August 2021https://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021Front Cover: August 2021https://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021/front-cover-august-2021Front CoverSun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:17 GMT<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/1616_Willet_img.png?ver=SpOlBlJ7rZNsLTV7bsV7ng%3d%3d" style="width: 731px; height: 827px;" /></p> <p>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.</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work. Hot Birds: August 2021https://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021/hot-birds-august-2021Hot BirdsSun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:16 GMT<p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/HB_White-faced_Ibis_McDonald.png?ver=ZIemjbCDB-iZrqOHEfE-UA%3d%3d" style="width: 366px; height: 242px;" /><br /> The first <strong>White-faced Ibis</strong> in the state this year was a Tax Day surprise for Sue Walas, who photographed it near Fairhaven on April 15. Next came the anticipated annual appearances in Essex County: the first in Ipswich near New England BioLabs April 17–24, then a second in Newbury near Scotland Road May 14–20. Shilo McDonald took the photo above.</p> <p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/HB_Townsends_Solitaire_Easter.png?ver=L9VY5hfleFsMmE8OBVf_mQ%3d%3d" style="width: 366px; height: 300px;" /><br /> A couple of birders who visited Mount Auburn Cemetery on April 19, before most of the warblers had even started to arrive, were richly rewarded when a <strong>Townsend’s Solitaire</strong> showed up. The vast majority of Massachusetts records of this western thrush appear in the fall; only a handful have been found in the spring. Clara Easter took the photo above.</p> <p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/HB_Ruff_Eckerson.png?ver=42mzcgahWypNZ8_Y2NQPkQ%3d%3d" style="width: 363px; height: 281px;" /><br /> Sean Williams picked the right morning to bring his Holy Cross ornithology students to Parker River NWR, where they discovered a Reeve and <strong>Ruff</strong> together in one of the Salt Pannes. The one-day-wonder pair were enjoyed by several birders until they disappeared late that afternoon. Another Ruff made a briefer appearance at Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond Sanctuary on June 29, showing up just long enough to be photographed in flight by Joel Eckerson. The photo is above.</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work. Birding the Paper City: Holyoke, Massachusettshttps://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021/birding-the-paper-city-holyoke-massachusettsWhere to Go BirdingSun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:15 GMT<p>Call me Elizur. What do you think of when someone mentions the City of Holyoke? Paper mills, canals, the massive hydroelectric dam and fish lift, the mall, the old ski area and amusement park, ethnic diversity, and Nick’s Nest hot dogs come to mind. Crime, of course. Mount Holyoke College? Nope, that’s in South Hadley, but it does have Holyoke Community College. You might be surprised to know Holyoke is the birthplace of volleyball and home of the Volleyball Hall of Fame. It should also be the rightful birthplace of basketball, according to my friend, the late Clara Gabler, whose father, George, introduced a certain James Naismith to a game of throwing a ball into a peach basket at the Holyoke YMCA six years before Naismith honed the sport (Wheeler 1986). Birds? Probably not. Yet on spring migration counts, I can routinely tally over 100 species, sometimes in the 120s if the timing and weather are favorable.</p> <p>Holyoke has a rich history of planning and development (Connecticut Valley Historical Society 1881, Wikipedia 2021). First explored by Elizur Holyoke in the 1650s, the settlement of “Ireland Parrish” would take nearly 200 years to become the township of Holyoke in 1850. The town chose its name from the Mount Holyoke Range, which Elizur had named after himself during his 1660 survey of the northern boundary of Springfield, what is now South Hadley. Rolland Thomas flanked Elizur on the west side of the river—the future Holyoke—naming that range Mount Thomas. Elizur’s 1653 survey on the west side resulted in the establishment of Northampton.</p> <p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/WTG_Holyoke_North.jpg?ver=A7ZmzbCFoczR2oDxdfsY-A%3d%3d" style="width: 735px; height: 963px;" /><br /> <strong>Figure 1.</strong> Northern Holyoke Overview Map.