Marion and Mattapoisett - 12/7/2014

   About 25 people showed up on this overcast and very blustery day down on the south coast of Massachusetts. During a scouting trip in this area a week prior, I found a Townsend's Solitaire at Evergreen Cemetery in Marion. Townsend's Solitaire is a rare vagrant from western North America and was a very nice surprise, hence the large crowd for this morning's trip! The pressure was on to refind it, but eventually the bird appeared and all had wonderful views as it perched on a bush eating berries. It's continued presence was a big sigh of relief for the leader! Also of note during our time at the cemetery were hundreds of Am. Robins flying over in steady groups of between 10-30 birds.

   Next stop was the Marion waste water treatment plant and town composting site. This a great spot for ducks and a variety of sparrows. Waterfowl highlights included 11 Northern Shovelers, 100+ Gadwall and American Wigeon and a few Green-winged Teal. In addition, the weedy areas of the composting area held large numbers of Song Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos with a Fox Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow mixed in.
   The dwindling group fought the high winds and cold the rest of the day as we made stops along the bays and coastal thickets. Along the way were 200+ Greater Scaup, a couple of lingering Greater Yellowlegs, and flocks of Cedar Waxwings. Some of the more productive thickets held a Gray Catbird and a few Eastern Towhees.
   We ended up heading north on Rte. 105 into the town of Rochester to see if we could track down a Cackling Goose that was found a few days prior by one in our group. It had been seen with a flock of about 300 Canada Geese in a large agricultural field. In the fading light, the much smaller sized Cackler was spotted amongst this flock. In addition to it's small the size, this bird's lighter gray plumage was noticeable as well as it's short, stubby bill and square-shaped head.
   Two great birds to "bookend" the day!

1 CACKLING GOOSE - Rochester
603 Canada Goose
6 Mute Swan
115 Gadwall
120 American Wigeon
72 American Black Duck
24 Mallard
1 American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)
11 Northern Shoveler - Marion waste water treatment plant
10 Green-winged Teal (American)
245 Greater Scaup
1 Lesser Scaup
55 Surf Scoter
5 Long-tailed Duck
160 Bufflehead
11 Common Goldeneye
82 Hooded Merganser
25 Red-breasted Merganser
6 Common Loon
6 Horned Grebe
2 Great Blue Heron
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk - Rochester
1 Cooper's Hawk
3 Red-tailed Hawk
2 Greater Yellowlegs
27 Ring-billed Gull
127 Herring Gull (American)
3 Great Black-backed Gull
23 Mourning Dove
2 Belted Kingfisher
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
4 Downy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
25 Blue Jay
9 American Crow
20 Horned Lark - Rochester
37 Black-capped Chickadee
17 Tufted Titmouse
9 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Brown Creeper
9 Carolina Wren
9 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - Evergreen Cem., Marion
1 Hermit Thrush
530 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
102 European Starling
73 Cedar Waxwing
2 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
6 Eastern Towhee
5 American Tree Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Savannah Sparrow
1 Fox Sparrow (Red)
33 Song Sparrow
45 White-throated Sparrow
147 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
20 Northern Cardinal
12 House Finch
6 American Goldfinch
57 House Sparrow 

Vin Zollo

Pair of trips: Webb State Park - Weymouth & Great Pond - Randolph/Braintree & vicinity 11/22&23/2014

   Seven birders (led by Kathy Rawdon) gathered at Webb State Park in Weymouth on an unseasonably cold and brisk Saturday morning. The temperature to start was 24F, but the sun was shining and visibility was good. This park is a small peninsular of open space that juts out into Hingham Bay. The habitat is mostly early successional with areas of dense thickets. Bird numbers and diversity were low (especially land birds), although bay ducks, namely Common Eider and Buffleheads  showed well in good light. We were able to hear the males in a small flock of Common Eider doing their courtship calls, sounding something like a low-pitched "wa-oooo".

