Harris Center Kestrels Win the Superbowl of Birding…Again

A Winter Win for Birds and Conservation

The Birding University – Harris Center Kestrels birding team participated in Mass Audubon’s Superbowl of Birding on January 31. A friendly annual competition that occurs in two coastal counties — one each in Massachusetts and New Hampshire — the Superbowl of Birding is a great way to enjoy and document winter birdlife, celebrate the birding community, and raise funds for conservation.

Along with our new sponsor, Birding University, this year’s Harris Center team roster consisted of Katrina Fenton, Steven Lamonde, Nate Marchessault, Will Stollsteimer, and Phil Brown.

A squawking, fuzzy white kestrel nestling. (photo © Brett Amy Thelen)

For the fourth straight year, the Harris Center has used the Superbowl of Birding to fundraise for its raptor conservation projects, in the past helping to grow a young American Kestrel conservation project (which now boasts 50 nest boxes across 20 Monadnock Region towns) and track the movements of migratory Broad-winged Hawks. This year, we’re raising funds to expand testing for rodenticides and other toxins in our local American Kestrel population, track kestrel movements through the use of transmitters, and bring our work closer to people through new and improved camera and video technology.

A Team Effort from Start to Finish

Our team assembled the night before the Superbowl to devise a plan, relying on eBird reports and a sophisticated planning template with detailed spreadsheets and maps. This honed strategy, combined with our prior knowledge of the home turf, precise game-day decisions, highly focused eyes and ears, and perhaps a tad bit of luck (as in any contest), led us to victory — and a really fun day in the field! Each Kestrels teammate contributed greatly to what amounted to an excellent day of birding.

The coveted Joppa Cup already bears the Kestrels name from their 2024 victory. (photo © Phil Brown)

We started with Barred and Eastern Screech Owls just after kickoff (5 a.m.), and then found several five-point birds (Evening Grosbeak, Rusty Blackbird, Black Vultures, and the showstopper: a previously-reported female Painted Bunting at a Hampton bird feeder) early in the first half.

After halftime (with nary a break nor a show), we headed to the coast and continued our streak of finding great birds. Raptors, in particular, were a highlight, and we had enjoyable views of Merlin, Red-Shouldered Hawk, and a spectacular dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk! A Peregrine Falcon flying out across Hampton Marsh as the clock wound down (just before 5 p.m.) was our last new species of the day, but a final prize awaited us.

With the full moon rising from a purple evening sky, I spotted a Snowy Owl perched atop a residential rooftop just outside of Rockingham County. We paused to enjoy this spectacular scene a little longer than we would have during the previous 12 hours, when every minute counted as we constantly sought the “next bird.”

The Kestrels tallied 77 species and 159 points this year, earning the Dave Larson Award for the team with the most species. Previously, we won the top award, the Joppa Cup (for most points), but this year’s top team came ahead of us by a single point! Along with the tight competition, our kestrel project donors motivated us to keep birding at the top of our game on a very cold and memorable winter day.

Scenes from the 2026 Super Bowl of Birding

Pre-dawn owling before the 2026 Super Bowl of Birding. (photo © Phil Brown)