October 2021

Front Cover: October 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:16 GMT

Leach’s Storm-Petrel 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: October 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:15 GMT

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 Guide to Birding Great Swamp Management Area, South Kingstown, Rhode Island

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:14 GMT

The Great Swamp Management Area in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, is a 3,349-acre preserve that is rich with diverse habitats, history, and birds. You can access the walking trails from the dirt parking lot at the end of Great Neck Road (41.4690987646978, -71.5795471982134). To get to Great Swamp from Interstate 95, take exit 3A and merge onto RI-138 eastbound. After driving eastbound on RI-138 for 8.8 miles, make a sharp right turn onto Liberty Lane. TLC Coffee Roasters is located at this intersection.

To get to Liberty Lane from US-1, turn onto RI-138 westbound at the traffic light at (41.49477, -71.45652). After 5.2 miles, make a slight left turn onto Liberty Lane at TLC Coffee Roasters. To get to Great Swamp from RI-4, take exit 3B onto RI-102 northbound toward Exeter. Once on RI-102, turn left onto RI-2 southbound in 0.7 mile. Continue driving south on RI-2 for 6.8 miles, and turn left at the traffic light onto RI-138 eastbound. After 1.4 miles, take a sharp right turn onto Liberty Lane at TLC Coffee Roasters.

After turning onto Liberty Lane, continue straight for 0.8 mile. Soon Liberty Lane curves to the left, runs parallel to the railroad, and becomes Great Neck Road, which is an unpaved road usually littered with potholes. In 0.5 mile, there will be a hunter check station and the Department of Environmental Management offices on the right; continue straight. Soon after entering the forest, continue past the gun range on the left. About 100 feet after the gun range turnoff, there will be a misleading sign posted to a tree that says “Authorized Vehicles Only.” This sign is not in reference to Great Neck Road but is in reference to a side “road” that is overgrown and unrecognizable. Keep driving on Great Neck Road for another 0.3 mile until you reach a large clearing, which is the parking lot for Great Swamp Management Area. The gate at the end of the parking lot is where the walk begins.

Map 1. Great Swamp Management Area.

The Importance of Counting Shorebirds: Manomet’s International Shorebird Survey (ISS)

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:13 GMT

A mixed flock of shorebirds at Monomoy NWR. Photograph by Alan Kneidel.

In the early 1970s, Manomet biologist Brian Harrington was pondering important questions of shorebird migration and population biology. The shorebirds he was considering were those that nested in the high arctic tundra and then passed through North America, following the sun to winter in South and Central America. The puzzle was that the places where shorebirds spent the majority of their time, both north and south, were often remote and logistically complex for shorebird scientists to access. So how could scientists, with limited funding, best document population sizes and trends for these long-distant migrants? Brian hypothesized that a dedicated and enthusiastic group of shorebirders across the Western Hemisphere could, by counting shorebirds on their migration routes, supply necessary data to shorebird scientists and conservation partners. This network of volunteers evolved into Manomet’s International Shorebird Survey (ISS), one of the longest-running citizen science projects in the world.

For more information, visit manomet.org.

Bird-Friendly Maple Syrup

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:12 GMT

The owners and operators of Bridge Road Sugarworks pose with a bird-friendly maple syrup sign. Photo credit: Bridge Road Sugarworks.

October. The cool, crisp air is a welcome respite from the summer’s heat. We excitedly don our finest flannels and embrace this wonderful time of year in New England. Friends and families gather for the festivities of fall or one of many upcoming holidays. Amid the hustle and bustle, perhaps a lazy Saturday morning is in order, in a warm kitchen with a generous stack of pancakes. And of course, no pancake experience is complete without the requisite drizzle or, for a greater indulgence, pool, of pure maple syrup. Sweet maple flavor with notes of vanilla, caramel, and molasses, sticky on your lips and birdsong in your ears.

Musings from the Blind Birder: Midsummer Thoughts

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:10 GMT

Blackburnian Warbler. Photograph by Sandy Selesky.

Some random musings while savoring every birdsong as the season winds down:

Field Note: Mill Pond, Belmont: A Southbound Stopover for Solitary Sandpipers

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:09 GMT

Solitary Sandpipers at Mill Pond in Belmont, Massachusetts, during September 2020. Photographs by the author.

If rain is scarce during the dog days of late summer, then bird photographers and birdwatchers may have great viewing opportunities for inland shorebirds on exposed mudflats. Over a three–week stretch in September and October of 2020, I spotted and photographed Solitary Sandpipers at Mill Pond in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is part of the Beaver Brook Reservation. During this period, I came to appreciate that this pond was a precious stopover for these shorebirds, helping them continue along their southward journey.

