Bird Sightings: The Voice of Audubon

To submit bird sightings call
(781) 259-2150.

The Voice of Audubon offers regular updates on birds sighted across the state to introduce you to the wide variety of species Massachusetts has to offer.

Below are the most recently published sightings. Sightings in the past month are also available.

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Cape Cod

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

The broad-billed hummingbird of Dennis has been acting very settled in lately, and is correspondingly quite cooperative.

Two black-necked stilts were at First Encounter Beach in Eastham on Tuesday evening. This southerly, elegantly long-legged shorebird is a rare but seemingly annual visitor to the Cape.

The 3rd annual Cape Cod Bird Club "Birding Cape Cod Weekend" was held on this soggy and windy past weekend, and several intrepid trip leaders tallied a total of 90 species. In Barnstable were 5 wood ducks, a Eurasian wigeon, 18 American wigeon, 6 blue-winged teal, a pied-billed grebe, 2 northern harriers, and 3000 tree swallows. A heron watch at Hemenway Landing in Eastham noted 44 black-crowned night-herons and 4 yellow-crowned night-herons heading out into Nauset Marsh for the night shift, replacing the great blue herons and egrets that cover the daylight hours. Some other highlights from the birding weekend included 14 wild turkeys in Truro and Provincetown, 12 northern bobwhites at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, 8 northern gannets, 647 double-crested cormorants, 17 great egrets, a peregrine falcon in Truro, an American oystercatcher, 4 whimbrel and a short-billed dowitcher in Eastham, 3 Bonaparte's gulls, 511 common terns, 13 Forster's terns, a great-horned owl, 11 eastern phoebes, 4462 tree swallows, 17 cedar waxwings, 7 blackpoll warblers, an American redstart, a Baltimore oriole, and 146 brown-headed cowbirds.

A red-necked grebe was seen at Nauset Beach in Orleans Monday, along with 20 white-winged scoters, 2 black scoters, a peregrine falcon, an American golden plover seen from Tonset Point, 5 piping plovers, and 6 ruddy turnstones.

Hurricane Kyle did not bring quite the expected gales that hard-core seabird watchers so masochistically crave, but some good ocean birds were noted nonetheless from Race Point Beach in Provincetown, including 24 Cory's shearwaters, 20 greater shearwaters, 2 sooty shearwaters, 480 northern gannets, 11 Bonaparte's gulls, a lesser black-backed gull, 6 black-legged kittiwakes, 3200 common terns, 19 parasitic jaegers, plus a Sabine's gull seen from Herring Cove.

Yellow-rumped warblers have invaded the Cape as of Wednesday morning. Unlike most warbler species that pass through our area very briefly or not at all, yellow-rumps tend to linger on the Cape well into the fall and often winter as well, feeding heavily on our abundant bayberries, also known as wax myrtle. This behavior gave them their old name of "myrtle warbler". Flocks of American robins have also begun to arrive in the area. Contrary to popular belief, robins are here all winter, roaming about in hungry flocks in search of fruit like that from crab apples, cedars, pokeweed, and multiflora rose.

If you have questions about these sightings, or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 or send e-mail to sightings@massaudubon.org.

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Eastern Massachusetts

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Say's Phoebe found last week at Plum Island was not reported over the weekend, but the Broad-billed Hummingbird in Dennis was still present there at least as recently as yesterday.

Other reports from Plum Island included 4 Brant, 30 American Wigeon, 100 Northern Pintail, roughly 4100 Green-winged Teal, 1 Greater Scaup, 1 American Golden-Plover, 1 Pomarine Jaeger, 1 Caspian Tern, 1 Great Crested Flycatcher, and 1 Connecticut Warbler, and at the Great Meadows refuge in Concord there were 51 Wood Ducks, 2 American Wigeon, 5 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Pied-billed Grebes, 3 Great Egrets, 1 American Bittern, 2 Northern Harriers, 3 Soras, 12 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and 52 Swamp Sparrows.

Seen at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston were 19 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 4 Nashville Warblers, 6 Northern Parulas, and 25 Blackpoll Warblers, and at the Arlington Reservoir there were 19 American Wigeon, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, 2 Ospreys, 1 Blackburnian Warbler, 16 Palm Warblers, 1 Scarlet Tanager, 2 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and 9 Indigo Buntings.

