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Bird sightings

Recent bird sightings as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society:

A few interesting migrant songbirds are beginning to show up throughout Massachusetts. Last week, shorebird diversity was outstanding at many sites. There should be an uptick in less common shorebirds sightings in the upcoming week like stilt and Baird’s Sandpipers, long-billed dowitchers, American redstarts, and early-migrating warblers like black-and-white warblers.Rarities last week included an American avocet and a buff-breasted sandpiper at the Bill Forward Pool on Plum Island. There was a scissor-tailed flycatcher at Quaboag Pond in Brookfield and a lark sparrow at the Amelia Earhart Dam in Everett.

► Gooseberry Neck in Westport: Observers spotted two black terns, four great cormorants, five prairie warblers, and six whimbrels. There was also a buff-breasted sandpiper, a cliff swallow, a blue-gray gnatcatcher, and a Northern waterthrush.

► Plum Island: Shorebirding has been exceptional. In addition to the Avocet and buff-breasted sandpiper, there were reports of three American golden-plovers, two whimbrels, a Hudsonian godwit, a marbled godwit, and two red knots. Observers also saw five long-billed dowitchers, two stilt sandpipers, two Baird’s sandpipers, two Western sandpipers, and a pectoral sandpiper. Also reported were 35 white-rumped sandpipers and more than 200 semipalmated sandpipers last week. Other sightings included 40,000 tree swallows, 16 gadwalls, two prairie warblers, and a Wilson’s warbler.

► Miscellaneous: Among sightings were horned grebes in Marblehead and Duxbury, three soras in Squantum, and an Acadian flycatcher in Leverett. Last week, there was also an alder flycatcher at Delaney Wildlife Management Area in Harvard, a Nashville warbler at the McLaughlin Woods in Boston, and a mourning warbler at Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon.


For more information about bird sightings or to report bird sightings, call Mass. Audubon at 781-259-8805 or go to www.mass audubon.org.

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