BIRD SIGHTINGS
Recent bird sightings as reported to the Mass Audubon:
Last week’s highlight was the unexpected appearance of a mountain plover in Centerville, a rare visitor from the western Great Plains and the Colorado Plateau, and only the second recorded occurrence after a plover was accidently shot by a market hunter in Chatham in October 1916. The world population of this species is thought to be fewer than 9,000.
Less spectacular, but nonetheless interesting was a white Ibis observed feeding in Hingham Harbor near the bathing beach.
And finally, at least five sightings of probable nesting merlins were seen scattered across the state from Nantucket to North Adams.
Berkshire County: The probable nesting merlins in Williamstown, North Adams, and Pittsfield, and a sandhill crane at High Lawn Farm in Lee.
Bristol County: An unseasonal appearance from a whitewinged crossbill in Rehoboth.
Cape Cod: A spectacular vagrant last week in the second state record of a mountain plover. The rare plover spent most of Friday on the Long Beach Conservation Area in Centerville, where it was well photographed by several admiring observers. Other notable sightings included a royal tern at Race Point Beach in Provincetown, two black skimmers at Dowses Beach in Osterville, an out-ofseason red-necked grebe off Forest Beach in Chatham, three pomarine jaegers sitting on the connector beach off North Monomoy Island, 2,000 short-billed dowitchers and an unseasonal Iceland gull at Minimoy Island off Chatham, and three blue grosbeaks at the Frances A. Crane Wildlife Management Area in Falmouth.
Essex County: Summering long-tailed ducks at Sandy Point on Plum Island and Crane Beach in Ipswich and a Greater Scaup at Cherry Hill Reservoir in West Newbury, a continuing yellowcrowned night-heron at the Ipswich Town Wharf, and a sandhill crane at Appleton Farm in Ipswich.
Franklin County: Three sandhill cranes on Plainfield Road in Ashfield.
Hampshire County: Four lingering sandhill cranes in Worthington and another crane observed in flight over the Quabbin Visitor Center in Belchertown. A short-billed dowitcher was spotted in Easthampton, a whimbrel on Aqua Vitae Road in Hadley, and two blue grosbeaks in the Honey Pot area of Hadley.
Martha’s Vineyard: A bald eagle at Felix Neck Sanctuary, two common ravens at Gay Head, a wood duck near Squibnocket Beach, four Northern parulas along Tiasquam Road in West Tisbury, and an orchard oriole at Gay Head.
Middlesex County: A locally unusual nesting pair of yellowbellied sapsuckers with three young at the Minuteman National Park in Lincoln, a common loon on Walden Pond in Concord and a purple martin in Dunstable at the Dunstable Rural Land Trust.
Nantucket: An American bittern at the Windswept Cranberry Bog, a common raven at Miacomet Park, a merlin at the Nantucket State Forest, a glaucous gull at Great Point, and a yellow-crowned night-heron, and a clapper rail at the UMass Field Station.
Norfolk County: A clapper rail and a stilt sandpiper in the Squantum Marshes in Quincy.
Plymouth County: A white Ibis feeding near the Hingham Harbor bathing beach and a yellow-crowned night-heron on Button Island also in Hingham Harbor, two merlins in the Myles Standish State Forest, in Plymouth, two black vultures in Plympton, a peregrine falcon at Third Cliff in Scituate, and two continuing sandhill cranes at the Burrage Pond Wildlife Management Area in Hanson.
Suffolk County: A least bittern and three willow flycatchers at Millennium Park in West Roxbury, and two red-breasted nuthatches in the Arnold Arboretum.
Worcester County: An American bittern, a blue-winged teal, and a sora at the Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area in Bolton, an upland sandpiper at the Fitchburg Municipal Airport, a continuing Brewster’s warbler at the Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, five eastern meadowlarks at gate 36 at the Wachusett Reservoir in Sterling, and four evening grosbeaks in Royalston.
For more information about bird sightings or to report bird sightings, call Mass Audubon at 781-259-8805 or go to www.massaudubon.org.