecker	2
Northern Flicker	4	yellow-shafted
Pileated Woodpecker	9	This was probably a high count for the river trips over the years. They included at least two young at a nest being fed by a parent.
Eastern Wood-Pewee	2
Willow Flycatcher	3
Eastern Phoebe	4
Great-credsted Flycatcher	21	Exact count
Eastern Kingbird	17
Yellow-throated Vireo	14	Exact count of singing males
Blue-headed Vireo	1
Warbling Vireo	43	Exact count. I believe this is a new record for the river trips. All or almost all were singing males. These birds are abundant along such watercourses, and we were rarely out of hearing of at least one.
Red-eyed Vireo	7
Blue Jay	2	low
American Crow	5
Tree Swallows	54
Barn Swallow	21
Black-capped Chickadee	10
Tufted Titmouse	9
White-breasted Nuthatch	4
Brown Creeper	6	including a pair feeding young in a nest where we took out along Ipswich Rd. in Topsfield
House Wren	1	low
Marsh Wren	16
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	22
Eastern Bluebird	8
Veery	2
Wood Thrush	3
American Robin	10
Gray Catbird	10
European Starling	2	mercifully low
Cedar Waxwing	14
Ovenbird	5
Northern Waterthrush	2
Blue-winged Warbler	3
Common Yellowthroat	65
American Redstart	5
Northern Parula	1
Yellow Warbler	30	This not a high count but a low count for miles of river travel. It is one of the lowest counts I can recall from this annual trip. Usually they are almost as numerous as common yellowthroats.
Chestnut-sided Warbler	1
Pine Warbler	1
Chipping Sparrow	8
Song Sparrow	28
Swamp Sparrow	3	low
Scarlet Tanager	4
Northern Cardinal	16
Rose-breasted Grosbeak	5	low
Orchard Oriole	5	including a nesting pair
Baltimore Oriole	41
Red-winged Blackbird	130	Same comment as for yellow warblers. There are thousands of blackbirds along this river, of which we traversed just a small part.
Brown-headed Cowbird	15
Common Grackle	67
House Finch	4
Purple Finch	1
American Goldfinch	5	low
House Sparrow	10

Additional species seen by Jim MacDougall, Dave Brewster, Constance Lapite, Diana Fruguglietti, Mariana Ovnic

Blackpoll Warbler	7