Note: To those who are unfamiliar, these social distancing “walks” are not in-person walks but rather a group chat where members share their experiences for the morning and stay connected. South Shore Bird Club is strict about (and very impressed by its members) adhering to social distancing guidelines, which includes avoiding populated areas, large groups, and close social interaction. We fully support members enjoying the healing and mindfulness that nature can provide and want to foster a social environment for those who may feel isolated- these walks are intended to achieve both of these goals with safety at the forefront of our mission.
On Saturday, March 28th 2020 South Shore Bird Club’s first Social Distancing "walk" was held with many participants joining in on a group text to chat and tell each other what they’d been seeing and reporting their eBird lists to the SSBCsocialdistancing eBird account. As a group we observed 110 species with 5627 individuals over 46 checklists. Many people went out into the field, which was likely attributed to the beautiful weather we experienced. Although as a group we consisted of many, we all played our part by not birding in groups and to keep our person-to-person contact as close to zero as possible. I would like to emphasize that the purpose of this is not to encourage those to go out birding in the field, but rather an avenue to be social with those that we unfortunately can’t spend time with in person. Enough with that though, on to what we saw!
The day started early, with three participants reporting two
owl species from their yards predawn. Brian has recordings of the Great Horned
Owl he heard, which can be found here: https://ebird.org/massaudubon/checklist/S66328453/
. This was shortly followed by Christine
and Steven at Passanageset with two Sandhill Cranes flying in around sunrise,
and Beth seeing two more at Burrage.
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| Sandhill Cranes by Steven Whitebread |
Lisa and Brian observed phoebes and Carolina Wrens starting to focus on nest-building, while Lynn observed a Pileated Woodpecker which appeared to be making a nesting hole.
From a non-bird standpoint, Brian observed a Dekay’s Brown
snake, Joe and Charlie a coyote, and I observed several right whales at Race
Point.
 |
| Right whale |
Carol and I observed rails calling, Carol hearing a Clapper
Rail over at Egypt Lane in Fairhaven, and Chelsea and I hearing Virginia Rails
call as we ate the sandwiches we packed for lunch atop the hill at High Head in
Truro.
Kathy observed a Winter Wren and Red-breasted Nuthatch
singing at Wompatuck.
Pete played his part as a responsible social distancer, by
choosing to not go to Great River after finding the parking lot to be very
busy.
 |
| Shorebirds by Lisa Schibley |
A brief summary of our observations for the day-
On the duck front there were Wood Ducks, Northern Pintails,
Pied-billed Grebes, a coot and a Redhead. Waterfowl were clearly on the move
with more than 500 Red-breasted Mergansers, over 200 Red-throated Loons, and
over a hundred Common Loons. Accompanying them were the arrival of shorebirds
like oystercatchers, Piping Plovers, Killdeer, and snipe, waders like great
blues on nest, and Great and Snowy Egrets showing up. Eastern Phoebes, Tree
Swallows, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Chipping Sparrows, Double-crested Cormorants
and Ospreys are becoming more abundant, while there are still remnants of
wintering birds like Razorbills, Iceland Gulls, and juncos. Semi-hardy
lingerers seemed to make it all the way through the winter this year, with
Winter Wren, Hermit Thrushes, Fox Sparrows, and a catbird reported.
Questionable lingering warbler species like Pine and Palm Warblers were
reported, and yellow-rumps were observed to be molting into breeding plumage. Other notable species were four Bald Eagles
and eight ravens reported for the day, and one simply odd observation looking
at the data is nearly 300 Song Sparrows were observed!
I hope everyone had fun and look forward to continuing this tradition
as long as we are unable to meet up as a group. Announcement of the next trip
will be made on the Google Group. Oh yeah, I hadn’t mentioned it yet but props
to all those birding in their yard!
