Central Mass Birding Calendar

This calendar lists upcoming events such as bird trips, meetings, and special events such as breeding bird surveys, Christmas counts, etc. To contribute a listing, you can email to rsquimby@wpi.edu or call Rick Quimby at (508) 835-6567 and leave a message. This is not intended as a discussion forum for birding-related topics (MASSBIRD serves this function well), so please confine your submissions to the listing of events that will be of interest to Worcester County birders.

Here are the birding events listings in chronological order:

April 2000

May 2000

5/3/00 -- BIRDER'S TOUR OF THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM
The traditional BIRDER'S TOUR OF THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM will be given Wednesday May 3 and again Saturday May 6, both days at 2 PM. The lecture given on Tuesday is repeated on Saturday. This tour has been given every spring for 15 years now. We look at and attempt (when possible) to identify birds in 4000 years of art from Egypt, Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle East and in paintings from Europe and America in the Worcester Art Museum's collection. We will talk about the folklore, mythology and symbolism of birds in the art works too. Birder's are encouraged to come, well...frankly.....as birders....with binos and European Field Guides if you have them. In past years we have managed to find such species as Purple Swamphen (Antioch mosaic); Sacred Ibis (Egyptian bronze); European Bee-Eater (Flemish painting); and even a Little Owl (Greek skyphos).

The tour is free with admission to the museum. Admission is $8, $6 for seniors. Admission is free Saturday from 10-noon. Besides the permanent collection, there are three major shows also up at this time: a show of Paul Revere silver, a fantastic show of Robert Capa photograhy and a show of Linda McCartney's photos of the 60s. For more information on how to get there et, consult the museum's website at: www.worcesterart.org

your docent for the tour: Mark Lynch (moalynch@aol.com)

September 2002

9/18/02 -- Birder's Tour of the Worcester Art Museum
The annual BIRDER'S TOUR OF THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM collection will happen WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 and repeated SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21. AT 2PM on both days. The tour is FREE with admission to the museum. The tour will last about an hour, though I barely get through half the works in that time..
In this tour we look at birds in 4000 years of artwork from a Sacred Ibis of Ancient Egypt to gulls in 20th century America modernist painting. I will talk about how those cultures and times thought about birds in religion, myth, literature and natural history. We will also ID (when possible) the birds to species. We will even spot some mythical birds, like the martial arts savvy Tengu of Japan. This will probably be the only way you will be able to tick Little Owl, Eurasian Bittern, Eurasian Spoonbill, Eurasian Beeeater, Common Mynah, Finfoot and Coppersmith Barbet (all scheduled for this tour) in the city of Worcester at one time. It is also the only birding trip where I can pass out the species list BEFORE the trip begins.
Bring a Euro field guide if you have one, and even bring a pair of bins for effect, so you look like the hardcore birders you are.
For further info about facilities (there is a nice restaurant at the museum) and directions and hours, call the museum at 508 799 4406 or go to the web at www.worcesterart.org (submitted by Mark Lynch).

October 2002

10/6/02 -- Mass Audubon Society Annual Meeting and Conference : “Hidden Habitats of Worcester County”

10/17/02 -- Forbush Bird Club Meeting
The Forbush Bird Club begins its monthly meeting series on Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. Peter Alden, naturalist and acclaimed author, will speak on Birds, Bees, Flowers and Trees: BioDiversity in Massachusetts. The meeting will be held in the library at Holy Cross College in Worcester. Come early to view the Audubon prints show that is in the library. The meeting is free and open to the public. (submitted by Ann Boover).

December 2002

12/15/02 -- Sibley radio interview
On SUNDAY DECEMBER 15, at 9PM EST WICN (90.5FM) will air two 30 minute interviews of interest to birders. The first is another interview with DAVID SIBLEY, this time about his latest book SIBLEY'S BIRDING BASICS, an amazing compendium of the challenges that occur when one actually attempts to identify birds in the field. Next, I interview CARL SAFINA about his latest book THE EYE OF THE ALBATROSS. This a fascinating account of the life of various albatross species and how their future is intricately intertwined with the health of our oceans and how we are fishing these waters. He reports first hand from places like French Frigate Shoals, Midway and far off the coast of Alaska. WICN is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN (non-commercial) on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on LISTEN ONLINE. (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY).

