Mark Lynch
Birds of Rhode Island: Seasonal Distribution and Ecological History.
Richard L. Ferren. 2024. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, New York.
Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts: A Personal Journey (2 Volumes).
James W. Berry. 2024. Published by Essex County Greenbelt Association and produced by Amazon Publishing Pros.
“A modern treatment of Rhode Island’s birdlife is long overdue. The last account was Howe and Sturtevant’s The Birds of Rhode Island, published in 1899, during the first widespread wave of interest in nature that swept the Northeast in the late-nineteenth century.” (p. 1)
In the early years of this century, Sheila Carroll and I became hardcore Rhode Island birders, visiting the state at least once a week. We were not just chasing one of the many rarities that Rhode Island has hosted, rather we were birding the top quarter of the state that was half of the Blackstone National Corridor. The other half of the corridor was in Massachusetts. The towns included in the National Corridor were those that held parts of the watershed of the Blackstone River. In Rhode Island, the corridor included towns such as Burrillville, Glocester, the Smithfields, Pawtucket, Cumberland, Woonsocket, and down the Seekonk River to India Point. I was naively hoping to eventually write a book about the birds of the corridor. I had, of course, birded spots in the Massachusetts section of the corridor many times before, but I had no idea of where to go birding in these northern areas of Rhode Island. Thus began a birding adventure of looking at maps, reading birding internet posts from the state, and exploring all the parks, ponds, and forests of Rhode Island. Compared to the well-known coastal spots in the state, relatively few birders visited this northern section of the state. With a cadre of volunteer birders from Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, we even conducted biannual waterbird counts of all the ponds in both state sections of the corridor. Every visit added to my personal knowledge of the birds of Rhode Island. I diligently sent in my records to the appropriate Facebook site, and got to know, at least online, some of the serious birders in the state.
We have many fond memories from those years birding in Rhode Island. We saw lots of great birds, of course, and some of our most important sightings can be found in Birds of Rhode Island. But we also learned about some great birding spots well known to the state birders, but new to us, and likely new to many Massachusetts birders. The Cumberland reservoirs often hosted good numbers and variety of waterfowl in fall to freeze-up, but the caveat was finding a safe, legal place to pull off the car. When there was low water, this location was also a good spot for shorebirds. The Seekonk River separating Providence and East Providence was a great place for waterfowl that included Barrow’s Goldeneyes and sometimes Canvasbacks. Bald Eagles were to be searched for there in winter. Swan Point Cemetery in Providence was an important historical spot for spring migrants and a fine place to search for screech-owls. India Point, the southern terminus of the corridor, had a few pairs of breeding Common Terns and hosted Black-crowned Night Herons in summer, as well as harbor seals in winter. Buck Hill State Management Area in Burrillville offered some great hiking and birding. I could go on and on.
We also had some experiences that made for great birding stories, including the time we set up our scope about 50 yards from a drug bust. We could hear everything that was being said and I swear the police were doing the classic “good cop/bad cop” routine. A peregrine flew by mid-bust with what looked like a collared dove in its talons. As Halloween drew near, we would often find groups of goth kids wandering around Swan Point Cemetery searching for H. P. Lovecraft’s grave. Hint: “I Am Providence.” We had a number of unsolicited conversations with locals who insisted on telling us how great “Buddy” Cianci was. Experiences like these convinced us that Rhode Island was certainly a quirky place to bird, and we loved it that way. Eventually the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas II began ramping up, and we started spending all our time atlasing blocks all over the state.
My problem was that I knew nothing about the historical occurrence of birds in Rhode Island. If I counted more than 100 American Black Ducks along the Seekonk River, I had no idea if that was a significant number. How many records of Hudsonian Godwit were there well inland in the state? We found one on November 1, 2001, at Woonsocket Reservoir, and we were excited until it was promptly dispatched by a Peregrine. Where was the best place to watch nighthawk migration in the northern sections of the state? I had so many questions and kept bothering local birders for answers. That was when Richard Ferren contacted me and offered to email me an early version of his Birds of Rhode Island in six huge downloads. I was blown away. Here was a complete species-by-species account of all the birds that had occurred in the state with useful and important analyses of changes in occurrence and population. It was a scholarly manuscript that seemed ready for publication then. I will be forever grateful to Richard Ferren for sending that manuscript to me because it changed the way I looked at Rhode Island birds. It also made me realize I would never finish my intended book on the Birds of the Blackstone National Corridor because half of that book had already been written. I have to mention that a number of birders were concerned that Ferren’s lifework would never be published because he just kept working on it.