A Massachusetts Birder's Quick Guide to Hunting Seasons

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:08 GMT

About Books: The Joys of Birding with QR Codes

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:07 GMT

Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening
Donald Kroodsma. 2020. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Birds of Colombia (Lynx and BirdLife International Field Guides)
Steven L. Hilty. 2021. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions.

QR codes are those square, black and white, densely patterned, matrix barcodes you see on signs, in books, even on television. They were invented in 1994 by the Japanese automotive supply company Denso Wave (hats off to Masahiro Hara). I have read that the design was inspired by the black and white pieces on a Go board, but this may be an apocryphal tech tale. These codes are read by an app, typically downloaded on your phone. When scanned, the QR code will lead you to a website that contains further information, photographs, or maps. By 2011, QR codes were in wide use in the United States, so it was only a matter of time before publishers of bird books realized that QR codes could be invaluable in enhancing the birders’ reading experience.

“Bird song fills our lives with beauty and wonder.” (p. 1, Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist)

Ornithologist Donald Kroodsma was among the first to understand the full possibilities of using QR codes in a bird book. His wonderful memoir Listening to a Continent Sing: Birdsong by Bicycle from the Atlantic to the Pacific (2016)— reviewed by me in Bird Observer (2016)—was an account of his bike trip from coast to coast with his son, enjoying the birdsong all along the way. His text was augmented by a liberal use of QR codes throughout the memoir. As I wrote in my review of this book for Bird Observer:

In the margins of Listening to a Continent Sing are 381 labeled QR Codes. You download a free QR Code reader app on your cell phone and when you get to a code (in the book), hold the phone over it and it quickly takes you to what is essentially another whole book accessed through your phone’s screen. This consists of state-of-the-art recordings of not just bird song, but atmospheric recordings, too, like people they met along the way, bees nectaring in fields, even geysers.

Bird Sightings: May-June 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:06 GMT

May 2021 was pleasant; the average temperature was 67 degrees, one degree above average for the month. The high was 92 degrees on May 26. There were only four days during the month that saw any precipitation. The total rainfall in Boston was 4.92 inches, 1.43 inches above normal. Most of the rain occurred over Memorial Day weekend. Beginning on Friday May 29, two inches of rain were recorded in Boston and the temperature on Saturday reached only 50 degrees, just one degree shy of setting a record low for that day’s high temperature. Saturday’s storm brought downpours and strong northeast winds along the coast. Cape Cod and the Islands were especially impacted, with gusts over 50 miles per hour that continued through to Monday. Birders along the coast were rewarded with great days of spring sea watching.

BALD EAGLE BY SANDY SELESKY

Bygone Birds: Historical Highlights for January-February

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:05 GMT

5 YEARS AGO

January–February 2016

A Pink-footed Goose that was wintering in Connecticut made occasional visits to Agawam this period. A Western Grebe was discovered on Winthrop Beach on February 7. An injured Purple Gallinule, discovered at Hathaway Pond in Barnstable on January 11, was treated for anemia by a wildlife rehabilitator. A Barn Owl was found dead in Danvers. A Hammond’s Flycatcher discovered in Fairhaven on New Year’s Day was the third record for the state. Another third for the state was a Smith’s Longspur found on January 17 at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Saugus. Ash-throated Flycatchers continued in Cambridge and Manomet, and a Mountain Bluebird was present throughout the period at the Crane Wildlife Management Area in Falmouth.

Best sighting: a first-winter Yellow-billed Loon discovered at Race Point in Provincetown on February 27. This was the first state record.

10 YEARS AGO

January–February 2011

A Ross’s Goose continued on Nantucket through February 17. A Mew Gull of the Asian kamtschatschensis or heinei subspecies was found at Lynn Beach at the end of February. The three Monk Parakeets continuing on Bremen Street, East Boston, were being fed suet and parrot food by local residents. This was a poor winter for Snowy Owls with no sightings during this period. A Varied Thrush was visiting a feeder in Centerville in February.

Best sighting: two Harris’s Sparrows, one on Duxbury Beach, from January 9–February 27, another in Falmouth, February 1–26.

At a Glance: August 2021 Revealed

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:04 GMT

WAYNE R. PETERSEN

This issue’s At a Glance image appears to be a sparrow. You know the look: it is streaky and has a conical bill, and—in the color image online—it is generally brownish in color. Also, it is perched in a grassy or weedy habitat. Are we ready to explore sparrow possibilities? No, not yet. Why isn’t the mystery bird a female Bobolink instead of a sparrow? A Bobolink is certainly a grassland possibility.

At a Glance: October 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:03 GMT

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Fri, 01 Oct 2021 00:00:01 GMT