Webb State Park

   This walk turned out to be one of those times when one bird made the trip. In amongst a distant flock of Common Eiders we noticed one that had more black on it's back. After zooming in we realized that this was a King Eider! Everyone seemed to have more "spring" in their step for the rest of the walk.
   The trip extended to nearby Stodder's Neck to follow up on a recent report of an "Audubon's" Warbler. This is a sub-species of the Yellow-rumped Warbler found normally in western North America. Stodder's Neck is a well known dog walker's park and not often frequented by birders. Despite large numbers of dogs there happened to be some quality birds! Once again, land birds were in short supply, but we finally came upon a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos and mixed in with them was a Lark Sparrow! This was quite unexpected and the bird was very cooperative, giving all of us wonderful views. On our way out, having successfully placed our feet in all the right places, we encountered a small mixed flock of birds and had brief views of the "Audubon's" Warbler.
   The group was rewarded in the end, despite the challenging weather conditions and will be fondly remembered.


32 Canada Goose
22 American Black Duck
7 Mallard
1 King Eider - male
120 Common Eider (Atlantic)
10 Surf Scoter
1 White-winged Scoter - low
4 Long-tailed Duck
65 Bufflehead
2 Common Goldeneye - low
1 Hooded Merganser
45 Red-breasted Merganser
2 Red-throated Loon
1 Common Loon
1 Horned Grebe - low
4 Double-crested Cormorant
1 Red-tailed Hawk
8 Ring-billed Gull
35 Herring Gull (American)
3 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
7 American Crow
14 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Carolina Wren
5 American Robin
4 Northern Mockingbird
37 European Starling
20 Cedar Waxwing
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) - Stodder's Neck
3 American Tree Sparrow
1 Lark Sparrow - Stodder's Neck
10 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrow
10 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
6 Northern Cardinal
3 House Finch
3 American Goldfinch
2 House Sparrow


   My annual mid-November waterfowl trip to inland bodies of water starts at Great Pond which is located on the Randolph/Braintree border. Four of us spent a few hours this Sunday morning trekking around this large body of water. Species diversity was about normal, but numbers were below average. Highlights included approx. 30 Green-winged Teal and 2 Bald Eagles (one near adult, one juvenile). We felt fortunate to observe the adult Bald Eagle grab a fish. The ducks seemed to be quite skittish and we wondered out loud if the eagles presence could be the cause.

Great Pond

   The four of us stopped at Reservoir Pond in Canton seeing 200+ Ruddy Ducks and 24 Lesser Scaup. We rounded out the day at Ricchardi Reservoir in Randolph with a nice flock of about 70 Ring-necked Ducks.

200 Canada Goose
1 Mute Swan
4 American Black Duck
76 Mallard
30 Green-winged Teal
71 Ring-necked Duck
4 Greater Scaup
24 Lesser Scaup
13 Bufflehead
19 Common Goldeneye
9 Hooded Merganser
6 Common Merganser
225 Ruddy Duck
1 Common Loon
6 Double-crested Cormorant
2 Bald Eagle
1 Red-shouldered Hawk
3 Red-tailed Hawk
15 American Coot
49 Ring-billed Gull
7 Herring Gull (American)
1 Great Black-backed Gull
20 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
3 Mourning Dove
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
7 Downy Woodpecker
7 Blue Jay
52 American Crow
19 Black-capped Chickadee
9 Tufted Titmouse
7 White-breasted Nuthatch
10 Carolina Wren
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
4 American Robin
2 Northern Mockingbird
29 European Starling
6 Song Sparrow
19 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
6 Northern Cardinal
1 House Finch
6 American Goldfinch
24 House Sparrow

This trip summary was created using the BirdLog app for iPhone and iPad.
See BirdLog for more information.


Vin Zollo

West Island and Fairhaven - 11/8/2014

Autumn Birding at West Island, Fairhaven

   West Island is a beautiful part of Fairhaven located just east of the southern tip of Sconticut Neck. While the area is well know to local birders, it does not receive much in the way of coverage from birders beyond southern Bristol County.
On November 8th, I was joined by fifteen birders – some from as far away as Walpole, Quincy, and Pembroke – for a day of mid autumn coastal birding with excellent weather.