May 2003

5/25/03 -- Pete Dunne Radio Interview
On Sunday MAY 25, AT 9PM WICN (90.5FM) will broadcast my interview with PETE DUNNE talking about his new book PETE DUNNE ON BIRDWATCHING. It's a lively (at times rowdy) discussion about what makes a birder and why it's important to ALWAYS wear your bins. Basically we trade birding stories and laugh a lot. WICN is also webcast throughout the world on PCs. Go to www.wicn.org for details. Shows are archived on a month by month basis on that website. (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY).

June 2003

6/6/03 -- Biodiversity Day bird walk at Boynton Park
Fran McMenemy, Joan Zumpfe and Barbara Walker will be leading a Biodiversity Day bird walk at Boynton Park. Meet at 7am at the parking lot next to the soccor field. All are welcome. Contact Barbara Walker at (508)754-8819 or email Barbara.Walker@umassmed.edu

November 2003

11/14/03 -- spruce cutting on River Road
Many folks have expressed real concern about the cutting of spruces on River Road, long known to be a key habitat for Boreal Chickadee and crossbills. Dave Small nicely contacted the head forester of that region and here is his response: 
Dave,
    Since your obviously well plugged-in to the birding community,
you are in an excellent position to help prevent the spreading of
misinformation or at least the jumping to conclusions. The cutting
that you mention is a strip of the spruce stand that fronts along Thomas
St..
This is being done completely at the
insistence of the town of West Boylston in order to daylight the road
which they say is often dangerously icy during the winter months. I
explained to John Scannell (Wachusett Superintendant) the wildlife (and
especially avian) value of this area and the attention that is paid this
site by birdwatchers
across the state and region. However, given the pressure that the
Selectman were applying with talk of "public safety", John didn't feel
that he could reasonably reject their proposal.
    The result is that a strip about 1,300' X 75' is being removed.
This is about 2.3 acres of the total 19 acres of spruce in this
immediate area. It was my intention to never cut this stand unless I was
convinced that a partial cutting could enhance/encourage the presence of
spruce.

-Greg

Gregory S. Buzzell, Forester
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Division of Water Supply Protection
180 Beaman Street
West Boylston, MA 01583
(submitted by Mark Lynch).

11/15/03 -- Birder's Tour of the Worcester Art Museum
On Saturday at 2PM (Salisbury Street entrance), I will be conducting the annual BIRDER'S TOUR OF THE WORCESTER ART MUSEUM in which we find and identify to species (where possible) birds in 4000 years of art from around the world in the museum's collection. We will look at birds in religion, mythology,as symbols used by the various cultures and just objects of beauty and fascination. We will even look at mythological birds and bird-like creatures like Tengu and Phoenix , which are notoriusly tough to get on that "life list". Species seen in year's past have included Purple Swamphen, Sacred Ibis, Finfoot, Ibisbill, Eurasian Bittern, Hodgson's Hawk-eagle, and Garganey. Not a bad day list from Worcester, MA! But since what's on the museum's walls changes from year to year, like any birding trip: who knows what we will find? Bring bins (just to look cool), even wear wellies if you are so disposed, but DO bring any European field gudies you have. Free with admission to the art museum. For directions and general information, go to: www.worcesterart.org (submitted by docent and teacher at the Worcester Art Museum, Mark Lynch).

2/21/04 -- Birds in Japanese prints at the Worcester Art Museum
A beautiful exhibition of selected Japanese prints titled: BIRDS IN JAPANESE ART AND POETRY will open at the Worcester Art Museum February 21 and run till July 16. Cranes, hawks of several species, peacocks, Manadrin Ducks, cuckoos and even Bush Warblers and other species are featured in these magnificent prints by such artists as Koryusai, Masayoshi and Toyohiro. I will be giving a special "Birder's Tour" of this exhibition (and other selected works in the museum) on Saturday, April 24 at 2PM. For further information about this exhibition and the museum, go to: Worcester Art Museum. (submitted by Mark Lynch).

