Broadwing hawks at Superbowl of Birding 2025
stuart varney
After a return to base camp to retrieve some forgotten binoculars, we conjured up a Great Horned Owl at Marsh Pond in Rye – our only owl. Stops at Rye recreation area and Love lane encountered other teams but no owls. We were happy with our solitary owl, so our focus changed to 5 point birds. First team to report a five point bird gets a bonus 3 points, so we headed to the beach at Plaice Cove for pre-dawn American Pipit. The team had scouted where and when the Pipets would appear and were ecstatic when the first Pipit appeared just as planned.
Next stop was for American Bittern at Meadow pond, but we dipped. A consolation heron was found instead. Another dip at the high street cemetery for Chipping Sparrow was cushioned by a fish crow calling as it flew over.
Greg Tillman has scouted an Eastern Phoebe at Depot road the week before, but the perishingly cold weather of the previous week was likely too much for it and again we dipped. This time the dip was softened by a nice pick-ups of raven and hooded merganser.
With high tide at 8 am, our next priority was shore birds on the breakwater at Hampton Beach State Park. Purple sandpipers and sanderlings (for the latter we had to head across the bridge to the other side of the channel) were found in addition to the trifecta of Snow buntings, Horned larks and Lapland Longspurs.
Eagle-eyes McPherson spotted a Peregrine resting on platform in the marsh. A pull over to let an ambulance go by yielded a road side Coopers hawk. Next was by far our most pleasant stop of the day. Our thanks goes to Karen and Bob Dudra for welcoming us into their home in Exeter to view Sophie the Baltimore Oriole who has been visiting their feeder this winter, and a bonus Pine warbler, served up with warm muffins.
Gilman park got us Pintail and Teal. We arrived at Donna Drive too late for the Black Vultures who were already out and about. We zipped up to Stratham. Savannah sparrows at Stuart Farm. Common Mergansers at Chapmans landing. A stop at Great Bay Discovery Center to pick out distant Scaup surprised us with Iceland Gull and a Sapsucker.
More zipping, this time back to Hampton for a no-show wood duck at Hurd farm. A winter wren playing in the stream made us happy. Swamp sparrows at Blake’s Lane. At least eight or so more swamp sparrows at Applecrest farm but the previously scouted Field sparrows may not have survived the prior week’s cold. Dip #2 for chipping sparrow at the cemetery in Hampton. We almost had a high speed drive-by American Bittern at the Meadow Pond location, but only two of the team were paying attention. An so, not only did we have to slow down, we had to stop to let the others out to see this remarkable monstrosity of a bird.
We headed north while picking up the usual ocean birds. Kudos to Eric for picking out a Kingfisher at Rye Harbor UNDERNEATH the dock he was standing on. Still not sure how he did this.
A search for Turkeys at Odiorne was proving difficult until we realized there was one standing real still only feet from us.
Razorbill was the only likely ocean bird remaining. Luckily one of our team has a location where you can’t miss them. Ever. He has never ever not seen one at Fort Constitution. Until today.
The sun was getting lower. Last thing to do was head back to Exeter for another try at Black Vulture, stopping briefly to admire the merlin atop the pine tree snag in South St Cemetery,. We found a Black Vulture in Exeter and it was to be our last bird of the day. Our team all had a good time and we found a lot of good birds. Biggest misses were:
Golden Crowned Kinglet
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker
Hermit thrush
‘Brown Creeper’ – Eric claims to have heard one but no-one believed him haha.