Spring 2012 Issue of New Hampshire Bird Records Published

We recently mailed the Spring 2012 Issue of New Hampshire Bird Records to subscribers click here to view the table of contents and a sample article from this issue.

The issue also has articles in Birding Pereterborough and Hancock, the Four Hills Landfill, the results from the 2012 Birdathon, highlights from trips to Star island, and the NH Rare Birds Committee Report. You can also read about the International Migratory Bird Day at Pondicherry National Wildlife Refuge and the story of Pondicherry’s Waumbek Junction. There are the regular bird summaries and highlights from the Spring 2012 season and you can even see how the Purple Sandpiper got its name.

On the cover is a photo by Lauren Kras of the Summer Tanager taken 5/5/12 at Odiorne Point SP, Rye, NH.

Twitchers in the Rye and the Superbowl of Birding

Each year, the "Twitchers in the Rye" competes in the Superbowl of Birding and accepts pledges to support NH eBird and New Hampshire Bird Records (both programs of New Hampshire Audubon's Conservation Department). The Superbowl is a competition that takes place on the last Saturday in January – but this Superbowl has nothing to do with football. It involves looking for as many bird species as possible in 12 hours and is run by Massachusetts Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center.

The Twitchers have just finished a successful 2013 Superbowl of Birding. The full summary will be up soon, but the totals are in the chart below. The team was shocked to win the "Rockingham County Rocks" award, pictured below right! It's not to late to support us, click here to donate online at nhaudubon.org, or contact Becky Suomala at bsuomala@nhaudubon.org, 603-224-9909 x309.

Superbowl of Birding 2013

On the morning of January 26, 2013, the “Twitchers in the Rye” (captain Pam Hunt, Becky Suomala, Pat Myers, and Andrea Robbins) got up at 4:00 am and started the “Superbowl of Birding” at the appointed hour of 5:00 am.

The weather turned out to be much better than originally anticipated, although still cold enough to require hand and foot warmers with varying degrees of effectiveness. The team ended up with their second best showing to date: 62 species and 106 points. To their great surprise, this was enough to win the "Rockingham Rocks" award for the most points in Rockingham County. To be fair, this was largely because the only other Rockingham County team, Steve Mirick's “4th and Longspurs” garnered enough points to win the top award (the Joppa Cup) and thus wasn't eligible for the county award. That left the Twitchers with a surprising award. “We'll bask in our glory until next year, and encourage more teams to participate in New Hampshire,” said Pam Hunt.

Some of the bird highlights from the day included two 5-point birds, an American Pipit at Ragged Neck and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker along Garland Road. Different bird species are worth different point values, with 1 point for the most common species and 5 for the rarest. The Twitchers consider themselves very lucky to have even one 5-pointer. They also had two 4-pointers, a Pine Warbler and a Common Raven, both of which were firsts in the Twitchers 5-year history of competing. The other species they had for the first time were Sanderling, Dunlin, and Belted Kingfisher. For the full 2013 summary - see the link below.

Thanks to the Team sponsors! Total pledges are closing in on $1,800, all of which will go to support New Hampshire Bird Records and NH eBird.

View a chart showing the species list and points from each year.

If you'd like to pledge, please contact Becky Suomala at bsuomala@nhaudubon.org or 603-224-9909 x309.