Bird sightings Recent bird sightings in Eastern Massachusetts

[Donna]

The passage of tropical storm Earl produced some notable seabird tallies at First Encounter Beach in Eastham, including 2 Cory’s and 350 greater shearwaters, 340 red-necked and 2 red phalaropes, 115 unidentified phalaropes, 3 Sabine’s gulls, 20 black and 5 Forster’s terns, a south polar skua, a pomarine jaeger, 9 parasitic jaegers, and 9 unidentified jaegers.

A Swainson’s warbler was banded at the Wing Island banding station in Brewster, and a bar-tailed godwit was again observed on North Beach in Chatham along with 3 American kestrels, a merlin, a peregrine falcon, 43 American oystercatchers, 2 marbled godwits, 3 lesser black-backed gulls, a black tern, and 4 Forster’s terns.

Reports from the Parker River Refuge at Plum Island included 9 Northern shovelers, 100 green-winged teal, a ruddy duck, 14 turkey vultures, 4 peregrine falcons, 3 whimbrels, a Hudsonian godwit, 2 Western sandpipers, 75 white-rumped sandpipers, 6 Baird’s sandpipers, 18 stilt sandpipers, the continued presence of a scissor-tailed flycatcher at the south end of the island, and 5 cliff swallows.

Reports from Nahant included a Bicknell’s thrush, blue-winged, palm, and mourning warblers, and a yellow-breasted chat.

At the Cumberland Farms fields in the Halifax-Middleborough area, interesting shorebird reports included 21 black-bellied plovers, 12 American golden plovers, 7 lesser yellowlegs, 2 solitary sandpipers, 2 Baird’s sandpipers, 7 pectoral sandpipers, 3 buff-breasted sandpipers, a short-billed dowitcher, 8 Wilson’s snipes, and a Wilson’s phalarope.

Reports from Nantucket included 3 Baird’s sandpipers, 40 lesser black-backed gulls, 8 Forster’s terns, a black skimmer, and an estimated 25,000 tree swallows. At nearby Tuckernuck 250 black terns were counted and a prothonotary warbler was banded. On Muskeget there were 50 American oystercatchers, 5 marbled godwits, 2 Sandwich terns, 8 Forster’s terns, 20 black terns, and a black skimmer.

Miscellaneous reports included 14 yellow-crowned night herons at Hemenway Landing in Eastham; 3 Baird’s sandpipers at Brace’s Cove in East Gloucester; a black-headed gull at Plymouth Beach; 8 great egrets, 2 buff-breasted sandpipers, and 5 stilt sandpipers at Sterling Peat in Sterling; a stilt sandpiper and 4 Forster’s terns at Squantum; 3 lesser black-backed gulls at Horseneck Beach in Westport; an Acadian flycatcher at Franklin Park in Mattapan; 21 red-breasted nuthatches in Mashpee; a yellow-breasted chat in Lexington; and 2 clay-colored sparrows at Squibnocket on Martha’s Vineyard.

Gee, I need to go there!