Marsh Stomp 2024

 

Marsh Stomp 2024

Written by Noah Henkenius

Sunrise at Little Harbor Beach

This year’s annual Marsh Stomp took place on October 13th, 2024. We surveyed several sites along Buzzards Bay in hopes of finding Bitterns, Rails, Saltmarsh Sparrows, Nelson's Sparrows, and Seaside Sparrows. Overall the trip was a success, we had good numbers of Nelson’s Sparrows, lingering Saltmarsh Sparrows, a couple of Seaside Sparrows, and a Virginia Rail. 

Nelson's Sparrow

In addition to Marsh Birds, other highlights include a White-eyed Vireo and Yellow-breasted Chat at Egypt Lane Marsh in Fairhaven and Forster's Terns at the Tempest Knob in Wareham.

Yellow-breasted Chat (photo by Brian Vigorito)

Total Species (57)

10 Canada Goose

32 Mallard

23 American Black Duck

8 White-winged Scoter

5 Horned Grebe

5 Rock Pigeon

1 Virginia Rail

10 Semipalmated Plover

15 Greater Yellowlegs

48 Laughing Gull

14 Ring-billed Gull

48 Herring Gull

2 Forster's Tern

2 Common Tern

7 Common Loon

367 Double-crested Cormorant

3 Black-crowned Night Heron

2 Snowy Egret

4 Great Egret

21 Great Blue Heron

1 Cooper's Hawk

1 Red-tailed Hawk

1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

2 Downy Woodpecker

3 Northern Flicker

1 White-eyed Vireo

12 Blue Jay

19 American Crow

5 Black-capped Chickadee

2 Tufted Titmouse

35 Tree Swallow

2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1 White-breasted Nuthatch

8 Carolina Wren

7 European Starling

2 Gray Catbird

2 Northern Mockingbird

1 American Robin

8 House Sparrow

9 American Pipit

2 House Finch

2 American Goldfinch

3 White-throated Sparrow

2 Seaside Sparrow

25 Nelson's Sparrow

3 Saltmarsh Sparrow

6 Savannah Sparrow

32 Song Sparrow

2 Swamp Sparrow

1 Yellow-breasted Chat

2 Baltimore Oriole

2 Red-winged Blackbird

1 Common Yellowthroat

5 Palm Warbler

1 Pine Warbler

23 Yellow-rumped Warbler

2 Northern Cardinal

Sites Visited (with eBird checklist)

Egypt Lane Marsh in Fairhaven, MA

Winsegansett Avenue Marsh in Fairhaven, MA

Hacker Street Marsh in Fairhaven, MA

Tempest Knob in Wareham, MA

Little Harbor Beach in Wareham, MA

2024 Fall Roundup Results

This year’s Fall Roundup was held on Saturday, September 21st. 35 participants spread out in teams from Quincy to Plymouth to survey the entire South Shore area. Thank you to everyone who participated or helped organize the count.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us this year. The forecast was a bit questionable a day out, but we decided to go ahead with the event anyway. But the forecast kept getting worse and we were faced with steady rain and high winds on Saturday morning.

Given those conditions, our species total and many of the individual counts are lower than normal, but we still managed to get out and find some interesting birds.

Nate and Noah found a Little Gull in the afternoon on Plymouth Beach. This species has only been recorded twice before on the Fall Roundup, with the last sighting all the way back in 1976!

Little Gull by Noah Henkenius

The Quincy team picked up a Bufflehead, which has only been seen 3 times before on the roundup. Buffleheads don’t normally arrive in our area until later in the year, but this individual appears to have been around all summer.

Warblers were scarce this year, but Liam managed to find a few at Leland Farm, including a Mourning and a Connecticut. The Cohasset/Hull team found 4 Glossy Ibis. And Dan used the storm to his advantage and picked up Great and Cory’s Shearwaters in a seawatch at the end of the day.

Although most of our counts are fairly low, one notable high count this year was Lesser Black-backed Gull. We found a total of 15 this year, including 11 on Duxbury Beach and 1 at Plymouth Airport.

Merlin by Kathy Rawdon

The full species list is below:

Total species:	130
Canada Goose	580
Mute Swan	117
Duck sp	4
Wood Duck	75
Blue-winged Teal	4
American Wigeon	1
Mallard	564
American Black Duck	70
Green-winged Teal	33
Greater Scaup	4
Common Eider	198
Surf Scoter	17
White-winged Scoter	5
Black Scoter	50
Scoter sp	8
Bufflehead	1
Red-breasted Merganser	4
Wild Turkey	106
Pied-billed Grebe	1
Red-necked Grebe	3
Rock Pigeon	144
Mourning Dove	49
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	1
American Oystercatcher	4
Black-bellied Plover	107
Semipalmated Plover	195
Piping Plover	2
Killdeer	17
Whimbrel	1
Ruddy Turnstone	22
Red Knot	5
Sanderling	168
Dunlin	6
Least Sandpiper	18
White-rumped Sandpiper	8
Pectoral Sandpiper	1
Semipalmated Sandpiper	740
Short-billed Dowitcher	5
Spotted Sandpiper	2
Solitary Sandpiper	1
Greater Yellowlegs	43
Lesser Yellowlegs	9
Bonaparte's Gull	14
Little Gull	1
Laughing Gull	1015
Ring-billed Gull	701
Herring Gull	1626
Lesser Black-backed Gull	15
Great Black-backed Gull	476
Gull sp	88
Least Tern	1
Caspian Tern	2
Common Tern	970
Forster's Tern	65
Common Loon	23
Cory's Shearwater	1
Great Shearwater	1
Shearwater sp	2
Northern Gannet	2
Double-crested Cormorant	1725
Great Blue Heron	78
Great Egret	134
Snowy Egret	98
Green Heron	3
Black-crowned Night-Heron	40
Glossy Ibis	4
Osprey	9
Northern Harrier	2
Sharp-shinned Hawk	2
Cooper's Hawk	3
Bald Eagle	8
Red-shouldered Hawk	3
Red-tailed Hawk	2
Belted Kingfisher	17
Red-bellied Woodpecker	6
Downy Woodpecker	16
Hairy Woodpecker	5
Northern Flicker	16
Merlin	1
Peregrine Falcon	3
Eastern Wood-Pewee	1
Eastern Phoebe	14
Blue-headed Vireo	1
Red-eyed Vireo	7
Blue Jay	150
American Crow	118
Common Raven	4
Black-capped Chickadee	139
Tufted Titmouse	59
Horned Lark	1
Tree Swallow	467
Bank Swallow	2
Barn Swallow	11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	1
White-breasted Nuthatch	19
Brown Creeper	2
House Wren	29
Carolina Wren	43
European Starling	128
Gray Catbird	217
Northern Mockingbird	21
Eastern Bluebird	15
Hermit Thrush	1
American Robin	760
Cedar Waxwing	13
House Sparrow	43
House Finch	61
American Goldfinch	32
Chipping Sparrow	105
Dark-eyed Junco	1
White-crowned Sparrow	2
White-throated Sparrow	4
Savannah Sparrow	73
Song Sparrow	100
Swamp Sparrow	61
Eastern Towhee	5
Red-winged Blackbird	295
Brown-headed Cowbird	2
Common Grackle	6008
Black-and-white Warbler	3
Connecticut Warbler	1
Mourning Warbler	1
Common Yellowthroat	13
American Redstart	6
Northern Parula	3
Magnolia Warbler	2
Yellow Warbler	3
Blackpoll Warbler	9
Palm Warbler	6
Pine Warbler	22
Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
Black-throated Green Warbler	3
Warbler sp	4
Northern Cardinal	80
Indigo Bunting	1