Bird Sightings: The Voice of Audubon

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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, September 1, 2010

A bar-tailed godwit, first seen on North Beach Island in Chatham two weeks ago, is now being seen on South Beach in Chatham. Other sightings from South Beach include 3 northern harriers, an American golden plover, 20 American oystercatchers, 12 whimbrel, 22 Hudsonian godwits, a marbled godwit, 40 red knots, 1400 short-billed dowitchers, 6 Forster's terns, and a lesser black-backed gull.

Birds and mammals seen between Stellwagen Bank and Race Point in Provincetown this week included 30 Manx shearwaters, 400 greater shearwaters, 80 red-necked phalaropes, a Sabine's gull, 3 black terns, 3 breaching humpback whales, 3 minke whales, and a young hooded seal from the arctic hauled out on Race Point Beach.

An evening heron watch at Hemenway Landing in Eastham this week found 38 black-crowned night-herons, 5 yellow-crowned night-herons, 9 snowy egrets, 6 great blue herons, 5 green herons, 3 common nighthawks, and 2 bats.

At Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary sightings this week included 45 American black ducks, 2 hooded mergansers, 12 mallards, a northern bobwhite, 31 great blue herons, a black-crowned night-heron, 3 American oystercatchers, 8 spotted sandpipers, 120 greater yellowlegs, 48 whimbrel, 400 laughing gulls, a northern harrier, a common nighthawk, a yellow-throated vireo, 3 northern waterthrushes, a black-throated green warbler, an ovenbird, and an indigo bunting.

A yellow-bellied flycatcher, a least flycatcher, a mourning warbler, a yellow-breasted chat, a blue-winged warbler, 11 ruby-throated hummingbirds, a scarlet tanager, and a dickcissel were among the birds banded and seen at Wing Island in Brewster this week.

 Among the miscellaneous bird sightings this week on the Cape were an olive-sided flycatcher in Truro on the 25th, 2 Forster's terns and a black tern in Nauset Marsh in Eastham, 4 Hudsonian godwits at Tern Island in Chatham, and an American wigeon in Marstons Mills.

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, August 30, 2010

Now is a great time to keep an eye out for Common Nighthawks migrating overhead during late afternoon and at dusk; for best results try to pick an elevated spot with good visibility of the northern horizon. 

Among the initial highlights reported from a deepwater pelagic trip to the continental shelf edge over the weekend were Audubon's Shearwater, White-faced and Band-rumped storm-petrels, Long-tailed Jaeger, Great Skua, and a possible South Polar Skua.  More details will be forthcoming later in the week.

A Bar-tailed Godwit in fading breeding plumage was again reported from South Beach over the weekend along with a Cory's Shearwater, 800 Black-bellied and 750 Semipalmated, and 2 Piping plovers, 47 American Oystercatchers, 8 Whimbrels, 3Willets, 21 Hudsonian and 1 Marbled Godwit, 200 Ruddy Turnstones, 500 Sanderlings, 40 White-rumped, 300 Semipalmated, and 250 Least sandpipers, a Dunlin, 250 Short-billed Dowitchers, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, a Black Tern, 650 Roseate Terns, and a Forster's Tern.

At North Beach in Chatham on Saturday, what was undoubtedly the same Bar-tailed Godwit noted at South Beach was observed along with 200 Greater and 25 Manx shearwaters, 15 Great Egrets, a Peregrine Falcon, 2 Piping Plovers, 40 American Oystercatchers, 30 Willets, 10 Marbled Godwits, a Pectoral Sandpiper, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, 3000 Roseate and 1000 Common terns, 6 Forster's Terns, a Sandwich Tern, 2 Parasitic Jaegers, and 5000 Tree Swallows.

Reports from the Parker River Refuge on Plum Island included a Ruddy Duck, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Merlin, 3 Peregrine Falcons, a Philadelphia Vireo, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Northern Waterthrush, and a Wilson's Warbler.

