April 13, 2021. Duxbury Beach, Duxbury. Photograph by Frederick Bowes.
For its 25th report, the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee (MARC) evaluated 140 records involving 62 species. The committee accepted 127 of those records.
State list Additions: European Golden-Plover, Heermann’s Gull, Roseate Spoonbill, and Great-tailed Grackle.
Rereview of a 2009 Common Shelduck and the recent split of Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus) from Common Gull (Larus canus) added two more species, bringing the state list to 511 species. In addition, the first formally reviewed Great Auk record was accepted and the state’s first Cave Swallow from the Caribbean population represents a new subspecies group for the state.