4/25/04 -- radio show on Modernist wildlife artist WALTER ANDERSON
Today WICN will air an hour show about the artist WALTER ANDERSON see blurb below:
    APRIL 25: An evening devoted to the fascinating artist WALTER ANDERSON. Walter Anderson was a highly original and prolific artist who worked in the mid 20th Century in Mississippi and nearby areas. His work combines Audubon's deep fascination with nature with the style and palette of Expressionism. Anderson's passion was the wildlife of coastal Mississippi and he often painted the Gulf Coast birds he knew intimately like Skimmers, coot, migrant ducks and especially pelicans. Besides painting, Anderson was also an important ceramicist and muralist. His life is every bit as fascinating as his work. At 9PM, we talk with Anderson biographer CHRISTOPHER MAURER who's book FORTUNE'S FAVORITE CHILD/THE UNEASY LIFE OF WALTER ANDERSON details the unique yet very troubled career of this Gulf Coast artist.
    Then at 9:30PM, we speak with PAT PINSON curator of the Walter Anderson Museum and editor of the massive new catalogue THE ART OF WALTER ANDERSON.
    Non-commercial WICN is at 90.5FM and broadcasts throughout central New England and is webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on LISTEN ONLINE. April's shows will also be archived on the website for the month of May.
(submitted by Mark Lynch, HOST: "Inquiry",WICN).

5/2/04 -- two radio interviews of interest to birders
  • On WICN 90.5 FM this SUNDAY: MAY 2: At 9PM we talk once again with artist BARRY W. VAN DUSEN. His watercolor work of landscapes, birds, flowers and other denizens of the wild are stunning in their spontaneity, rich use of color and ability to capture the essence and light of the natural world on paper. In May, a one-person show of his work will be at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens. Barry talks about his recent work with Artists For Nature in Peru and his work on the upcoming field guide to birds of Peru.
  • Is that a Goshawk over that Ford SUV? Can nature survive in our sprawling megalopolis? At 9:30 we have an interesting conversation with journalist ROBERT WINKLER about finding the wild corners of suburbia. Robert's latest book is called: GOING WILD/ADVENTURES WITH BIRDS IN THE SUBURBAN WILDERNESS.
    Non-commercial WICN is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to our website www.wicn.org and click on LISTEN ONLINE. (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY on WICN).

    • 9/12/04 -- WICN radio interviews
    This SUNDAY (9/12/04) on INQUIRY (WICN 90.5FM)
  • 9:00PM EDT: One of the most spectacular birds that lived in North America was the regal Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the southern hardwood forests. Sadly, it became extinct on the mainland in the mid-20th century because of a dramatic and wasteful loss of habitat. It may still survive on Cuba. Author PHILLIP HOOSE has written an insightful, colorful and inspiring history of the people who tried to save this stunning bird in it's last remaining stronghold and the folks who are searching for it still. THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD is a book for both young adults and adults and is one of the best books on the environment for 2004.
  • At 9:30 we speak with DAVID GESSNER, author and essayist. We talk with David about his latest collection of short pieces titled SICK OF NATURE. Being an author of what has been pigeonholed as a "nature book" (Return of the Osprey) David both rebels against and enjoys the moniker of "nature writer" that he has been stuck with. The essays in this latest book rail against the narrow definition of the "nature writer" category and explore his adventures in trying to expand the genre. The pieces are witty and insightful and David has some great stories to tell, so tune in!
  • WICN (90.5FM) is broadcast throughout central New England and is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on "Listen Online". (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY on WICN).

    • 10/3/04 -- WICN radio interviews
    This SUNDAY,OCTOBER 3 at 9 pm EDT ON WICN (90.5FM) : We spend the full hour with one of the most noted experts on New England birds WAYNE PETERSEN. Wayne is now the Community Leader for the Swarovski Birding Community of North America and has also co-authored (with Roger Burrows) a new field guide BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND. In this interview Wayne talks about trends in New England birds, which species are increasing and which declining and why. WICN (90.5FM) is broadcast throughout central New England and is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on "Listen Online". (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY on WICN).

    12/26/04 -- WICN radio interviews
    This SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26 at 9PM EST, WICN (90.5FM)will air two interviews of interest to birders and natural historians. Below are the show descriptions from our website:
  • Have you ever wished you could fly, leave your earthbound life far behind and follow the migrating hawks on their long and amazing journey? