The 2024 waterfowl census will be on Saturday and Sunday, December 7th and 8th.
During the first weekend of November of 1983, Blair Nikula and members of the Cape Cod Bird Club initiated a census of the lakes and ponds on Cape Cod. Participants were instructed to identify and count all the waterfowl (loons, grebes, geese, ducks, and coot) present on each pond. Covering 202 ponds, participants tallied 3,957 individuals of 22 species of waterfowl.
The census continued the following year but was moved to the first weekend in December. Many ducks and geese do not arrive on Cape Cod until in-land bodies of water freeze, and the later date would more closely coincide with peak water-fowl numbers locally. Covering 225 ponds, 25 species of waterfowl were counted with 9,097 individuals being recorded. That year, and in those following, detailed accounts of each species on each pond were recorded. These provide the data presented on the waterfowl website.
Now in its 40th year, the Cape Cod Waterfowl Census is an excellent example of citizen science in which birders, regardless of their expertise, can gather useful data and make a meaningful contribution to our knowledge of the Massachusetts avifauna. Waterfowl are relatively conspicuous, generally easy to identify, and thus readily censused with a reasonable effort.
December 2nd and 3rd of 2023 there were 26 teams with 43 individual team members participating in the 40th annual Cape Cod Waterfowl Census. The volunteers demonstrated their impressive collective birding skills as they scouted primary observation locations, recorded data and entered observation results within days of the survey.
A total of 29 species of waterfowl and 11,726 individual birds were seen on 340 of our freshwater ponds. These include 24 species of ducks, Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Canada Goose, Mute Swan and American Coot. Some of the more notable finds include 15 Northern Pintails, 244 Ruddy Ducks and 302 American Coot. Overall, numbers were slightly down from last year with a significant decline in Mallard, Canada Goose and Mute Swan compared to 2021 and 2022, however, there was a huge jump in both Greater and Lesser Scaup numbers for the second straight year.
I wish to express my appreciation to the dedicated volunteers, both newcomers and seasoned veterans, for their spirit, enthusiasm, and drive, as well as for generously sharing their collective birding expertise. Please visit our website where you will find a link that will display all waterfowl data in spreadsheet format from 1984 through the present.
MJ Foti, Volunteer Coordinator
If you would like to participate:
Please get in touch with Mary Jo Foti using the form below to let her know you want to join a team.
If you would like to hear/read Mark Faherty’s 2017 WCAI Counting Waterfowl recording and text, click here.