The club took 46 trips in western Massachusetts, twelve trips to the Massachusetts coast, two to Connecticut and Rhode Island, one each to Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maine, and New York. Our total species count was 269 in Massachusetts (265 last year), 292 in the Northeast (279 last year), and 205 (193 last year) in western Massachusetts.
| July-August 2001 | October 2001 | January-February 2002 | May 2002 |
| September 2001 | November-December 2001 | March-April 2002 | June-July 2002 |
The hotline trip went to the North Shore, where we saw plenty of shorebirds, plus Glossy Ibis, a Little Blue Heron and a Wilson's Phalarope The next weekend found us on Cape Cod. We hit Nauset Marsh, Monomoy, and South beach on the first two days, getting Black Tern and Marbled Godwit along with many other terns and shorebirds as well as a Goshawk stirring up the gulls. Seas were calm on Stellwagen the last day, giving us close looks at hundreds of Greater and Sooty Shearwaters as well as 50 Manx Shearwaters, all loafing on the surface while many Wilson’s Storm Petrels hovered above. It was August, but the Ospreys were still on the nest in West Springfield, and nearby were three Black-crowned Night Herons. The sandbar was loaded with plovers and sandpipers as well as 4 Bonaparte’s Gulls. At mid month we returned to Plum Island and 21 members enjoyed both Little Blue and Tri-colored Heron, Glossy Ibis, and a Peregrine Falcon. A bonus was the Least Bittern at a small pond in Rockport. A van full and more headed for Delaware the very next weekend. At the Bombay Hook pools we found Clapper and King Rails, Avocets and Black-necked Stilts, and Caspian and Forester’s Terns amid the other teeming shorebirds and waders. We drove south and ferried over Delaware Bay, catching a look at feeding Wilson’s Storm Petrels. Royal Terns were at Cape May and Sora at Brigantine. Our trip list swelled to an amazing 115 species, including Carolina Chickadees and Blue Grosbeaks.
Waiting back on our own sandbars in Longmeadow and Agawam were two Baird’s Sandpipers and a Peregrine Falcon. Five Morning Walks in the Stebbins Refuge failed to garner many migrant warblers, but there was a Black-crowned Night Heron and Cooper’s Hawk. . The only unusual shorebirds at Plum Island were 2 Baird’s Sandpipers and a few Long-billed Dowitchers. Add to that 3 Shovelers, Clapper Rail, 3 Tri-colored Herons, 3 Forester’s Terns, and a Philadelphia Vireo, and you have a great trip. The Northern Wheatear made it a super trip. There were so many hawks on Blueberry Hill the next weekend we needed help from the visiting Hoffmann Club to count them all. Consider 15 Bald Eagles, 2500 Broadwings. 3 Goshawks, 40 Kestrels, and 2 Merlins. Nearby in the trees was a Philadelphia Vireo and 2 Nashville Warblers. And then there was the food and beverage. Makes you wish you were there! Songbird migrants had arrived for the Stanley Park walk. There were 11 warbler species, best being Tennessee, Parula, and Blackpoll, and some were more than voices in the trees. Quabbin was closed so we biked into Covey Wildlife Area to find a Cape May Warbler among 40 species. We still could not find the migrants even when we arrived at dawn at Bluff Pt. Connecticut. There were hawks at Lighthouse Pt. and water birds at Hammonasset to console us. Hawks were also a feature on the trip to Northampton. We got nine species of raptors and the same number of sparrow species.
Our first morning at Cape May, New Jersey started on a sodden note, but we gathered to watch the hawks streaming over the platform and the ducks in the marsh. . The wind brought some migrants the next two mornings and we scoped out the hundreds of shorebirds and ducks at Nummy’s Island and Brigantine on the way north. The 148 species was 15 more than in fall 2000. Highlights were Eurasian Wigeon, Least Bittern, Western Kingbird, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and Cape May Warbler The second trip to Northampton produced Cliff Swallow and Dickcissel. Also a second watch on Blueberry Hill brought 36 Sharpshins and 25 Redtails past us. Quabbin was still closed, so we cancelled the trip there. The Coastal Hotline trip went first to Groton where the Yellow-headed Blackbird eluded us, but we took heart with 2 Forester’s Terns and a Peregrine.
