Each year, Martha’s Vineyard birders take part in the annual Christmas Bird Count, a program started in 1900 by the National Audubon Society to establish an early-winter census of birds in the Western hemisphere.

Counts are conducted in designated areas on a specific day between Dec. 14, 2012, and Jan. 5, 2013. Martha’s Vineyard held its 53rd annual count this year on Dec. 29, 2012.

A total of 121 individual species were spotted on the Island by the 14 feeder-watchers and 60 official birdwatchers, up from 119 last year. Read more about the Vineyard’s Christmas Bird Count in the Gazette’s weekly Bird News column.

Here is the complete list of species observed on the Dec. 29, 2012 Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count.

"CP" means birds that were seen during the Count Period, which runs three days before to three days after the annual count day. Birds observed during that time are not included in the count, but are reported to Audubon to provide additional information about species for research purposes.

Total

Species, Individuals

Brant, 183

Canada goose, 1,300

Mute swan, 64

Wood duck, 8

Gadwall, 7

Eurasian wigeon, CP

American wigeon, 78

American black duck, 750

Mallard, 800

Blue-winged teal, CP

Green-winged teal, 13

Ring-necked duck, 22

Greater scaup, 183

Lesser scaup, 53

Scaup species, 500

Common eider, 1,350

Harlequin duck, 68

Surf scoter, 323

White-winged scoter, 723

Black scoter, 393

Scoter species, 530

Long-tailed duck, 125

Bufflehead, 1,330

Common goldeneye, 474

Hooded merganser, 305

Common merganser, 5

Red-breasted merganser, 670

Ruddy duck, 134

Ring-necked pheasant, CP

Wild turkey, 100

Red-throated loon, 41

Common loon, 477

Pied-billed grebe, 6

Horned grebe, 129

Red-necked grebe, 15

Northern gannet, 30

Double-crested cormorant, 10

Great cormorant, 61

Cormorant sp., 2

Great blue heron, 22

Great egret, 1

Black-crowned night heron, 25

Black vulture, CP

Turkey vulture, 36

Northern harrier, 18

Sharp-shinned hawk, 6

Cooper’s hawk, 12

Small accipiter sp., 1

Red-tailed hawk, 35

Merlin, 3

Peregrine falcon, 3

Virginia rail, 3

American coot, 18

Black-bellied plover, 17

Sanderling, 276

Purple sandpiper, 23

Dunlin, 28

Wilson’s snipe, 4

Bonaparte’s gull, 63

Ring-billed gull, 103

Herring gull, 1,000

Iceland gull, CP

Lesser black-backed gull, CP

Great black-backed gull, 127

Black-legged kittiwake, 4

Razorbill, 171

Rock pigeon,134

Mourning dove, 269

Barn owl, 5

Eastern screech-ow, l16

Great horned owl, 3

Short-eared owl, CP

Northern saw-whet owl, 5

Allen’s hummingbird, 1

Ruby-throated hummingbird, CP

Belted kingfisher, 25

Red-bellied woodpecker, 71

Yellow-bellied sapsucker, 5

Downy woodpecker, 85

Hairy woodpecker, 19

Northern flicker, 88

Eastern phoebe, 1

Blue jay, 326

American crow, 730

Fish crow, CP

Horned lark, 85

Tree swallow, 1

Black-capped chickadee, 865

Tufted titmouse, 97

Red-breasted nuthatch, 296

White-breasted nuthatch, 177

Brown creeper, 10

Carolina wren, 199

Winter wren, 4

Marsh wren, 2

Golden-crowned kinglet, 70

Ruby-crowned kinglet, 1

Eastern bluebird, 146

Hermit thrush, 3

American robin, 800

Gray catbird, 35

Northern mockingbird, 54

Brown thrasher, 2

European starling, 616

Cedar waxwing, 37

Nashville warbler, 1

Yellow-rumped warbler, 417

Pine warbler, 3

Palm warbler, 4

Yellow-breasted chat, 1

Eastern towhee, 16

American tree sparrow, 24

Chipping sparrow, 25

Field sparrow, 9

Savannah sparrow, 23

Ipswich sparrow, 1

Fox sparrow, 3

Song sparrow, 346

Swamp sparrow, 39

White-throated sparrow, 355

Dark-eyed junco, 548

Snow bunting, 1

Northern cardinal, 243

Red-winged blackbird, 105

Eastern meadowlark, 28

Baltimore oriole, 1

Purple finch, 1

House finch, 141

Red crossbill, 31

White-winged crossbill, 50

Crossbill sp, 20

Common redpoll, 17

Pine siskin, 21

American goldfinch, 142

House sparrow, 273

Total Individuals:  21,433

Total Species:  120

Additional Subspecies:  1

Count Period Species:  9