PLUM ISLAND — They came from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and as far away as Pennsylvania, stalking the marshes in heavy boots and warm hats, carrying binoculars and cameras, all with a shared goal: to see as many birds as nature would permit in 12 hours.
Hundreds of amateur ornithologists — and a few pros — crisscrossed Essex County in Massachusetts and neighboring Rockingham County in New Hampshire on Saturday in hopes of winning a prize in Mass Audubon’s Superbowl of Birding XVI.
Jaida White, 12, came to Plum Island with classmates from the outing club at Christa McAuliffe Charter School in Framingham, where Brett Marcotte, the school’s adventure coordinator, has been showing club members how to spot and identify birds for the past two weeks.
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She was excited to see a harrier hawk, several ducks, and especially a snowy owl.
“When we got really close, you could really see its face,” and see that the bird looked the same in real life as in a photograph, Jaida said.
“I know I’m not going to see it today, but maybe if we come like in a different season . . . I wanted to see a sandpiper,” Jaida said. “They’re cute, and [I like] how they run away from the water when it goes back up, and then when it goes away, they go back to the water to get the food.”
Lucas Poole, 13, another student from the McAuliffe School, was impressed with the snowy owl but maybe even more awed by the harrier hawk.
“The harriers are pretty cool, because . . . they’re one of the two birds that have the V flying shape. The other one is the turkey vulture, and you can tell that it’s not a turkey vulture because the turkey vultures are like ‘bwawk,’ ” he said, mimicking the turkey vulture’s call.
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David Moon, sanctuary director for Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center, said the most serious competitors in the Superbowl of Birding strategize in advance, identifying locations where they are most likely to see rare birds that are worth more points.
“It’s really an honor-system thing,” he explained. “People just don’t cheat. They don’t want to win from cheating.”
Over the past decade and a half, the Superbowl has become popular among some of the most serious bird-watchers in the region, Moon said.
“It really attracts the bird nerds,” he quipped, but he added that the competition and other amateur bird-watching activities can help scientists track bird populations, which is especially valuable as the numbers are dropping.
“About a third of the birds are gone. Just gone,” he said. “On average we’ve lost about a third of birds in North American since 50 years ago. That’s a big deal because if you really have declined by 33 percent in 50 years, you’re talking about not having them.”
Habitat loss to development and climate change is the main culprit, he said, but the work of bird lovers in recording and advocating for their feathered friends can make a difference.
Uxbridge native Strickland Wheelock has been looking for — and looking after — birds for nearly seven decades. Wheelock, 75, started bird-watching at age 7 and began leading tours for Mass Audubon more than 40 years ago, he said.
On Saturday he got an early start and had spotted several types of birds by mid-morning.
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“We got to see some beautiful snowy owls, and lots of ducks and pintails, and a few passerine birds, a lot of tree sparrows right here,” he said as he explored the marsh with longtime bird-watching friends Leslie Bostrom, 68, of Pawtucket, R.I., and Kerri Fournier, 56, and her son Dan Fournier, 26, both of North Attleboro.
The Fourniers have been bird-watching since Dan was a Cub Scout, Kerri was his pack leader, and the two met Wheelock, who was guiding a birding tour, they said. And for years, they’ve been coming back to this competition.
“It’s just a nice day,” Kerri Fournier said. “It’s fun. It’s just competitive enough that it kind of keeps you going. Nice to spend your day with friends, and anybody can do it.”
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.
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January 26, 2020 at 05:36AM
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‘Bird nerds’ stalk the marshes of Plum Island in the annual avian Superbowl - The Boston Globe
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