"Ipswich" Savannah Sparrow

 

   We started the morning a the southern tip of West Island and immediately noticed the tern-like Bonaparte’s Gulls flying just offshore. In the same area, we flushed an “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow. This large and pale subspecies of Savannah Sparrow winters on the Massachusetts coast and prefers dune habitat and sandy areas close to shore. The bird resembles a nominate Savannah Sparrow, but appears as though it has been stuffed with a golf ball and dipped in bleach for twenty seconds. The bird’s overall frosty appearance and larger size are perhaps the most diagnostic field marks. As we walked north along the beach we were also treated to scope views of Surf and White-winged scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, Red-throated and Common loons, and Horned Grebes.
   While walking on the beach, one member of the group noticed a large dark raptor perched at the top of a tree at the eastern end of the island. As the group scrambled to get their scopes on the bird, another participant yelled out “Golden Eagle!” Our group watched in amazement as a juvenile Golden Eagle – with its broad white tail band and golden nape – sat unfazed while being mobbed by a group of unhappy American Crows. We watched and photographed the bird and agreed that this species was a great surprise for everyone in the group since this species is rare in the southeastern portion of Massachusetts. Although it is of annual occurance at traditional hawk watching sites in Massachusetts (usually in early November), it is much rarer on the coastal plain of the eastern part of the commonwealth.

Golden Eagle

   After viewing the Golden Eagle in beautiful morning light, we continued to the eastern point of West Island. In this area our group encountered fifteen Dunlin and five Ruddy Turnstones on the large rocks near the beach. We also observed an immature Red-shouldered Hawk lazily soaring overhead as scads of Yellow-rumped Warblers jumped from the sand to nearby Bayberry bushes and back. The air was still and the sun was warm, so the warblers were flycatching frequently. One particularly determined Yellow-rump pursued a flying insect high above the shore. Some participants witnessed the bird deftly seize its prey before sailing back down to the protective cover of the Bayberry thickets nearby.
   On our return trip along the beach, we observed a flock of nine Snow Buntings in flight. The Golden Eagle had moved on while we on the opposite side of the eastern point of the island, so we decided to walk the edge of the saltmarsh to see what might be tucked away in the dense Spartina grass. In a small shrub at the edge of the marsh, we had a brief look at another “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow (one of three for the day at this location). While squeaking at the edge of the marsh, some participants had brief but clear views of a Nelson’s Sparrow as it perched near the top of the grass.
   Our next stop was at the small ponds at Egypt Lane in Fairhaven. Our group hoped to see the continuing immature Common Gallinule that has been present here for several weeks. We observed the bird as it paddled about in the dense vegetation. In addition to the Common Gallinule, there was nice variety of ducks at the ponds including Gadwalls, American Wigeons, Green-winged Teal, and Hooded Mergansers. Nine American Coot entertained us with their odd chuckling vocalizations and awkward movements.
   A subsequent visit to Shaw Road yielded a nice mix of birds of open field and thicket habitats. One thicket between fields produced a Golden-crowned Kinglet, nine White-throated Sparrows, a single Swamp Sparrow, and a Palm Warbler (western). A nearby field hosted thirty five Horned Larks and a flock of fifteen American Pipits. An adult Cooper’s Hawk flew into the area and stirred up the birds for a few minutes giving everyone in the group an opportunity to observe the larks and pipits in flight.
Our last stop of the day was Little Bay Conservation Area. This area is loaded with thickets and contains Red Oak/White Pine forest habitat. We observed typical late lingering thicket species like Gray Catbird and Hermit Thrush as we birded on the bike path. Furthermore, our group sighted two Greater Yellowlegs at the edge of Little Bay. By this time, it was late in the afternoon and the sun was getting low on the horizon. It was still warm and pleasant and everyone was still riding the adrenaline rush of the Golden Eagle sighting earlier in the day. Everyone agreed that it was a great day to be out in the field with great birds and great company at a great location.

Hermit Thrush

*Thanks to Steven Whitebread for providing these fine photos.

