Last week’s column gave an accounting of how my team fared in the field on a warm and wet 59th annual Christmas Bird Count.

Christmas Bird Counts are fun days, combining camaraderie, teamwork, and adventure as we search the land and sea for all the birds we can find.

True to predictions, this has been an invasion year for the irruptive northern species of the boreal forests.

Of the four northern species observed this week, the snowy owl tops the list.

Evening grosbeaks are a favorite of mine. They have been virtually absent for the past 10 years or so but this year they have been seen regularly for the past month.

Three species of mergansers visit the Vineyard at this time of the year. Two of them — the red-breasted and the hooded mergansers — are quite common, but the third is not.