Best,
Nate
A complete list of the birds we saw:
| Species Name | Species Count | Checklists reporting |
| Brant | 194 | 4 |
| Canada Goose | 314 | 19 |
| Mute Swan | 82 | 8 |
| Wood Duck | 5 | 2 |
| Gadwall | 14 | 2 |
| American Wigeon | 9 | 1 |
| Mallard | 118 | 18 |
| American Black Duck | 56 | 12 |
| Mallard/American Black Duck | 6 | 1 |
| Northern Pintail | 2 | 1 |
| Green-winged Teal | 82 | 6 |
| Redhead | 4 | 4 |
| Ring-necked Duck | 316 | 3 |
| Greater Scaup | 8 | 1 |
| Common Eider | 255 | 8 |
| Surf Scoter | 92 | 7 |
| White-winged Scoter | 110 | 4 |
| Black Scoter | 15 | 1 |
| Long-tailed Duck | 63 | 4 |
| Bufflehead | 233 | 13 |
| Common Goldeneye | 13 | 3 |
| Hooded Merganser | 22 | 5 |
| Common Merganser | 10 | 4 |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 617 | 8 |
| Wild Turkey | 4 | 2 |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 6 | 4 |
| Horned Grebe | 7 | 3 |
| Rock Pigeon | 17 | 4 |
| Mourning Dove | 42 | 18 |
| Clapper Rail | 1 | 1 |
| Virginia Rail | 2 | 1 |
| American Coot | 1 | 1 |
| Sandhill Crane | 4 | 2 |
| American Oystercatcher | 3 | 3 |
| Black-bellied Plover | 2 | 1 |
| Piping Plover | 5 | 3 |
| Killdeer | 25 | 5 |
| Sanderling | 30 | 1 |
| Dunlin | 4 | 2 |
| Wilson's Snipe | 12 | 1 |
| shorebird sp. | 1 | 1 |
| Razorbill | 8 | 1 |
| large alcid sp. | 4 | 1 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 117 | 9 |
| Herring Gull | 215 | 10 |
| Iceland Gull | 20 | 1 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 31 | 8 |
| gull sp. | 2 | 1 |
| Red-throated Loon | 201 | 2 |
| Common Loon | 119 | 7 |
| Northern Gannet | 31 | 3 |
| Great Cormorant | 14 | 1 |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 2 | 1 |
| Great Blue Heron | 34 | 6 |
| Great Egret | 6 | 4 |
| Snowy Egret | 1 | 1 |
| Turkey Vulture | 3 | 2 |
| Osprey | 16 | 9 |
| Northern Harrier | 7 | 4 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 3 | 3 |
| Bald Eagle | 4 | 2 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | 1 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 10 | 8 |
| Great Horned Owl | 2 | 2 |
| Barred Owl | 1 | 1 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 3 | 3 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 13 | 10 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 20 | 14 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 3 | 3 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 1 | 1 |
| Northern Flicker | 27 | 14 |
| woodpecker sp. | 2 | 2 |
| Merlin | 1 | 1 |
| Eastern Phoebe | 15 | 9 |
| Blue Jay | 80 | 21 |
| American Crow | 92 | 23 |
| Fish Crow | 6 | 4 |
| Common Raven | 8 | 6 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 66 | 20 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 52 | 18 |
| Horned Lark | 2 | 1 |
| Tree Swallow | 42 | 4 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 3 | 2 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 1 | 1 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 17 | 10 |
| Brown Creeper | 3 | 2 |
| Winter Wren | 1 | 1 |
| Carolina Wren | 20 | 12 |
| European Starling | 58 | 11 |
| Gray Catbird | 1 | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 9 | 7 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 6 | 4 |
| Hermit Thrush | 2 | 2 |
| American Robin | 356 | 26 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 4 | 1 |
| House Sparrow | 38 | 8 |
| House Finch | 20 | 9 |
| American Goldfinch | 64 | 16 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 2 | 1 |
| Field Sparrow | 5 | 3 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 2 | 2 |
| Fox Sparrow | 2 | 1 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 47 | 11 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 16 | 8 |
| Savannah Sparrow | 1 | 1 |
| Song Sparrow | 290 | 34 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 5 | 2 |
| Eastern Towhee | 1 | 1 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 256 | 28 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 25 | 9 |
| Common Grackle | 164 | 20 |
| blackbird sp. | 30 | 1 |
| Palm Warbler | 1 | 1 |
| Pine Warbler | 5 | 3 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 21 | 5 |
| Northern Cardinal | 60 | 25 |