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  Hot Birds: February 2020

  Painted Bunting, Chatham, by Tom Auer. Painted Bunting, Sandwich, by Sean Williams. Painted Bunting, Brewster, by Sue Finnegan. Painted Bunting, Carver, by Chris Floyd. One of the many amazing birding phenomena of the fall and winter of 2019 was an influx of Painted Buntings into the northeast. Massachusetts, in a roughly 2-month period, apparently had seven of them, all on or near Cape Cod, with birds photographed in Brewster, Dartmouth, Provincetown, Harwich, Sandwich, Carver, and Chatham! The event was not restricted to Massachusetts, with at least four more birds on Long Island NY, and several more around Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay. Most of the birds were visiting feeders; the bird in Carver was still being reported up until press time. At the same time that the two Townsend’s Solitaires and the first of the seven Painted Buntings showed up, so did the first of at least five Western Tanagers! As with the buntings, most of the birds were visiting feeders in private yards, some of which did not allow visitors. Birders did manage to catch up with a couple of them, including one ...
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  Musings from the Blind Birder: Helping Birds: What Can I Do?

  Helping birds is a highly personal issue for me. Simply put, I love birds. I love to bird. I love talking about birds. I love the challenge of identifying birds. I love listening to birds in whatever environment they happen to be. I love the ebb and flow of the seasons, the comings and goings throughout the year, and wishing them well on their journeys that have become increasingly perilous due to diminishing habitat availability. And why do I love birds? This is sort of like asking why I love my husband, my mother, my brothers, my cousins, my friends. Beyond the profound enjoyment of being in the presence of birds, I am often awed by their beauty, their spectacular courtship displays, their bouncy, buzzy, mournful, or (add your adjective) songs, their diversity, and their otherworldly behaviors and abilities that include biannual migrations spanning thousands of miles. Reductions in the number of birds—and make no mistake, reductions of nearly 30 percent are staggering—mean that my enjoyment of birds and birding is seriously threatened, and that matters to me. Wandering Mount Auburn ...
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  Bird Sightings: September-October 2019

  October continued on the warm side with the temperature averaging 63.8 degrees in Boston, nearly three degrees above normal for the month. The high was 81 degrees on October 7. It was a wet month with rain noted on 20 days and totaling 4.45 inches, about two inches above the average. Much of the area north and west of Boston had significantly more rain, especially on the last days of the month, which resulted in many communities postponing Halloween. R. Stymeist
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  Margaret Morse Nice: The Woman who Changed American Ornithology

  After graduating from Mount Holyoke, Margaret entered graduate school at Clark University in Worcester, which she recalled as very important in her development as a scientist: "It was at Clark University that I found purpose in life. Dr. Hodge, Dr. Hall, and my fellow students showed me that the world was full of problems crying to be solved; at every turn there was a challenge—nature waiting to be studied and understood." (Nice 1979) Her study at Clark of the feeding of a captive population of Northern Bobwhites launched her on a scientific research career with birds. She planned to use an expanded bobwhite feeding study to get a Ph.D. But instead, as she recalls: "These plans were changed. Instead of raising bobwhites, I was married; instead of working for a Ph.D., I kept house." (Nice 1979) In 1909, she married Leonard Blaine Nice who was an instructor in physiology. Her parents had opposed her engaging in doctoral studies and the societal norms of early 20th century America were not conducive to women getting Ph.D.s. She did, however, join the ...
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  Winter Birding in the Plymouth-Manomet Area (1975)

  Thicket birding during the colder months will often yield Winter and Carolina wrens, Gray Catbird, American Robin, Hermit Thrush, both kinglets, Cedar Waxwing, lingering blackbirds, House Finch, Rufous-sided Towhee, and Field Sparrow. Although Plymouth Beach peninsula is inaccessible to most winter birders, the area is attractive to roosting gulls and winter shorebirds, and the hardy dune-hiker will often be rewarded with Savannah (Ipswich) Sparrow, Short-eared Owl, Brant, and Snow Bunting. (Note: see article on Plymouth Beach birding in BOEM May-June 1973). Map of Plymouth area. Red-throated Loon. Photograph © Shawn P. Carey. The following suggested route can be variously worked to suit your own interests, but don't limit yourself just to the winter season, for most of the spots are productive from October through May. If one approaches from the north, take Rte. 44 to the east off Rte. 3. This will take you toward Plymouth and to Rte. 3A. Turn left (north), proceed 1/2 mile, and turn right onto Nelson Street. Go to the parking lot beyond the end of the street. This is a fine spot from which to observe ...
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  About Books: Locally Sourced

  Nelson came to birds rather late in his life, and this gives him a different perspective than one reads in work penned by hard-core birders obsessed since their childhood. "I turned to birding only after a midlife run of orthopedic insults ended my amateur careers in basketball, touch football, and tennis." (p. 3) It was while he was recuperating from the surgeries in Monteverde, Costa Rica, that on a whim he decided to try a professionally led bird walk. He enjoyed it and something clicked. When he returned to his home on Cape Ann, he took up bicycling as exercise and began to notice all the birds he passed on his outings. A birder was born. But Nelson's writing is never just about the birds. After I returned, I looked to combine my newfound love of birds with my long-standing love of literature. I hatched a plan to write a grand book tracing the history of American literature from a birder's perspective. After several editors persuaded me I'd never find a publisher, I kept reading anyway, partly as research for essays, but ...