On the morning of December 4, 2025 Jon Skinner discovered a Chestnut-collared Longspur at the Fitchburg Airport. Some of Jon’s notes on the sighting: I arrived prior to sunrise and the dark and overcast morning made it difficult to see the flocks of birds out on the tarmac. I was hoping for a Lapland Longspur […]
Birders in Massachusetts and New England have been anticipating a first record of Limpkin for years as nearby states and provinces have seen increasing visits from this southeastern specialty. On Sunday, it finally happened when Jess Maguire discovered one wandering around a residential neighborhood in Scituate. Word spread quickly via GroupMe, Discord and eBird and […]
While Suffolk County has had its fair share of exciting rarities, Boston birders were treated to three MARC review list species in three days this past week, including a county-first White-faced Ibis and county-second records of Black-necked Stilt and Mississippi Kite. It all began mid-afternoon on Wednesday, May 28, when a Mississippi Kite passed through […]
On 29 December 2024 Krzysztof Kurylowicz was birding at Morris Island in Chatham when he discovered the state’s first record of a Ferruginous Hawk. Krzysztof’s notes from eBird: Dark hawk with white streaking on the breast and white edges of wing and white tail. Flew toward West Side of the island. Harrased by crows. I’ll […]
On November 15th Tim Spahr found the first Worcester Co. record of Hammond’s Flycatcher. Tim’s field notes: Small kinglet-like empidonax with a peaked crown and long primary projection. The general gray-headed and greenish appearance lands me on empids from the west. The small bill and primary projection rule out anything but Hammond’s. The bird also […]
On December 8, 2014, Stan Deutsch photographed an odd shorebird in Gloucester and uploaded the photo to his Flickr site. The photograph remained unidentified for 2.5 years until Tim Spahr and Brian Harris discovered the image, which most certainly showed Common Greenshank! Stan Deutsch confirms that he indeed took the photograph in Gloucester in December […]