November-December 2001
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Waterfowl were worse than scarce on the Berkshire Lakes trip, but we found a single Brant along with Merlin and Peregrine. The Westport and Rhode Island trip started slow, but we ended with a flourish with 2 Eared Grebes many Ruddy Ducks, American Wigeon, and Lesser Scaup at Trustom Pond. We found ducks and more ducks on the South Shore, 28 species of waterfowl to be exact, with scads of Long-tailed Ducks and all three scoter species. A Sage Thrasher was at Cape Neddick, Maine, King Eider and Snowy Owl on Cape Ann. Try a November Coast Hotline Trip and you may give thanks for such birds too. Bald Eagles soaring over Quabbin; what a way to start the last month of the calendar year! Members worked hard to get a whopping 78 species on the Springfield Area Christmas Count, including good winter finds like Great Egret, Gray Catbird and Yellowthroat. It was the best count ever in the Westfield Area. Among the 76 species were a Long-tailed Duck, Saw-whet Owl, and Varied Thrush.
January-February 2002
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There were plenty of ducks on the Sandwich-Falmouth-Plymouth trip, best being Barrow’s Goldeneye and Redhead, but first was a surprise visit to a wintering Townsend’s Warbler in Centerville. Thanks to once member Sheryl Bliss Johnson, whose family allowed us in their yard. The Local Hotline trip brought us to the Hadley and Northampton Meadows, where we spotted a Rough-legged Hawk as well as Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings among 400 Horned Larks. We followed up with a Coastal Hotline jaunt to Cape Ann and Salisbury, garnering looks at Eared Grebe, Kittiwake, Short-eared Owl, and White-winged Crossbill. The Rhode Island weekends have proven spectacular, and leader Tom Swochak almost reached his goal of 100 species despite the doubts of all 21 others. Among the 98 species found were 35 seabirds and ducks, 8 raptors, American Bittern, Black-headed Gull, Razorbill, Sapsucker, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Two weeks later, leader John Weeks vowed to match this on the Massachusetts North Shore with a 20 species handicap and he did it with 82 species, the number Jan Zepko predicted. We started big with a Townsend’s Solitaire in Essex. Then came King Eider, Kittiwake, Razorbill, and Guillemot, all on Cape Ann. The next day in the Newburyport area we added Eurasian Wigeon, Peregrine, Iceland Gull, Snowy and Short-eared Owl, Northern Shrike, and Red Crossbill.
Spring was well along on the coast for another Hotline Trip, and Weymouth gave us a Red-headed Woodpecker before we went on to Marshfield for Great Horned and Long-eared Owl. Maine’s South Coast had the usual sea ducks, and Plum Island had an American Bittern. It was windy and cold on the Connecticut Shore, but we still managed 70 species, highlighted by Shoveler and a breeding plumage Lapland Longspur. The end of the month brought birds to our doorsteps, and the Local Ponds had a flock of Snow Geese low overhead, Gadwall, American Wigeon, and Snipe. We got drenched at the Stebbins Woodcock walk, but the birds were there. It was breakfast first, then hundreds of swallows and a Bald Eagle on nest at Gill as April began. Later, our group of 20 met up with 20 more from the Hampshire Club as we picked out a female Barrow’s Goldeneye as well as four Lesser Scaup. There were only a handful of hawks on the Watch after a drive through Granville and Southwick, but one was a Goshawk. On the way we found our first Louisiana Waterthush and Black & White Warblers. The next day at Ashley Ponds we had baby Woodcocks on the RR tracks plus Pine and Palm Warblers An early visit to Stebbins brought us Snipe and Rusty Blackbirds, and an evening Rail Trail Walk in Amherst got us good looks at a Great Horned Owl. Cape May has treated us well in the fall, so we tried a spring sojourn there. We racked up 124 species on the long weekend at the end of the month. There were too many highlights, but worth mention are 40 Glossy Ibis, 12 Whimbrel, Gull billed Tern, Black Vulture, Hooded and Yellow-throated Warbler, and Carolina Chickadee.
