Hot Birds: February 2022

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:14 GMT

Even one Tropical Kingbird in Massachusetts would likely have been the talk of the season, had that season not also included a Steller’s Sea-Eagle. The state had only a single accepted record of the species as recently as 2018. Two more were added in 2019. “Hold my beer,” said 2021 with double the state’s total. A one-day wonder showed up in Provincetown on May 15; a mid-November bird stayed for five days at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary; and in early December, one spent four days in Rockport. Benny Albro took the photo above.

On December 23, Skyler Kardell and Ginger Andrews encountered a swan on Sesachacha Pond, near the eastern end of Nantucket. They initially identified it as a Tundra Swan, but soon realized it was a Trumpeter Swan. The re-introduced population of this species around the Great Lakes has boomed in recent years, and is thought to be the source of recent New England records. This bird remained on the pond through at least mid-January. Skyler Kardell took the photo above.