The species total of 115 was below what we usually get, thanks to that aforementioned deep freeze. The 85 th annual Cape Cod count, which includes Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, and Eastham, was held on windy but thankfully dry Sunday. Fish Crows normally head south in winter, but this particular group sticks around this area to take advantage of the smorgasbord offered by Bourne landfill, one of the last in the region still uncapped. There were many other nice birds found, including King Eider and Purple Sandpiper in Falmouth, as well as hundreds of Fish Crows. On Saturday’s Buzzard’s Bay count, some damp birders managed to produce an ultra-rare Sedge Wren in Sandwich and a continuing Rufous Hummingbird at a private feeder in Falmouth, which together were the marquee birds for the count. But, as always, the counts weren’t without some fancy highlights. The freeze likely caused many birds to either perish or head south, leaving us with less to count. The wet and windy weather, combined with the deep freeze of last week, kept the species totals modest for these normally bird-rich counts.

And so, into the gale force winds and driving rain went the birders of the Buzzard’s Bay and Cape Cod Christmas Bird Counts this past weekend.

Like the postal carrier in the famous creed, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays” the Christmas Bird Counter from the completion of their appointed rounds.

The trap indigo wren