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

Friday, May 9, 2008

On Wednesday, two Mississippi Kites flew by the hawk watch site at Pilgrim Heights in Truro, and the Purple Gallinule that was discovered on Monday in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard was still there at least as recently as Wednesday. The gallinule has been in a small pond at the Farm Pond Preserve just east of the Oak Bluffs School off Wing Road in Oak Bluffs.

Another or one of the same White-faced Ibises that was found last weekend was still present in the pools along Route 1A just south of Red Gate Road in Rowley, and a Ruff was seen again on Wednesday in the fields along Scotland Road in Newbury.

Another big wave of migrants arrived yesterday morning. This latest fallout yielded reports from various localities in the eastern part of the state. A sample from the Fells Reservation in Medford included 1 Least Flycatcher, 6 Great Crested Flycatchers, 8 Brown Thrashers, 20 species of wood warblers including 12 Nashvilles, 32 Northern Parulas, 18 Magnolias, 26 Black-throated Blues, a minimum of 400 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 28 Black-throated Greens, 33 Black-and-whites, and 21 American Redstarts, 4 Scarlet Tanagers, 5 Indigo Buntings, and 41 Baltimore Orioles.

Other counts included 21 species of warblers at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Mattapan, and 20 species of warblers at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

Other reports this week from Mount Auburn Cemetery included 2 Cape May Warblers, 1 Hooded Warbler, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, and 4 Orchard Orioles.

A report from Wompatuck State Park in Hingham included 2 Solitary Sandpipers, 8 Great Crested Flycatchers, 4 Red-eyed Vireos, 3 Veerys, 3 Scarlet Tanagers, 1 White-crowned Sparrow, roughly 30 Baltimore Orioles, and 19 species of wood warblers including 20 Nashvilles, 12 Northern Parulas, 1 Cerulean Warbler, 4 Worm-eating Warblers, and roughly 75 Ovenbirds.

Noted at the Arlington Reservoir were 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 7 Solitary Sandpipers, 8 Spotted Sandpipers, 10 Least Sandpipers, 3 Orchard Orioles, and 12 Baltimore Orioles, and reports from Nantucket this week included 400 Northern Gannets, 1 Upland Sandpiper, 200 Least Terns, 15 Roseate Terns, 1 Clay-colored Sparrow, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, 4 Indigo Buntings, 8 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, roughly 50 Baltimore Orioles, 15 Orchard Orioles, and 1 Evening Grosbeak.

Seen in Nahant were 3 Solitary Sandpipers, 6 Least Sandpipers, 1 White-eyed Vireo, and 1 Louisiana Waterthrush, and miscellaneous reports this week have included  a Tricolored Heron and a White-eyed Vireo at Plum Island, 2 Wilson's Phalaropes in Rowley, 2 American Bitterns and a Lesser Black-backed Gull in Westminster, a Common Raven and a White-eyed Vireo in Hingham, a Cerulean Warbler in Waltham, 2 Lincoln's Sparrows and 1 White-crowned Sparrow in the Boston Public Garden, and a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the Boston Common.

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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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