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 Sunday, April 5th 2020 South Shore Bird Club’s second official Social Distancing "walk" was held with ten participants joining in on GroupMe tell each other what they’d been seeing and reporting their eBird lists to the SSBCsocialdistancing eBird account. As a group we observed 105 species with 3792 individuals over 52 checklists and two states. 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. And enough with that, on to what we saw!
On Sunday, April 5th 2020 South Shore Bird Club’s second official Social Distancing "walk" was held with ten participants joining in on GroupMe tell each other what they’d been seeing and reporting their eBird lists to the SSBCsocialdistancing eBird account. As a group we observed 105 species with 3792 individuals over 52 checklists and two states. 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. And enough with that, on to what we saw!
Similar to last week, two owl
species were observed (Barred and Great Horned) early in the morning. A Ruffed
Grouse was also observed drumming, to boot. Brian managed to hear and record a
Winter Wren, a welcoming early-spring melody reliable at Wompatuck. His recording
in the checklist below:
Throughout the morning many people
observed yard birds and otherwise singing. Common yard birds like phoebes, Carolina
Wrens, and Song Sparrows, forest birds like Brown Creepers and Hermit Thrushes,
and Beth observed a flicker drumming on a metal piling (I wish I could have
seen that).
Some avian highlights include Rusty
Blackbirds, Purple Finch, Pileated Woodpeckers, American Kestrel, a
Rough-legged Hawk, House Wren, over a dozen Sandhill Cranes, Glossy Ibis,
Virginia Rail, Common Ravens, Great Egrets, a Manx Shearwater, American Oystercatchers,
Black-crowned Night Herons, a Ruddy Duck in breeding plumage, and a Palm
Warbler on Palm Sunday.
Some non-avian highlights from the
trip were a raccoon, a red fox, and white-tailed deer.
There was a subconscious theme
throughout the day which only became truly apparent when compiling the data;
most everyone was birding their local haunts. Keelin birded inner Cape spots,
Kathy at Bare Cove, Lynn her forest and environs, Pete at Cumbies, Carol Buzzards
Bay, Kim and Mike even lower in Buzzards Bay and Joe and Charlie birded… well…
north of us.
Once again 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.
Best,
Nate
A complete list of the birds we saw:
| Species Name | Species Count | Sample Size |
| Brant | 54 | 3 |
| Canada Goose | 374 | 26 |
| goose sp. | 6 | 1 |
| Mute Swan | 2 | 1 |
| Wood Duck | 12 | 5 |
| Mallard | 286 | 17 |
| American Black Duck | 112 | 10 |
| Green-winged Teal | 94 | 10 |
| Ring-necked Duck | 22 | 2 |
| Common Eider | 57 | 3 |
| Surf Scoter | 413 | 4 |
| White-winged Scoter | 25 | 1 |
| Black Scoter | 10 | 1 |
| Long-tailed Duck | 1 | 1 |
| Bufflehead | 77 | 11 |
| Common Goldeneye | 2 | 1 |
| Hooded Merganser | 7 | 2 |
| Common Merganser | 21 | 2 |
| Red-breasted Merganser | 6 | 3 |
| Ruddy Duck | 26 | 1 |
| Ruffed Grouse | 3 | 2 |
| Wild Turkey | 14 | 4 |
| Horned Grebe | 2 | 1 |
| Rock Pigeon | 5 | 1 |
| Mourning Dove | 56 | 20 |
| Virginia Rail | 1 | 1 |
| Sandhill Crane | 13 | 2 |
| American Oystercatcher | 6 | 3 |
| Killdeer | 39 | 8 |
| American Woodcock | 5 | 2 |
| Wilson's Snipe | 23 | 3 |
| Greater Yellowlegs | 2 | 1 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 84 | 5 |
| Herring Gull | 111 | 14 |
| Great Black-backed Gull | 13 | 4 |
| gull sp. | 23 | 2 |
| Common Loon | 12 | 4 |
| Manx Shearwater | 1 | 1 |
| Northern Gannet | 2 | 1 |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 46 | 7 |
| Great Blue Heron | 17 | 12 |
| Great Egret | 10 | 3 |
| Snowy Egret | 1 | 1 |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 4 | 1 |
| Glossy Ibis | 7 | 1 |
| Turkey Vulture | 3 | 1 |
| Osprey | 32 | 13 |
| Northern Harrier | 2 | 1 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 2 | 2 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 3 | 3 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 9 | 6 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 | 1 |
| Buteo sp. | 1 | 1 |
| Great Horned Owl | 5 | 3 |
| Barred Owl | 2 | 1 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 5 | 5 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 25 | 12 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 22 | 14 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 5 | 4 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 3 | 2 |
| Northern Flicker | 23 | 11 |
| woodpecker sp. | 2 | 2 |
| American Kestrel | 3 | 3 |
| Eastern Phoebe | 24 | 15 |
| Blue Jay | 82 | 20 |
| American Crow | 141 | 23 |
| Fish Crow | 29 | 7 |
| Common Raven | 3 | 2 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 70 | 23 |
| Tufted Titmouse | 53 | 23 |
| Tree Swallow | 21 | 6 |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | 14 | 6 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 2 | 2 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 8 | 5 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 28 | 13 |
| Brown Creeper | 4 | 3 |
| House Wren | 1 | 1 |
| Winter Wren | 3 | 2 |
| Carolina Wren | 20 | 11 |
| European Starling | 29 | 6 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 5 | 5 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 4 | 3 |
| Hermit Thrush | 3 | 3 |
| American Robin | 265 | 27 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 14 | 1 |
| House Sparrow | 19 | 8 |
| House Finch | 13 | 6 |
| Purple Finch | 1 | 1 |
| American Goldfinch | 37 | 12 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 2 | 2 |
| Field Sparrow | 1 | 1 |
| American Tree Sparrow | 1 | 1 |
| Fox Sparrow | 1 | 1 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 21 | 9 |
| White-throated Sparrow | 24 | 9 |
| Song Sparrow | 126 | 27 |
| Swamp Sparrow | 1 | 1 |
| Eastern Towhee | 3 | 3 |
| Eastern Meadowlark | 1 | 1 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 171 | 24 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 16 | 8 |
| Rusty Blackbird | 3 | 1 |
| Common Grackle | 196 | 17 |
| blackbird sp. | 1 | 1 |
| Palm Warbler | 2 | 2 |
| Pine Warbler | 16 | 10 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 6 | 4 |
| Northern Cardinal | 52 | 20 |
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