160 Canada Goose
4 Mute Swan
2 Gadwall
2 American Wigeon
44 American Black Duck
12 Mallard
6 Green-winged Teal (American)
12 Greater/Lesser Scaup
1 Common Eider (Atlantic) - *Very low?
125 Surf Scoter
12 White-winged Scoter
125 Long-tailed Duck
55 Bufflehead
5 Common Goldeneye
2 Hooded Merganser
40 Red-breasted Merganser
5 Red-throated Loon
8 Common Loon
1 Pied-billed Grebe
6 Horned Grebe
12 Double-crested Cormorant
7 Great Cormorant
2 Great Blue Heron
1 Turkey Vulture
1 GOLDEN EAGLE - juvenile
1 Northern Harrier
1 Cooper's Hawk
1 Red-shouldered Hawk
4 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Common Gallinule - continuing immature at Egypt Lane Pond.
9 American Coot
2 Greater Yellowlegs
5 Ruddy Turnstone
3 Sanderling
15 Dunlin
30 Bonaparte's Gull
1 Laughing Gull
55 Ring-billed Gull
117 Herring Gull (American)
7 Great Black-backed Gull
3 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
4 Mourning Dove
1 Eastern Screech-Owl
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
9 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
3 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
9 Blue Jay
16 American Crow
35 Horned Lark
21 Black-capped Chickadee
7 Tufted Titmouse
6 Carolina Wren
3 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Eastern Bluebird
2 Hermit Thrush
7 American Robin
2 Gray Catbird
1 Northern Mockingbird
200 European Starling
15 American Pipit
9 Snow Bunting
1 Palm Warbler (Western)
51 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
1 Eastern Towhee
2 Savannah Sparrow
3 Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich) - West Island
1 Nelson's Sparrow (Atlantic Coast) - West Island
13 Song Sparrow
3 Swamp Sparrow
21 White-throated Sparrow
12 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
8 Northern Cardinal
1 Red-winged Blackbird
3 House Finch
7 American Goldfinch
15 House Sparrow

This trip summary was created using the BirdLog app for iPhone and iPad.
See BirdLog for more information.


Jim Sweeney

Boston Victory Gardens, October 26th 2014

Three of us took the Red line from the Wollaston/North Quincy, stopped off for Coffee (and Restroom) before birding and got all this in in less than an hour before the meeting time, very civilized! We were joined by one more member and strolled the Victory Gardens for three hours on a gorgeous late fall morning. These allotments are always lovely to walk along and often good for a few surprise birds.
Our first surprise was a great look at a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, later we spotted a female Purple Finch, which puzzled us for a bit as it was totally unexpected there! We got many wonderfully close looks at  Hermit Thrushes, always a treat. The Juncos and White-throated Sparrows were also numerous, as were the Kinglets, those little guys are just so cute to watch.


In short a relaxing morning of leisurely and rewarding birding!


Boston: Fenway Victory Gardens, Suffolk, US-MA
Oct 26, 2014 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Comments:    SSBC trip, sunny, mid 50F
35 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose  44
Mallard  3
Great Blue Heron  2
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  3
hawk sp.  1
Herring Gull  2     flyover.
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  3
Mourning Dove  7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Eastern Phoebe  5
Blue Jay  5
Black-capped Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  2
Carolina Wren  1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  7
Hermit Thrush  6
American Robin  21
Northern Mockingbird  4
Cedar Waxwing  2
Common Yellowthroat  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  9
Swamp Sparrow  4
White-throated Sparrow  12
Dark-eyed Junco  8
Northern Cardinal  3
Red-winged Blackbird  3
Common Grackle  9
House Finch  3
Purple Finch  1
American Goldfinch  3
House Sparrow  55

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20361675

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Owl Prowl - SE Mass 10/18/2014

  This was a combined South Shore & Brookline Bird Club trip in search of owls in and around the Cumberland Farm Field in the towns of Halifax and Middleboro. Five others joined me and we began scanning the field at dusk. Weather conditions were comfortable with mild temperatures and light winds. There were hundreds of Am. Robins milling around on the harrowed section of the field and hundreds more overhead heading to a nearby roost site. A Northern Harrier was seen coursing low over the field and an American Woodcock fluttered up over the group as the light was fading. Several small flocks of Wood Ducks were dropping into the marshes in the southern portion of the field. Our first owl was a distant, heard-only Great Horned Owl.

  Darkness was now upon us and we spent the next few hours in the area making several stops playing owl calls and waiting to hear a response. We managed to attract 3 Eastern Screech Owls, having nice looks at 2 of them (both gray phase).
  The highlight of the trip was a nice encounter with a Barred Owl. While playing a Screech Owl call, we noticed this large owl silently fly in and land high up in a nearby tree. Nice looks were had by all as the owl perched above, trying to figure out where the Screech Owl could be. The Barred Owl never did vocalize, so we were fortunate to have seen it fly in.


