Bonnie and Bob Buxton drew a crowd to their yard in Merrimac when a Western Tanager visited their bird feeder on January 8. It continued visiting through March 15. The photograph is by James Teitgen.
Berkshire County has a few decades-old sight records of Pacific Loon, but none with objective documentation until Kyron Hanson photographed one on Pontoosuc Lake, Pittsfield, on May 9. It was a one-day wonder, unlike the state’s typical coastal records of the species this spring: one on Great Pond, Eastham, from March 15 to April 30, and at least three individuals at Race Point through April 26. The photograph is by Kyron Hanson.
A sight record of a Swallow-tailed Kite over Granby on April 17 was much farther inland than most sightings of this species in Massachusetts. Cape Cod, where birders have accumulated most of our state’s records, hosted an early kite in Brewster on March 22, and another near Mashpee from April 25 to May 4. The photograph is by Mary Keleher.
At least two and possibly four Black-necked Stilts descended on the Cape and Islands. One-day wonders appeared on Nantucket on April 20 and at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary on April 16, overlapping with the individual in Chatham that stayed from April 5–23. An individual in Provincetown from March 25–28 left before the other three observations took place. Ted Bradford took the photograph.
Peter Crosson’s White-faced Ibis flying over Sandy Neck in Barnstable on April 18 was far from Essex County where they usually show up. Ibises were also reported in Ipswich from April 4–30, in Newbury from April 26–29, and in Hamilton on May 2. Nathan Dubrow took the photograph.
As recently as two years ago, no birder had found a Tufted Duck in Western Massachusetts. Three of them have appeared in the region in the past two years, all found by Ted Gilliland, most recently a hen on the Turners Falls Power Canal on April 3. Ted took the photograph.