On January 16, Miles Brengle spotted a Swainson’s Hawk between Ipswich and Plum Island. Erik Schiff had photographed what may have been the same bird on Plum Island in late November, but it had not been seen since. After a brief showing the next morning, the hawk disappeared again, but this time for only a couple of weeks, until Elizabeth Davis spotted it in Gloucester near Good Harbor Beach on February 2. It was more cooperative there and appeared almost daily until the end of February. Sam Zhang took the photograph.
Ted Gilliland, who found the first Tufted Duck documented west of the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts in fall 2023, found the second one, too, on March 1. It was near the Longmeadow sandbar in the Connecticut River, one of western Massachusetts’s most magnetic spots for rare shorebirds, seabirds, and waterfowl. Two other Tufted Ducks appeared this winter in more typical locations: Nantucket and Harwich. Trish Pastuszak took the photograph.
This winter has been a season for Northern Lapwings in Massachusetts. In the February 2025 issue of Bird Observer, we reported records in Nantucket in December 2024 and in New Bedford in January. Another turned up on Long Island, New York, in January. John Keeley found a lapwing in Newburyport on March 6–7. James Smith found one on March 12 on the Connecticut River between Turners Falls and Gill, roosting with a flock of gulls on the Barton Cove ice. The New York bird was present on March 7, and the New Bedford lapwing was seen across the state line in Rhode Island on March 11. At least three and probably four individuals were in the northeastern United States in early March. David Williams took the photograph.
A male Varied Thrush started visiting a birdfeeder in Petersham on January 25. A previous appearance in central Massachusetts by this species had been ruined by birder misbehavior. This winter, birders respected the neighborhood and navigated its small road carefully, so the homeowners remained gracious and welcoming through the bird’s final appearance on March 4. Earlier in the winter, a female Varied Thrush was a one-day-wonder at a feeder in Bourne, Cape Cod, on January 6. Joseph Sefter took the photograph.