Bird Sightings: The Voice of Audubon

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.

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

Cape Cod

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

A breeding plumaged Pacific loon was photographed quite close to shore at Herring Cove in Provincetown on Saturday. This is a rare treat, given that we normally have to settle for seeing these loons in their drab gray garb of winter.

The western tanager that has wintered at the Maddocks Gallery in Brewster is still there, and has turned out to be a male. Amazingly, he has taken to consorting with a recently arrived scarlet tanager this week.

A wild turkey was seen in downtown Hyannis this week being chased by a small cat! The turkey, while dwarfing his pursuer, ended up scrambling onto the hood of a car to escape the diminutive feline.

Among the interesting avian sights at the Pilgrim Heights Hawk Watch this week were a Caspian tern, a common raven, 4 cliff swallows, 3 peregrine falcons, 7 merlins, 2 Iceland gulls, 550 northern gannets, and migrating waterbirds that included 920 double-crested cormorants and 210 common loons.

A worm-eating warbler and a hooded warbler were seen at the Beech Forest in Provincetown this week. Also seen were 2 wood ducks, a white-eyed vireo, 4 blue-headed vireos, 6 ruby-crowned kinglets, 2 blue-gray gnatcatchers, a northern parula, 7 black-throated green warblers, 2 Canada warblers, 4 black-and-white warblers, a northern waterthrush, a rusty blackbird, and 15 purple finches. Ovenbirds have now been seen at various locations, as have yellow warblers and common yellowthroats.

There's been a fallout of orioles, catbirds, and flycatchers in the last few days, with great-crested flycatchers, Baltimore and orchard orioles, gray catbirds, and eastern kingbirds all making appearances at various spots.

A tricolored heron was at South Cape Beach State Park in Mashpee, along with 7 greater scaup, a ruffed grouse, and a short-billed dowitcher.

Four Pine siskins were in South Orleans, where they have been since November.

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Eastern Massachusetts

Monday, May 5, 2008

Two White-faced Ibises were discovered on Saturday in the fields along Scotland Rd in Newbury, and 2 Ruffs were found over the weekend in the pools along Rt 1A in Rowley, just north of Red Gate Rd. Another or one of the same Ruffs was seen in the Scotland Rd fields today.

Other birds seen in the Rowley pools included 16 Green-winged Teal, 13 Glossy Ibises, and 2 Wilson's Phalaropes, and today in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, a Purple Gallinule was discovered in a small pond on publically accessible property belonging to the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank Commission a short distance northeast of the Oak Bluffs public School.

This morning marked the biggest influx of new migrants so far this spring. Seen at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge were 12 species of wood warblers including roughly 100 Yellow-rumped Warblers and 22 Black-throated Green Warblers, 1 White-crowned Sparrow, 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 2 Orchard Orioles, and 8 Baltimore Orioles, and a report from Medford included 10 Blue-headed Vireos, 12 House Wrens, 1 Blue-winged Warbler, 8 Nashville Warblers, 7 Northern Parulas, 10 Yellow Warblers, 82 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 5 Black-throated Green Warblers, 7 Palm Warblers, 9 Black-and-white Warblers, 3 Ovenbirds, 19 Eastern Towhees, 1 Lincoln's Sparrow, 4 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and 1 Bobolink.

Species reported from the Newburyport/Plum Island area included

Tricolored Heron, Cattle Egret, Sora, Whimbrel, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caspian Tern, Least Flycatcher, Veery, Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, Seaside Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, and Bobolink.

Seen in Wayland were 2 Wood Thrushes, 1 Yellow Warbler, 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 1 Baltimore Oriole, and several Bobolinks, and at Wompatuck State Park in Hingham there were 4 Broad-winged Hawks, 4 Gray Catbirds, 6 Baltimore Orioles, and 9 species of wood warblers including 24 Ovenbirds, 10 Black-and-white Warblers, 3 Northern Waterthrushes, and 1 Blue-winged Warbler.

Miscellaneous reports from the weekend included a Pacific Loon at Herring Cove in Provincetown on Saturday, a Worm-eating Warbler at the Beech Forest section of Provincetown, a Red-necked Phalarope at the Topsfield Fairgrounds along Rt 1, a Glaucous Gull in Lynn, a White-eyed Vireo in Nahant, a White-crowned Sparrow and a Grasshopper Sparrow at Millennium Park in West Roxbury, 31 Greater Yellowlegs, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 4 Least Sandpipers at Bolton Flats, and 1 Least Flycatcher, 1 Chestnut-sided Warbler, and 1 Evening Grosbeak in Westminster.

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Western Massachusetts

Monday, April 28, 2008

Only limited numbers of some species that normally arrive in April are
being seen, but numbers of other species are plentiful. The usual
scouts ahead of the big May migration push are also being reported.

Two American wigeon, a northern harrier, a green heron, a lesser
yellowlegs, a black-billed cuckoo, a white-crowned sparrow, and a
Baltimore oriole were seen in Amherst.

A spotted sandpiper was found in West Springfield, two spotted
sandpipers, a lesser yellowlegs, three barn swallows, and two northern
  rough-winged  swallows were reported in Holyoke, and a warbling
vireo was seen in Springfield.

A greater yellowlegs, 12 green-winged teal, eight Wilson's snipe, a
glaucous gull, an Iceland gull, a fish crow, and a common yellowthroat
were found in Hadley.

A Virginia rail, two whip-poor-wills, a red-eyed vireo, three fish
crows, and a northern waterthrush were seen in Southwick, and a
bufflehead, five common loons, and a northern  rough-winged  swallow
were found in Quabbin Park at the Quabbin Reservoir.

Five American bitterns, a common loon, nine Wilson's snipe, four
northern saw-whet owls, six northern rough-winged  swallows, two
northern waterthrush, and two black-throated green warblers were seen
in Tyringham..

A wood thrush was reported in Montague, an indigo bunting was seen in
Northampton, two Baltimore orioles were found in Wilbraham, and 55
rusty blackbirds were seen in Belchertown.

A Baltimore oriole, 15 chimney swifts, two barn swallows and two
yellow warblers were reported in Longmeadow.

A solitary sandpiper, a ruby-throated hummingbird, a black-throated
green warbler, a Nashville warbler, a rose-breasted grosbeak, and six
rusty blackbirds were observed in Pittsfield.

Two green-winged teal, a northern harrier, and four chimney swifts
were seen in Williamstown, two sandhill cranes were in Sheffield, and
an American bittern was found in Cummington.

 

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About the Voice of Audubon

These bird sighting reports are transcripts of recorded messages from each of four 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 four 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). Click here* to 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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