All of the four Wednesday Walks at Stebbins were good, and the most unusual species were American Bittern, Bald Eagle, Sora, Wilson’s and Hooded Warbler, and White-crowned Sparrow. Stanley Park hosted us for a walk that produced 71 species, 14 of these warblers heard or seen. Then the leader hosted us with 3 Hummingbirds at his feeders. The Conways led us on a new jaunt in Granville and Blandford, which was enjoyed by all. On territory were ten warbler species, an American Bittern, numerous Sapsuckers and Purple Finches. The Cerulean Warblers were in for us at Quabbin along with 15 other warbler species. We also had Common Loons calling in flight and close looks at a Winter Wren. Warblers were quite plentiful at Robinson Park, with Parula, Wilson’s, Canada, Blackburnian, and Magnolia among 17 species. Another special warbler, the Worm-eating was heard on the Mt. Tom walk. A cold, drenching rain prompted us to postpone the May Census for the first time ever. Next day migrant numbers were very good for thrush and flycatchers, but it still was not a stellar day. We tallied 143 species, 24 of them warblers. Rarities were Blue-winged Teal, 4 Sora, Upland Sandpiper, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 3 Olive-sided and 6 Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, 3 Gray-cheeked Thrush, 2 Mourning Warblers, 6 Lincoln’s Sparrows, and a Pine Siskin. The Mt Tom trip was incorporated into the census and Worm-eating Warbler was heard there. Our walk in the Tyringham Valley gave us American Bittern, Green-winged Teal, Snipe, Alder and Willow Flycatchers, and two Cliff Swallows, part of a total of 83 species. At Covey WMA in Belchertown we spotted an accipiter, and heard a Black-billed Cuckoo and Yellow-throated Vireo. Then we rounded out the mad month of May with a Kayak paddle on the Quaboag, where we heard 3 American Bitterns.
To start the month we scoured Agawam, Southwick and Granville for 77 species. Some rarer species were Virginia Rail, Worm-eating Warbler, Grasshopper and Vesper Sparrow, and Orchard Oriole. On to the mountain next, October Mt. that is, where we noted Virginia Rail, Alder Flycatcher, Raven, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blackpoll, Wilson’s and Mourning Warbler. Then it was a trip to Montague Plains for Whip-poor-wills, but a Grasshopper Sparrow and Dickcissel were also studied in Sunderland. Our first trip to the Adirondacks was led by Tom Swochak, and we braved heat, bugs, and a bit of rain to record 91 species. Nesting birds we observed were American Bittern, Common Loon, Black-backed Woodpecker, Olive-sided and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Blackpoll, and Lincoln’s Sparrow. The Mt. Greylock campers listened to the wind blow all night. When they awoke the leader served a magnificent breakfast as rain began to fall. A few hearty souls came for the day, but a visit to the mall was the highlight. Officials at Westover cancelled our trip there, but we found plenty to see and hear in Chester the next week. Most pleasing was Hooded Merganser, Virginia Rail, Barred Owl, many Least Flycatchers, and a bull moose lunching at the edge of a pond. A bike trip from Knightville to Huntington also had a fabulous mammal, a bobcat sitting in the road eying us. Best birds were one female Common Merganser with 20 young, and a Winter Wren. Southern Vermont called again and 23 of us answered by digging out Mourning and Blackpoll Warbler, Cliff Swallow, and Bicknell’s and Swainson’s Thrush. Then we chowed down at the Curtis Bar-B-Cue in Putney.