July 20, 2001, Tuckernuck Island
1 records
| MARC number | Decision | Species | # | Location | County | Arrival | Departure | Observers | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-027 | A | European Turtle-Dove | 1 | Tuckernuck Island | Nantucket | 7/20/2001 | 7/20/2001 | Richard R. Veit, N. Brewster | 10 |
A dead bird discovered as a road kill on Tuckernuck Island was fortunately shown to an ornithologist who recognized it as a European Turtle-Dove. Following an examination of specimens at the American Museum of Natural History, it was determined that the bird belonged to the nominate subspecies, S. t. turtur, the race that occurs in Britain and Western Europe and is a frequent vagrant to Iceland. There are only two previous North American records of this species, the first in Florida in 1990, and the second in Newfoundland in May of 2001. The specimen of this first Massachusetts record is now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.