This bird’s darker eye and mantle, bright pink legs, along with a faint “string of pearls” on the inner primaries visible in-flight shots, confirmed its identification as the state’s first Vega Gull. Photograph by Jeremiah Trimble.
A Varied Bunting visiting a feeder in Provincetown represented not only a first for Massachusetts, but also the first winter record for the entire East Coast. Photograph by Peter Trimble.
First spotted in Chatham and later on Martha’s Vineyard, this dark morph adult Ferruginous Hawk successfully wintered in Massachusetts without succumbing to bird flu despite being seen depredating dead eiders and other waterfowl. The very long gape extending past the rear of the eye confirms this species and eliminates other dark Buteos. Photograph by Chris Kurylowicz.
This strikingly whitish first-winter Black Guillemot (mandtii) was present at MacMillan Wharf in Provincetown for several months starting in December 2019. It marked the state’s first record of the high Arctic subspecies. Photograph by Peter Flood.