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  Front Cover: February 2024

  The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is the best known and most common of our dabbling ducks. Broadly distributed across North America, the Mallard ranges across the entire Northern Hemisphere from Greenland to Japan and south to North Africa and central Asia. It has even been introduced in Australia. The species is dimorphic in plumage. The male is a truly lovely bird, sporting an iridescent green head, narrow white neck band, and chestnut brown breast that contrast with the grayish back and underparts. The rump and undertail are black, and the outer tail is white with black central feathers that curl forward. The male’s bill is yellow to greenish yellow; its legs and feet are orange. Mottled brown, the female has white- or buff-edged brown feathers; the underparts and undertail are pale and the outer tail feathers are white. The top of the female’s head is dark brown; its face and neck are lighter brown. It has a dark eye stripe, an orange and black bill, and orange feet and legs. Both males and females have upperwings with a bright blue ...
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  Hot Birds: February 2024

  Massachusetts birders are lucky if even a single Swainson’s Hawk is documented in our state in any given year, but this fall we have hosted three. Jason Forbes photographed the first one (above) in Lexington on September 24. Beth Vaccino crossed paths with the second in Halifax on October 16. The third flew over Stacie and Matt Lambert in Provincetown’s Beech Forest on November 5. All three were one-minute wonders, seen by no one but the people who photographed them. Western Massachusetts ended the year stealing some of the rare-bird spotlight that usually points east when Mary McKitrick found a Say’s Phoebe (above) by the dam of the Quabbin Reservoir on December 10. Although most of our state’s records of this species are one-day wonders—including one on Plum Island about a month and a half earlier, and another in Uxbridge just after Christmas—the Quabbin bird stuck around through at least January 10, allowing the Quabbin CBC to tally two species of phoebe, quite an achievement in our state. Tim Spahr found a Hammond’s Flycatcher (above) on November 15 at Crane Swamp ...
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  At a Glance: December 2023 Revealed

  Confident that the mystery bird is a shorebird, deciding which major subgroup of shorebirds it belongs in is straightforward. Plovers seldom wade in the water and almost never feed with their short, stubby bills under water. Unlike many sandpipers, plovers are visual feeders that typically locate their prey by sight and accordingly need to see what they are feeding on. In contrast, sandpipers often wade in the water when feeding, using their longer and variable shaped bills to find their prey by touch or feel. Sandpipers often do not even see the prey items they may be feeding on, but instead rely upon sensitive nerves at the tip of their bill called Herbst corpuscles to sense the location of hidden prey. Given these distinctive behavioral differences, it is obvious that the mystery shorebird is a sandpiper and not a plover. Assuming the bird is a sandpiper, readers will find that the color version of the photo on the web offers additional useful features for identification. In particular, the legs of the mystery sandpiper are black (or at least very dark), ...
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  Twenty-sixth Report of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee

  ACCEPTED RECORDS Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) [3 records accepted in this report, 16 total] 2021-049: 1 at Salt Pond, Falmouth, Barnstable, 7/15/2021 [Amy Roberts* (ph), m.ob.]. 2021-048: 7 at Lucy Vincent Beach, Chilmark, Dukes, 7/30/2021 [Jim Shoemaker* (ph)]. 2022-058: 1 at Town Beach Road Marsh, Richmond, Berkshire, 6/16/2022 [Zach Adams* (ph), v.o.]. First accepted to the state list from a 2008 record, this species continues to be a regular vagrant in recent years, with most records of short-staying birds or flocks from April 29 to August 4; the Berkshire record was a county first. Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) [9, 34] 2021-088: 4 at Longmeadow Flats, Longmeadow, Hampden, 12/11/2021 [Jeremy Spool*, Meghadeepa Maity* (ph)]. 2021-091: 1 at Shaw Road, Fairhaven and Mill Road, Fairhaven, Bristol, 12/14/2021 to 12/17/2021 [Dan Mckinnon*, m.ob.]. 2021-092: 1 at Stanley Park, Westfield, Hampden, 12/16/2021 to 12/18/2021 [Frank Bowrys* (ph)]. 2021-096: 1 at 2236 Riverside Avenue, Somerset, Bristol, 12/21/2021 [Jim Sweeney* (ph), m.ob. (ph)]. 2022-003: 2 at Connecticut River, Hadley (Mitch’s Way and Hadley Bridge), Hampshire, 1/4/2022 to 1/11/2022 [Mary McKitrick* (ph), m.ob.]. 2022-005: 1 at Duxbury High School area, Duxbury, Plymouth, 1/12/2022 to 1/16/2022 Emily Szczypek* (ph), ...
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  Birding the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire

  VERMONT Lake Runnemede/Evarts Pond Lake Runnemede, also known locally as Evarts Pond, is by far the top birding hotspot in Windsor County, boasting an all-time tally of 218 species. Located in Windsor, this 62-acre human-created water body is embedded within 224-acre Paradise Park, featuring mixed hardwood forests, shrubby cattail wetlands, agricultural lands, and open water. The public park offers numerous access points and foot trails. For birding, a multi-use trail across the large dike at the lake’s east end and a connected loop around the horseshoe-shaped interior provide the best opportunities. Spring and fall can be exhilarating, especially on good fallout mornings, which are often associated with low cloud ceilings and drizzle or light rain. Even in winter, the interior agricultural fields—typically planted in pumpkins and/or corn—with their embedded weedy patches and surrounding dense thickets, can harbor large flocks of Snow Buntings, hardy sparrows, and an occasional Northern Shrike. Bald Eagles are predictable, often feeding on ice-fishing offal. Following spring migration, early summer can still offer fruitful birding. Alder and Willow flycatchers nest in the shrubby wetlands, as do Virginia Rails ...