Welcome to new TASLer Danny Roseman.
Here are selected comments from participants:
From Maury Hall, compiler:
The 2006 results from our benthic sampling were like the 2005 results - very low abundances. This is the case outside the harbor too. The decreases have been mainly of amphipods which could likely be a food sources for some of the smaller ducks - Bufflehead and maybe grebes.
There have been recent decreases in zooplankton abundances in [Massachsuetts Bay] as well. I suspect some of this is a more natural oscillation tied in with the NAO decadal changes. Some of it may also be due to changes in the harbor. Since crabs and mussels are an important source of food for eider, scoter and scaup I wish I knew what was happening to mussel and crab populations.
From Soheil Zendeh:
For me, the most noticeable fact about harbor birds has been the low numbers of eider and their high scatter. There are very small numbers throughout the harbor, but no great concentrations. This to me implies that the massive mussel beds that used to feed those enormous flocks of eider, for example around Faun Bar off Deer Island, have broken up or are otherwise no longer available to the eider.
Two anecdotal items:
Christmas counters and other observers around Nantucket Sound have remarked frequently this year that the numbers of Common Eider around Nantucket and in some of the channels around the islands seems to be much higher this year. No hard numbers yet.
Jack Markley, who is non-birding nature observer at Belle Isle Park in East Boston, noted that just in the past year the large nussel beds at the mouth of Belle Isle Creek seem to have died. The crash in mussel numbers at Belle Isle and at the tip of Deer Island (and elsewhere in the Harbor) may both be related to the 2001 start of secondary effluent dumping 9 miles off shore instead of right at the mouth of the Harbor. That is when the Deer Island sewage plant came on line. Why a 5-year delay? The old mussels struggled along, but didn't reproduce sufficiently to replace losses due to age and predation, so eiders and scoters had to range elsewhere to find food. Some sort of crash was noticeable among eider last year, but this year the numbers are half of the historical average.
I repeat: This is anecdotal stuff, meaning just guess work.
From Kenton Griffis, Nahant:
We had a loon I recorded as Arctic/Pacific to the east of Bailey Hill. I think others have reported this as Pacific but we were not sure, since the white on the flanks went up rather high. We mentioned this loon to the [Nahant] ladies with the Wilson's Warbler and they said a Pacific Loon had been there. We viewed the loon from the top of the east facing cliffs of Bailey's Hill at a distance of about 100 yards. We noted a knob on the forehead and white in the flanks. The bill was up-carried almost as much as a Red-throated Loon but was thicker and the top was curved. But in reviewing the references we have this is too difficult a call. Photos and illustrations in the references are not always consistent with stated key field marks.
From Fay Vale, Winthrop:
Again, low tide and not a lot of stuff - no water in the inlets. No scaup raft.
From Soheil Zendeh, Boston:
The freezing conditions elsewhere must have pushed a lot of things our way. No great numbers, but surprising species diversity. Ruddy Ducks: Wandered over from Jamaica Pond?
From Dave Lange, Squantum:
Waterfowl numbers seemed very low. Looking into that cold wind did not help much.
From Andrew Joslin, Hough's Neck:
It was cold in the wind but a very nice day for winter birding. At a couple of locations we had to move quickly to avoid getting too chilled down. As often happens we had good interactions with the few residents out and about. One guy stood and chatted with us in his T-shirt with wind chill probably in the low single numbers. He retreated and came back out with a sweatshirt, still not enough clothes on. Milton's dog Musti has proved to be a good ambassador and gets along well with all the dogs we see along the way. A young pit bull was so happy to see us that he jumped into Milton's truck with us, obviously wanted to join the birding fun. Musti knows the route so well now that he may be nominated to be the new HN TASL navigator.
The non-bird highlight was a Mink in Rock Island marsh between stops 14 and 15. The cute weasel was observed crossing a tidal creek on the ice and then hopped in the water for a swim, working its way towards us along the edge of the creek. It appeared to be hunting for fish. Is this a new mammal for the TASL life list? [Yes! -sz]
On the way out there was a male A. Kestrel performing hover flight and perching in a tree at Blacks Creek. I recorded him as location # 1 under the morning time, he was actually seen at about 12:40 pm.
Comments compiled by
Soheil Zendeh
last updated: 2007.02.28
url: http://www.gis.net/~szendeh/tasl.feb.07.notes.htm