Canada Goose  2
Wood Duck  60    Estimate. Flyovers at dusk
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Harrier  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Killdeer  1
American Woodcock  1
Mourning Dove  1
Eastern Screech-Owl  3
Great Horned Owl  1
Barred Owl  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  1
Tree Swallow  25
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  1500    Rough estimate of birds heading to roost.
Song Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Vin Zollo

Fowl Meadow, Blue Hills Reservation - Milton 9/13/2014

   We met at 7:30 a.m. and hit the trail about 15 minutes later, returned at 11:30 having walked the Burma Road through to 128 and back, about four miles. Present, besides me, were Tom Cosgrove, Ralph Bowman, Kathy Rawdon, Pat Donahue, Mary Lou Kaufman, and Linde Eyster. The weather was cool but pleasant. Fowl Meadow was very dry -- no water in the marsh to the right of the road heading in. Birds were scarce. The hoped for NW wind had not materialized.
   Kathy, Pat and I continued on to E. Bridgewater where the three Sandhill Cranes were waiting for us. Best bird of the day, although I thought the Broad-Winged Hawk was quite nice. We had nice looks at wood and leopard frogs.

 22 species
Canada Goose x
Turkey Vulture 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 10
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 4
Eastern Phoebe 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Blue Jay 18
Black-capped Chickadee 9
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 16
Gray Catbird 7
Common Yellowthroat 1
Eastern Towhee 3
Northern Cardinal 1
Common Grackle 2
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 5


Patty O'Neill

Book list form Wayne Petersen's talk

What a great talk by Wayne Peterson last night! There is humor to be had even in the telling of a tale of woe. And how about that touching finale. Read the words of  Aldo Leopold with which Wayne ended the talk and find a list of the recommended books on vanished species below.

On a Monument to the Pigeon






By Aldo Leopold, 1947

Published in A Sand County Almanac © 1953, Oxford Univ. Press
We have erected a monument to commemorate the funeral of a species. It symbolizes our sorrow. We grieve because no living man will see again the onrushing phalanx of victorious birds, sweeping a path for spring across the March skies, chasing the defeated winter from all the woods and prairies of Wisconsin.


Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons. Trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a decade hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.


There will always be pigeons in books and in museums, but these are effigies and images, dead to all hardships and to all delights. Book-pigeons cannot dive out of a cloud to make the deer run for cover, or clap their wings in thunderous applause of mast-laden woods. Book-pigeons cannot breakfast on new-mown wheat in Minnesota, and dine on blueberries in Canada. They know no urge of seasons; they feel no kiss of sun, no lash of wind and weather. They live forever by not living at all.


Our grandfathers were less well-housed, well-fed, well-clothed than we are. The strivings by which they bettered their lot are also those which deprived us of pigeons. Perhaps we now grieve because we are not sure, in our hearts, that we have gained by the exchange. The gadgets of industry bring us more comforts than the pigeons did, but do they add as much to the glory of the spring?


It is a century now since Darwin gave us the first glimpse of the origin of species. We know now what was unknown to all the preceding caravan of generations: that men are only fellow-voyagers with other creatures in the odyssey of evolution. This new knowledge should have given us, by this time, a sense of kinship with fellow-creatures; a wish to live and let live; a sense of wonder over the magnitude and duration of the biotic enterprise.


Above all we should, in the century since Darwin, have come to know that man, while now captain of the adventuring ship, is hardly the sole object of its quest, and that his prior assumptions to this effect arose from the simple necessity of whistling in the dark.


These things, I say, should have come to us. I fear they have not come to many.


For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. The Cro-Magnon who slew the last mammoth thought only of steaks. The sportsman who shot the last pigeon thought only of his prowess. The sailor who clubbed the last auk thought of nothing at all. But we, who have lost our pigeons, mourn the loss. Had the funeral been ours, the pigeons would hardly have mourned us. In this fact, rather than in Mr. Du Pont’s nylons or Mr. Vannevar Bush’s bombs, lies objective evidence of our superiority over the beasts.


