Birding Through the Seasons: A 2023 Monthly Birding Series

Cape Cod is the ideal location to start your birding career or take it to the next level.

In this series, expert birder Chris Walz will take participants through the process of creating a year list from beginning to end and lend his insights and birding skills along the way during monthly outings at local birding hotspots.

A full schedule of topics and locations is listed below:

January- Getting Started with ebird

Saturday, January 21st Time: 10am-12pm Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary Discovery Center

Besides the usual birding tools such as binoculars; online resources such as allaboutbirds.org and ebird.org have become an important part of turning the birder into a citizen scientist and nature hero. In this first session we will be birding online and observing the feeders while we learn how to use traditional birding techniques as well as these unique online tools to identify birds, keep your records, search for places to go birding, and find that ever elusive species to finish out your Year List-or to add to your Life List!

February- In Search of Snowy Owls

Saturday, February 18th

Time: 8:00-11:00am

Location: TBD on Cape, location given 1-3 days prior to program

The snowy owls are back on Cape for the winter. February's meeting will take you to the local snowy owl hot spots around the cape to learn about the natural history of these amazing birds.

March- Owl Prowl

Saturday March 18th (rain date Sunday March 19th)

Time: 6:00pm-8:30pm

Location: Long Pasture or Barnstable Great Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary

Join us for a Spring evening excursion to listen for owls. Both great horned owls and Eastern screech owls have been heard seasonally at Barnstable Great Marsh or Long Pasture.

April- Bird Banding at Wellfleet Bay

Saturday April 15th

Time: 7:00am-10:00am

Location: Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, Wellfleet, MA

Wellfleet Bay has re-established a bird banding station to study the migration of songbirds. Mist nets are set up on the property during spring and fall migrations and are managed by James Junda, Licensed Master Bander. Come meet James and the rest of the bird banding team and learn about banding methods and the information gathered from this research. You will likely get to see live birds up-close and observe the banding process.

May- Warbler Day at Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Saturday, May 20th

Time: 7am-1:00pm

Location: Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA

Early May is the time of year when warblers arrive in waves. These beautiful and ecologically important songbirds have traveled hundreds of miles to reach their breeding grounds. Don't miss out as we travel up to Cambridge to explore the 'hotspot' that is Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Every spring migration, hidden within a sea of metal and concrete, this green oasis will be dripping with so many birds that it is possible to find 20 or more species of warblers.

Participants will travel to Mt. Auburn Cemetery for the program. Please bring a bag lunch, water and snacks. Program length may be altered due to weather and/or bird activity.

June- In Search of Sparrows and other Grassland Birds

Saturday June 17th Time: 8:00am - 11:00am

Location: Crane Wildlife Management Area, Falmouth MA

Take a trip to the Francis Crane Wildlife Management Area, encompassing over 1,800 acres of protected land including rare expanses of open grassland habitat. Here we will search for Sparrows and work to sort out these tricky to identify and nuanced 'Little Brown Jobs' (LBJs) while searching for other elusive grassland species including meadowlarks and kestrels.

July -Ospreys of Waquoit Bay and South Cape Beach

Saturday, July 15th Time: 7:00am-10:00am

Location: South Cape Beach State Park, Great Flat Pond Loop Trail

The Great Flat Pond Loop Trail passes through the coastal pitch pine woodlands, across the salt marsh, to South Cape Barrier Beach and the salt marsh and tidal flats of Waquoit Bay and Sage Lot Pond. This property is rich with birdlife including tree swallows, red-wing blackbirds, kestrels and green and great-blue herons. The Ospreys will have returned to the many nesting poles and natural nest locations throughout this regional nesting hotspot on Cape Cod, providing excellent opportunities to watch them up close.

August- Shearwaters, Jaegers and Shorebirds

Saturday, August 19th Time: 6:00am-11:00am Location: Race Point Beach, Cape Cod National Seashore, Provincetown

In August we will head out to the tip of the Cape for a full day of shorebirds, shearwaters, petrels and jaegers at the Cape Cod National Seashore. Participants will travel to Race Point for the program. Please bring a bag lunch, water and snacks. A pack chair may also be helpful.

September- Hawk Watch at Wachusett Mountain

Saturday, September 16th Time: 8:00am-1:00pm Location: Mount Wachusett, Princeton MA

Early fall is a great time to search the skies for soaring hawks, falcons, and eagles as the transforming weather summons a change in season and signals the urge to migrate. We will check for these raptors and other migratory birds from atop the highest point in Eastern MA. Participants should bring a bag lunch, water and snacks.

October- Birding the Fall Migration at Fort Hill

Saturday, October 21st

Time: 8:00am-12:00pm

Location: Fort Hill, Cape Cod National Seashore, Eastham, MA

Birding on Cape Cod during the fall migration offers incredible diversity. Resident species mingle with southbound migrants and early-arriving winter birds. We will search for these migrating shorebirds, songbirds, raptors, and seabirds on the Outer Cape from atop Fort Hill, overlooking the vast expanse of Nauset Marsh and Nauset Barrier Beach.

November - Fall Ducks of Cape Cod

Saturday, November 18th

Time: 8:00am- 12:00pm

Location: TBD on Cape - Location given 1-3 days prior to program

The weather has cooled and many birds should have gone far south for winter, but some of the most colorful fall birds have been arriving over the last few weeks to spend the winter here offshore in the saltwater around Cape Cod or on our freshwater lakes and ponds. How can these birds survive the frigid and icy waters? Why do some dabble and others dive? We will search along some local waterways for 'Skunkheads', 'bluebills', and some crazy divers.

December - End of Year Wrap-up

Saturday December 16th

Time: 9:00am-11:00am

Location: Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary Discovery Center

2023 is almost at an end, determined birders will have created many lists through the year- some may have created a list for every day, some for only their backyards and others may have travelled within the country, or overseas to find colorful and unique birds. We will take this time to share our birding adventures with each other by using our ebird accounts to explore the data we have collected in 2023.

Instructions and Directions:

Meeting Place: