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 14, 2008

Two Mississippi kites flew by Mass Audubon's Pilgrim Heights Hawk Watch last week. The passage of a few of these aerially insectivorous southern hawks has become a regular spring event at Pilgrim Heights.

Another southern visitor, a summer tanager, was seen in a yard in Harwichport, and a red-headed woodpecker was reported from Wellfleet.

The previously reported tricolored heron was still at South Cape Beach as of May 10th.

Warblers abound, so prepare your neck muscles. At least 12 species have been recorded this week at hotspots such as the Beech Forest in Provincetown and the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, including northern parula, yellow warbler, magnolia warbler, black-throated green warbler, black-throated blue warbler, American redstart, and ovenbird.

Common and least terns have returned this week, ready to provide the ambient beach sounds for another summer on Cape Cod.

In the nightjar department, Whip-poor-wills are back, and a chuck-will's-widow was reported from Chatham. Mass Audubon is conducting a study of whip-poor-wills and would like your sightings. You can report them at http://www.massaudubon.org/whippoorwill/

Up to 20 bobolinks were seen in Barnstable village, as were an American bittern and a solitary sandpiper.

Seen at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary this week were 2 wood ducks, a northern bobwhite, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a white-eyed vireo, a marsh wren, a brown thrasher, a field sparrow, up to 12 Baltimore and 7 orchard orioles, and a purple finch. Fowler's toads and Pickerel frogs are now calling at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and elsewhere.

 

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Eastern Massachusetts

Monday, May 12, 2008

One of the two White-faced Ibises that were first found over a week ago was seen again yesterday in the fields off Scotland Road in Newbury, and on Saturday a Western Tanager was seen briefly in the middle of the Middlesex Fells but has not been reported since.

Weekend reports from the Newburyport/Plum Island area included 1400 Long-tailed Ducks, 130 Least Sandpipers, 1 Caspian Tern, 2 Forster's Terns, 9 Common Terns, several Whip-poor-wills, 10 Purple Martins, and a Golden-winged Warbler, and seen at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge were 3 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 1 Yellow-throated Vireo, 2 Veerys, 1 Bicknell's Thrush, 1 Swainson's Thrush, 27 species of wood warblers including 2 Tennessees, 23 Northern Parulas, 25 Magnolias, 2 Cape Mays, 28 Black-throated Blues, 1 Bay-breasted Warbler,  1 Cerulean Warbler, 30 Black-and-whites, 1 Louisiana Waterthrush, and 2 Canada Warblers, 1 Lincoln's Sparrow, 1 Indigo Bunting, 2 Bobolinks, 3 Orchard Orioles, and 13 Baltimore Orioles.

A report from Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain included 18 species of wood warblers including 1 Wilson's Warbler and 1 Hooded Warbler, 2 Brown Thrashers, 1 Veery, 1 Swainson's Thrush, 2 Wood Thrushes, 2 White-crowned Sparrows, and 3 Orchard Orioles, and weekend reports from Nantucket included 1 Bald Eagle, 77 Roseate Terns, 250 Least Terns, 25 Common Terns, 1 Yellow-throated Warbler, 3 Summer Tanagers, 12 White-crowned Sparrows, 7 Dark-eyed Juncos, 1 Dickcissel, 30 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, 4 Indigo Buntings, 77 Baltimore Orioles, 15 Orchard Orioles, and 1 Evening Grosbeak.

Miscellaneous reports from the weekend included an Olive-sided Flycatcher in North Andover, 40 Glossy Ibises in Newbury, 137 Lesser Yellowlegs and 3 Wilson's Phalaropes in Rowley, a Caspian Tern and 6 White-crowned Sparrows in Gloucester, 5 White-crowned Sparrows and 16 species of wood warblers at the Ipswich River sanctuary in Topsfield, a Louisiana Waterthrush in Nahant, 3 Manx Shearwaters and an Arctic Tern at Revere Beach, a Whip-poor-will in Medford, 2 Lincoln's Sparrows in Concord, a White-eyed Vireo in Waltham, a White-eyed Vireo and a White-crowned Sparrow at Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain, 19 species of warblers including 1 Tennessee, 1 Cape May, and 2 Hooded Warblers at Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, and 1 Tricolored Heron in Mashpee.

 

 

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Western Massachusetts

Monday, May 12, 2008

All of the resident birds that arrive in early May are now here in
good numbers, including least flycatchers, great crested flycatchers,
eastern kingbirds, yellow-throated vireos, red-eyed vireos,  warbling
vireos, veerys, chestnut-sided warblers, magnolia warblers,
black-throated blue warblers, prairie warblers, scarlet tanagers,
indigo buntings, and bobolinks.  Migrants like white-crowned sparrows
and pine siskins are also showing up at feeders.

A western tanager was present for a half hour in a yard in Amherst on
Monday. Also seen in Amherst were a green heron, a Wilson's snipe, a
Swainson's thrush, a blackpoll warbler, a Cape May warbler, a
bay-breasted warbler, and an orchard oriole.

A fish crow, four Swainson's thrush, two Cape May warblers, and a
Wilson's warbler were reported in Robinson State Park in Agawam.

Two common moorhens, a Virginia rail, and a sora were observed in
Lenox. An American bittern a greater yellowlegs, and a lesser
yellowlegs were seen in Sheffield, and five solitary sandpipers were
reported in Lanesboro.

A northern goshawk, two northern saw-whet owls, 24 winter wrens, a
Swainson's thrush, a Cape May warbler a blackpoll warbler, and ten
evening grosbeaks were noted in the hilltown of Hawley.

A common loon, 14 northern parulas, and a Tennessee warbler were seen
in Quabbin Park at the Quabbin Reservoir. A Wilson's warbler was
reported in Belchertown, and a grasshopper sparrow was seen at the
Turners Falls airport.

A Wilson's snipe, 13 greater yellowlegs and an orchard oriole were
found in Hadley, while wormeating warblers and five cerulean warblers
were seen on Mt. Holyoke.

A blackpoll warbler and a Tennessee warbler were seen in Springfield,
a greater yellowlegs in Longmeadow, and a Tennessee warbler in Westfield.

A yellow-throated warbler was reported at the Arcadia sanctuary last
Wednesday, but has not been seen since.

A prothonotary warbler was also reported last week at a brook a
half-mile in from Gate 15 of the Quabbin Reservoir.

Four red-necked grebes, a cliff swallow, a wormeating warbler, and two
orchard orioles were seen in Southwick.

 

 

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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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