Richard Ferren worked on this historical ecology of Rhode Island’s birds beginning in the late 1960s and continued full tilt until about 2003, at which point Nuttall Ornithological Club editors, P.A. Buckley and A.R. Keith, approached him and asked whether he would be willing to submit it for publication as a Nuttall Ornithological Memoir. As I was on Nuttall’s editorial board at the time, and had a fair amount of experience with (and a fondness for) Rhode Island’s landscapes and wildlife, especially its birds, I agreed to take on the project. I was impressed with the fine level of detail of documentation of the birds and also the rich detailed history of Rhode Island ornithology dating to the 1600s. (Richard Veit p. ix of the Editor’s Preface)
Birds of Rhode Island is a classic regional ornithological history, the lifework of an ornithologist with a deep passion for the birds of this state. It is thick (559 pages) and heavy but the size of a regular book, so sitting down and reading the text is easy and enjoyable. The text is augmented by seven colored Rhode Island maps as well as 28 color photographs of select state rarities. There are a good number of illustrations by Margaret LaFarge, including a color cover of Henslow’s Sparrows. In the extensive Introduction section, there are chapters on the history of Rhode Island ornithology, plus details of the sources of the records, migration, climate change, and even a section on what birds got blown in by all the hurricanes that have hit the state.
The final publication of Birds of Rhode Island is an event to celebrate. Congratulations to Richard Ferren and the Nuttall Ornithological Club and Richard Veit in particular. If you are serious about New England birds it is a “must have” book to keep handy. Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the union, but its ornithological history is rich and fascinating. This book will also encourage non-Rhode Island birders to visit the state more often than just to tick a rarity. I know I miss winters along the Seekonk.
The name is generally pronounced “PAR-a-la”, but Tom Wetmore and I prefer the more logical “par-RU-la” for this Latin-derived word meaning “little tit” (Gruson 1972). It refers to the small size of this warbler vis-à-vis other warblers, although the word “tit” in British usage refers to chickadee-type birds (the parids—see above) not warblers. But the Parula is one of the smallest of the wood-warblers, so the name seems to fit. (p. 278 Vol 2 Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts.)
I learned many of the basics of bird identification and saw many life birds in coastal Essex County even though I lived in Worcester. It was always a long drive. Back in the 1970s, new birders throughout the state, except those living on Cape Cod, were expected go to Plum Island or Cape Ann if they wanted to see shorebirds, terns, alcids, and, of course, Snowy Owls. Amazingly, for many of my beginning years of birding I saw Saw-whet Owls only after doing a diligent search of pines on Plum Island or at Salisbury Beach State Reservation. Now I know Saw-whets breed within 20 minutes of my house.
In those days there was also a group of older Essex County birders who would go out of their way to befriend you and teach you the places to go other than Cape Ann and Plum Island. They would also pass on information of where a rarity was found. This was a time when we only had the Voice of Audubon phone message as the source of what was seen where, so these local contacts were important. For years I did the Newburyport and Cape Ann CBCs, and one of the people I got to know at those tallies was James (Jim) Berry. Even then he was fascinated by records current and historical, so it came as little surprise that he would write a thorough history of the birds of Essex County.
Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts: A Personal Journey is subtitled An Update of Charles Wendell Townsend’s Birds of Essex County (1905), which was the last attempt to write a complete ornithology of the county. Volume 1 includes a chapter on that book and its author. Volume 1 begins with other sections on changes in the land and climate, changes in field ornithology, hot spots (there is more to Essex County than the coast), Important Bird Areas in the county, and a guide on how to read the species accounts. Volume 1, with a color photograph of an American Oystercatcher on the cover, includes waterfowl and ends with owls. Volume 2, with a Townsend’s Warbler on the cover, includes accounts of Belted Kingfisher and ends with Dickcissel. Putting a Townsend’s Warbler photo on the cover of a book about Essex County birds may seem a weird choice, but a Townsend’s Warbler showed up at Berry’s feeder on December 24, 2011, and stayed until March 27, 2012. The photo on the cover is of that very bird.
Each species account begins with a single line describing the status of that species in the county followed by paragraphs describing details of its occurrence and history. These descriptions add depth and context to any sightings you may have had in the county. Many accounts include Berry’s personal experiences with that species. Reading these books is like taking a long birding class with Berry, who is always great company. Some of the species accounts are lengthy. Eastern Screech-Owl (Volume 1) runs from page 388 to page 392. Volume 2 ends with an extensive bibliography (pages 319–63) and a seasonal checklist (pages 364–74).
Birds of Essex County, Massachusetts: A Personal Journey is a large format book with soft covers. The type is large and easy to read. This book is a lifework and an important contribution to the ornithological history of New England. James Berry is to be congratulated for gathering and organizing all the data, writing the species accounts, and getting the book into print.
It is important to note that all proceeds from the purchase of Birds of Essex County go to the Essex County Greenbelt Association.
To listen to Mark Lynch’s conversation with James Berry on WICN, go to https://wicn.org/podcast/james-w-berry/