June 2024

Front Cover: June 2024

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:15 GMT

Cliff Swallow by John Sill © Massachusetts Audubon Society. Courtesy of the Museum of American Bird Art.

John Sill is a freelance wildlife artist living in the mountains of North Carolina. He was the illustrator for the Bird Identification Calendar for Mass Audubon for many years. His work has appeared in Birds In Art at the Leigh-Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, Wisconsin, and in Art of the Animal Kingdom at the Bennington Center for the Arts in Vermont. He continues to illustrate the “About” and “About Habitats” series of natural history books for children written by his wife Cathryn.

Hot Birds: June 2024

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:14 GMT

Reinhard Vehring discovered our state’s rarest bird of the spring, a drake Garganey, in a flooded field at Kamon Farm in Ipswich on April 21. It was the fifth state record, the first in more than two decades, and only the second in Massachusetts outside of Plum Island. This one-day wonder was seen by many lucky birders. Marj Watson took the photograph.

Two Ross’s Geese passed through Massachusetts this spring. Davey Wolters found the first in Newbury March 24—25. Bev King turned up the other in the Slocum’s River Reserve in Dartmouth on April 21; it remained in the area through at least May 5. Chris Floyd took the photograph.

Birds of Acadia National Park’s Schoodic Peninsula, Maine

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:13 GMT

Acadia National Park is one of the most visited national parks on the East Coast, despite being the most rural. The avian diversity is spectacular from alcids to warblers. What attracts birders is the allure of wilderness found in Acadia National Park, especially in the Schoodic District, more commonly called Schoodic Peninsula. Protruding north to south 9.2 miles into the biologically rich Gulf of Maine, Schoodic Peninsula is surrounded on three sides by numerous islands and sheltered bays along the eastern and western coastlines. The peninsula offers an ideal ecological setting from which to observe more than 350 species of birds.

Along with the forested hills of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island to the west, Schoodic Peninsula was exploited by early colonists for its natural resources— the spruce, fir, white pine, jack pine, maples, birch, and cedar of its boreal forests. Once logged, its thin soils were not conducive to long-term sustainability, so the peninsula was basically abandoned. This, along with its remoteness and isolation from coastal towns and resorts, allowed for the forests’ regrowth and preservation (Workman 2014). The boreal forest and isolated Atlantic coast are the perfect combination for adding difficult species to a birder’s life list.

Least Terns in Massachusetts: A Captivating Coastal Bird

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:12 GMT

Least Tern with fish. Photograph by Beth Howard, Mass Audubon.

Visit any Atlantic coast beach from Maine to Florida during the mild days of summer and you may hear the iconic “zwreep” of a Least Tern (Sternula antillarum). This slight-bodied tern, with a pale yellow, dark-tipped bill and a tell-tale black loral stripe, is smaller and less conspicuous than any of its fellow Atlantic tern species. Although they lack the gregarious call of Common Terns (Sterna hirundo) and the elegant, forked tail of Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii), Least Terns continue to capture the interest of birders, ornithologists, and wildlife managers.

A Preliminary Review of 36 years of Breeding Bird Surveys at Quabbin Reservation, Massachusetts

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:11 GMT

Quabbin Reservoir, the largest inland waterbody in Massachusetts, and its protected surrounding habitats—termed Quabbin Reservation—are known for picturesque scenery, abundant wildlife, productive fishing, cultural history, and high-quality drinking water. Quabbin Reservation is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Division of Water Supply Protection (DWSP). It is a popular birding location; its vastness and diverse habitats provide valuable breeding bird habitat as well as important migratory stopover and wintering grounds. National Audubon has identified the Quabbin Reservoir Watershed, where the reservation is situated, as an Important Bird Area (IBA) at the continental scale (National Audubon Society 2024). According to eBird, at least 292 species of birds have been reported in the watershed (eBird 2024).

Figure 1. Map of Quabbin Reservation and Breeding Bird Survey routes.

Black-capped Chickadees on Tuckernuck Island, Massachusetts, Have a Unique Song

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:10 GMT

Left: A Black-capped Chickadee on Tuckernuck Island. Photograph by the author; Right: Spectrogram: one phrase from a typical Tuckernuck Black-capped Chickadee song.

Most of us who are familiar with birds in the Northeast recognize the characteristic two-note fee-bee of the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). But there is a fascinating variation in this song hiding just south of Cape Cod.