Bird sightings


Recent bird sightings as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society:

The Cassin’s kingbird at Cherry Hill Reservoir in West Newbury was still present as recently as Wednesday, as was the barnacle goose that has been frequenting the fields on Rogers Street adjacent to the Artichoke Reservoir in West Newbury.

Results from several Christmas bird counts conducted during the week have now been compiled.

On the Greater Boston count, 114 species were sighted, including a cackling goose in the vicinity of Franklin Park; three northern shovelers; two Barrow’s goldeneyes; eight peregrine falcons; six snowy owls; one short-eared owl; three yellow-bellied sapsuckers; an ash-throated flycatcher at Mount Hood in Melrose; three common ravens; warblers including orange-crowned, Nashville, two Wilson’s, and two yellow-breasted chats; one lark sparrow in Lexington, one dickcissel; and three rusty blackbirds.

Cape Ann: two northern shovelers, a king eider, 109 harlequin ducks, a great shearwater, an American bittern, one thick-billed murre, three snowy owls at Cranes Beach, an unidentified myiarchus flycatcher, one yellow-breasted chat, and eight rusty blackbirds.

Groton: one northern shoveler, a lesser black-backed gull, 11 common ravens, 171 eastern bluebirds, 180 cedar waxwings, an orange-crowned warbler, one Baltimore oriole, and two pine siskins.

Plymouth: 46 harlequin ducks, three Barrow’s goldeneyes, 489 hooded mergansers, 16 double-crested cormorants, three bald eagles, three merlins, 856 dunlin, an American woodcock, 91 razorbills, one snowy owl at Plymouth Beach, 189 fish crows, and two yellow-breasted chats.

Cape Cod:135 species were counted, including: blue-winged teal, great Shearwater, sooty shearwater, lesser yellowleg, willet, marbled godwit, western sandpiper, pomarine jaeger, snowy owl, western kingbird, ash-throated flycatcher, blue-headed vireo, orange-crowned warbler, Audubon’s yellow-rumped warbler, ovenbird, Wilson’s warbler, yellow-breasted chat, and painted bunting.

Miscellaneous: one pink-footed goose and a greater white-fronted goose in Rutland at an undisclosed private location; one Barrow’s goldeneye at Nahant; one red-necked grebe in Acton; the continued presence of a brown booby in the vicinity of the jetty off Macmillan Wharf in Provincetown; one Virginia rail at Great Meadows Refuge in Concord; one Nashville warbler in Marblehead; the continued presence of a western tanager on Nonquit Road in Falmouth; one painted bunting in Methuen; and four rusty blackbirds at Dunback Meadow in Lexington.


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For more information about bird sightings or to report bird sightings, call Mass Audubon at 781-259-9500 or go to www.massaudubon.org.

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