Weekend reports from Nantucket included 2 American Bitterns, a Glossy Ibis, a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and 2 Forster's Terns, and at Muskeget there was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper and 177 Black Terns.
A whale watching trip off Provincetown 400 Greater Shearwaters, 15 Manx Shearwaters, 30 Wilson's Storm-Petrels, 80 Red-necked Phalaropes, a Sabine's Gull, and 3 Black Terns.

At Duxbury Beach a shorebird tally included 250 Black-bellied, 525 Semipalmated, and 1 Piping Plover, 28 Willets, 140 Ruddy Turnstones, 17 Red Knots, 785 Sanderlings, 1100 Semipalmated Sandpipers, a Pectoral Sandpiper, and 325 Short-billed Dowitchers.
Observed at the Cumberland Farms fields in the Halifax/Middleboro over the weekend were a Wilson's Phalarope, a Nashville Warbler, and 2 Dickcissels.

Miscellaneous reports included a Black Vulture in Kingston; 325 migrating Common Nighthawks in Clinton and 19 in Lowell; 100 Chimney Swifts in Southboro; a Little Blue Heron and 5 Buff-breasted Sandpipers from Martha's Vineyard; 3 Forster's Terns at the Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area in Hanson; and a Mourning Warbler in Bradford.

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Western Massachusetts

Monday, August 30, 2010

Yards are busy with hummingbirds sipping at feeders and threatening one another. Sparrows are looking for millet spread on the ground.
Woodpeckers are able to linger at the suet cages without starlings chasing them away.  Just fledged goldfinches are crowding around sunflower seeds in  hanging feeders.  It is a good time to be feeding birds.

Nighthawks and bobolinks are migrating overhead in the evening, herons are crowding the ponds, rivers and marshes and warblers, and flycatchers are gorging themselves early each morning in preparation for their evening migration. The first hawks to leave are heading south.

Nine common mergansers, three great egrets, a green heron, three black-crowned night-herons, four least sandpipers, a solitary sandpiper, an olive-sided flycatcher, 22 northern rough-winged swallows and two magnolia warblers were reported in West Springfield.

A sandhill crane, three solitary sandpipers, a blue-winged warbler, a magnolia warbler and 288 bobolinks were seen in Southwick, while 155 common nighthawks were counted in Belchertown. Another 193 common nighthawks and 448 bobolinks were reported in Northampton and 283 common nighthawks were tallied  in East Longmeadow.

Four solitary sandpipers and an olive-sided flycatcher were found in Chesterfield, and an eastern screech-owl, eight ruby-throated hummingbirds and seven eastern bluebirds were seen in Westfield.

A great egret, a semipalmated plover, a lesser yellowlegs, four least sandpipers, a blue-gray gnatcatcher, a blue-winged warbler, a northern parula, a magnolia warbler and a Canada warbler were found in Agawam.

A northern parula, two Nashville warblers, a northern parula, a prairie warbler, two pine warblers and a Canada warbler were seen in Springfield.

A green heron, four green-winged teal, 28 wood ducks, seven great egrets and four rough-winged swallows were reported in Longmeadow.

Five common loons, five broad-winged hawks, two black terns, a yellow-throated vireo, eight red-breasted nuthatch, two Tennessee warblers, a blackburnian warbler and a Canada warbler were seen on the western side of the Quabbin Reservoir

 

 

 

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About the Voice of Audubon

These bird sighting reports are transcripts of recorded messages from each of three regional "bird alerts" maintained by Mass Audubon, known as the Voice of Audubon. The phone number for the Voice of Audubon is (781) 259-8805. All three recorded reports from throughout the state are accessible through this number, and the transcripts are available anytime at www.massaudubon.org/voa). Not all sightings that are submitted are included in the VOA reports. Those that are included are intended to provide a "snapshot" of the current, noteworthy bird activity in each region within Massachusetts, and might 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 the transcripts (with limited editing) each Sunday. To submit bird sightings call (781) 259-2150.

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*.

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