</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work. Eleven Years of Birding at Halibut Point State Park, Rockport, Massachusettshttps://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021/eleven-years-of-birding-at-halibut-point-state-park-rockport-massachusettsFeature ArticlesSun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:14 GMT<p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/Landscape_Apr_2015.jpg?ver=o_MbaAEtHuv2pCJKk0zxlw%3d%3d" style="width: 732px; height: 368px;" /><br /> Frozen quarry, April 2015. All photographs by the author.</p> <p>I started leading bird walks at Rockport’s Halibut Point State Park in 2003 with Greg Pronevitz, as a summer complement to the walks led in the winter months by John Nove, the park’s visitor services supervisor. The park is centered on a large quarry that was used until the collapse of the Cape Ann granite industry in 1929. The Trustees of Reservations acquired 12 acres in 1929 and created Halibut Point Reservation in 1934. What is now the visitor center was built as a fire control tower for coastal defense against German U-boats during World War II. The state purchased 56 acres in 1981 to create the park. It is a popular park, with recent renovations designed to increase parking, ease visitor access, and provide a modernized visitor center.</p> <p>A brochure of “Summer 2004 Programs” listed my walks on June 20, July 18, and August 15 from 8:00 am to 10:00 am, starting what eventually became the pattern of park-sponsored walks on the third Sunday of the month. Thanks to Ramona Latham, then with The Trustees, the walks became year-round in 2009, only skipping December because the Christmas Bird Count for Cape Ann is also on the third Sunday. The Brookline Bird Club began listing these walks as Beginner Bird Walks after The Trustees stopped having scheduled events at their properties on Cape Ann.</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work. A First for Nantucket Island, Massachusetts: Breeding Common Ravenshttps://www.birdobserver.org/Issues/2021/August-2021/a-first-for-nantucket-island-massachusetts-breeding-common-ravensFeature ArticlesSun, 01 Aug 2021 00:00:13 GMT<p class="caption"><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/Assets/bo49-4/229027311.jpg?ver=AFVSZrG6245qoG-y2iYMfQ%3d%3d" style="width: 640px; height: 427px;" /><br /> One of the adult ravens flies from the water tower to Low Beach to collect a piece of rabbit carcass. All photos by Skyler Kardell.</p> <p><em>Editor’s Note: For Bird Observer online, click on the underscored dates to see the eBird reports.</em></p> <p>For a number of years, Common Raven (<em>Corvus corvax</em>)—along with Eastern Screech-Owl (<em>Megascops asio</em>) and Red-shouldered Hawk (<em>Buteo lineatus</em>)—was put on a short list of birds that can be found on the mainland but are absent from Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island. Prior to 2019, there was only one confirmed record of Common Raven for Nantucket County—a bird seen and photographed by several observers at the Milestone Cranberry Bogs on <a href="https://ebird.org/checklist/S67719966"><span>February 22, 2014</span></a>. Coincidentally, the second documented record for the island was found less than a mile away from the bogs on <a href="https://ebird.org/checklist/S59076358"><span>August 18</span></a><span>, 2019</span>. The prospect of ravens breeding on Nantucket was laughable then. Yet that is the reality in 2021.</p> <p>Ravens had disappeared in Massachusetts by the early twentieth century, having lost much of their former range in New England due to clear-cutting for agriculture among other causes, and did not reappear until the 1940s (Boarman and Heinrich 2020). It would take another 30 years for the species to populate the Northeast again. At the time of publication of The Birds of Massachusetts in 1993, the status of Common Raven in the eastern part of the state was rare, although it bred in western Massachusetts (Veit and Peterson 1993). By 2013, the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas 2 reported ravens present and breeding statewide—except for Cape Cod and the Islands (Walsh and Petersen 2013). The species’ expansion into the coastal plain is still a recent phenomenon. Only within the last decade have ravens returned to Cape Cod (eBird 2013–2021), where in the early seventeenth century, pilgrim colonizers had reported them as numerous (Veit and Petersen 1993).</p> To view the rest of the article you'll need to subscribe. Bird Observer publishes original articles on birding locations, on avian populations and natural history, on regional rarities, field notes, field records, photographs, and art work.