* * *


This monument, perched like a duckhawk on this cliff, will scan this wide valley, watching through the days and years. For many a March it will watch the geese go by, telling the river about clearer, colder, lonelier waters on the tundra. For many an April it will see the redbuds come and go, and for many a May the flush of oak-blooms on a thousand hills. Questing wood ducks will search these basswoods for hollow limbs; golden prothonotaries will shake golden pollen from the river willows, Egrets will pose on these sloughs in August; plovers will whistle from September skies. Hickory nuts will plop into October leaves, and hail will rattle in November woods. But no pigeons will pass, for there are no pigeons, save only this flightless one, graven in bronze on this rock. Tourists will read this inscription, but their thoughts will not take wing.


We are told by economic moralists that to mourn the pigeon is mere nostalgia; that if the pigeoners had not done away with him, the farmers would ultimately have been obliged, in self-defense, to do so.


This is one of those peculiar truths that are valid, but not for the reasons alleged.


The pigeon was a biological storm. He was the lightning that played between two opposing potentials of intolerable intensity: the fat of the land and the oxygen of the air. Yearly the feathered tempest roared up, down, and across the continent, sucking up the laden fruits of forest and prairie, burning them in a traveling blast of life. Like any other chain reaction, the pigeon could survive no diminution of his own furious intensity. When the pigeoners subtracted from his numbers, and the pioneers chopped gaps in the continuity of his fuel, his flame guttered out with hardly a sputter or even a wisp of smoke.


Today the oaks still flaunt their burden at the sky, but the feathered lightning is no more. Worm and weevil must now perform slowly and silently the biological task that once drew thunder from the firmament.


The wonder is not that the pigeon went out, but that he ever survived through all the millennia of pre-Babbittian time.


* * *


The pigeon loved his land: he lived by the intensity of his desire for clustered grape and bursting beechnut, and by his contempt of miles and seasons. Whatever Wisconsin did not offer him gratis today, he sought and found tomorrow in Michigan, or Labrador, or Tennessee. His love was for present things, and these things were present somewhere; to find them required only the free sky, and the will to ply his wings.


To love what was is a new thing under the sun, unknown to most people and to all pigeons. To see America as history, to conceive of destiny as a becoming, to smell a hickory tree through the still lapse of ages – all these things are possible for us, and to achieve them takes only the free sky, and the will to ply our wings. In these things, and not in Mr. Bush’s bombs and Mr. Du Pont’s nylons, lies objective evidence of our superiority over the beasts.






Recommended Book List


Last of the Curlews / Fred Bodsworth
Wayne recommends to have a box of tissues handy


Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the world  James C. Greenway Jr.


The Carolina Parakeet: Glimpses of a vanishing bird / Noel F.R. Snyder


In search of the Ivory billed Woodpecker / Jerome A. Jackson


Bachman's Warbler: A species in Peril / Paul B. Hamel


The passenger Pigeon: It's natural history and extinction / A.W. Schorger


A feathered river across the sky / Joel Greenberg


The Auks / Anthony J Gaston; Ian L. Jones


The Heath Hen / Alfred O. Grass. Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, 1928.
Published before George, the last heath Hen on the Vineyard, died in 1932!


Good reading - and by the way some members of our bird club have in their lifetime seen some of the now presumed extinct species - that would be a wonderful part two to this evening!


Christine

Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary at Sunset Saturday August 30 2014

Last Saturday we held our second Sunset walks which was co-sponsored with Mass Audubon South Shore Sanctuaries.

Our group consisted of two very interested children and 11 adults. Some participants were also members of the SSBC and some were not birders at all. We had a very slow walk all the way out to Fox Hill, stopping to look at caterpillars and some day flying moths, identifying flowers, checking out a Green Heron from the blind, admiring the board walk and learning about the Purple Martins and other aerial insectivores.

Group posing at Fox Hill – looking into the setting sun

Marshfield: Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary, Plymouth, US-MA
Aug 30, 2014 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.1 kilometer(s)
Comments:     South Shore Bird Club Trip. Sunny 73F
19 species

Canada Goose  28
Wild Turkey  5
Osprey  1
Mourning Dove  13
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  2
Tree Swallow  50     many flying really high.
Tufted Titmouse  5
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
American Robin  3
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  50     Juvenile, in two separate flock,.
Cedar Waxwing  3
Song Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  3
Common Grackle  2
House Finch  1
House Sparrow  6

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19641403

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

After 7 pm Steven set out his equipment for Mothing and worked at it until 4 am! This list would be too long to be published here though!

Christine and Steven Whitebread