A report from Westport included 21 Northern Pintail, 41 Great Egrets, 1 American Golden-Plover, 1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2 White-eyed Vireos, 2 Winter Wrens, 1 Yellow Warbler, 1 Yellow-breasted Chat, and 1 Dickcissel, noted at Fresh Pond in Cambridge were 30 Ring-necked Ducks, 1 Clay-colored Sparrow, 1 Lark Sparrow, and a Blue Grosbeak, and miscellaneous reports from the weekend included an Orange-crowned Warbler and a Dickcissel in Gloucester, a Red-shouldered Hawk and a Blue Grosbeak in Newbury, 41 Ring-necked Duck and 73 Ruddy Ducks at the Cherry Hill Reservoir in West Newbury, a Hudsonian Godwit, 200 Bonaparte's Gulls, and 14 Forster's Terns in Newburyport Harbor, 50 Rusty Blackbirds at the Ipswich River sanctuary in Topsfield, 3 Dickcissels in Ipswich, a Philadelphia Vireo and a Gray-cheeked Thrush at the Marblehead Neck sanctuary, a late Golden-winged Warbler in Nahant, 3 Northern Shovelers and a Clay-colored Sparrow in East Boston, an Orange-crowned Warbler and 25 White-throated Sparrows in Winthrop, a Wood Thrush, a Yellow Warbler, and a Clay-colored Sparrow along the Rose Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston, 115 Yellow-rumped Warblers at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, 10 Pine Siskins in Brookline, a Lark Sparrow at Danehy Park in Cambridge, an American Bittern in Watertown, 2 Orange-crowned Warblers and a Connecticut Warbler at Millennium Park in West Roxbury, a Clay-colored Sparrow in Lexington, a Brant in Lincoln, 16 Northern Rough-winged Swallows and 110 Rusty Blackbirds in Sudbury, a Cape May Warbler, 1 Blue Grosbeak, and 8 Lincoln's Sparrows in East Bridgewater, and a Eurasian Wigeon in the Marstons Mills section of Barnstable.

 

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Western Massachusetts

Monday, October 6, 2008

With the first strong cold front of the season, the last of the tropical migrants are now passing through our region.  With them the first sparrows and ducks are arriving from the north.

Five brant, 10 northern pintails, two white-winged scoters, eight common loons, two Caspian terns, a merlin, a peregrine falcon, five Swainson's thrushes, 10 American pipits, a winter wren, 21 blackpoll warblers and two rusty blackbirds were found in Quabbin Park at the Quabbin Reservoir.

A common loon, three peregrine falcons, five ruffed grouse, a Philadelphia vireo, five winter wrens, three Swainson's thrush, two Tennessee warblers and nine blackpoll warblers were seen on the Prescott Peninsula at the Quabbin.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds were still at feeders in Florence and Granby. Five tree swallows were reported in Hadley and two Tennessee warblers were seen in West Stockbridge.

A cackling goose, a buff-breasted sandpiper and a Tennessee warbler were found in Hatfield.

Two green herons, a Philadelphia vireo and two blackpoll warblers were seen in Belchertown.

Four common loons, a great egret, two northern goshawks, a Virginia rail, two Wilson's snipe, two marsh wrens, an orange-crowned warbler and 28 blackpoll warblers were reported in Brookfield.

A great egret, 30 palm warblers,  and an indigo bunting were found in Northampton.

Five black vultures, a common loon, a chimney swift and two American pipits were reported in Granville, an American bittern and some green-winged teal were found  in Egremont and 12 black vultures, a broad-winged hawk, a merlin and four white-crowned sparrows were seen in Sheffield.

 

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About the Voice of Audubon

These bird sighting reports are transcripts of recorded messages from each of three regional bird hotlines maintained by Mass Audubon, known as the Voice of Audubon. Beginning November 1, 2006, the phone number for the Voice of Audubon is (781) 259-8805. The toll-free number will no longer be in service, but all three recorded reports from throughout the state will continue to be accessible through the new number, and the transcripts will still be available anytime on our website (www.massaudubon.org/voa). The Voice of Audubon is the oldest phone-based bird alert in the United States, first established on December 1, 1954 (original phone number, KEnmore 6-4050). See the original 1954 press release*.

These reports are intended to provide a "snapshot" of the noteworthy bird activity in each region within Massachusetts. Sightings incorporated into these reports include, for example, rarities, early/first-arriving migrants, late-departing migrants, high counts, unusual sightings (e.g., a seabird found on an inland lake), or simply those that represent exemplary sightings for the time and place.

The Boston Globe publishes one or more of these transcripts (with limited editing) each Sunday. To submit bird sightings call (781) 259-2150.

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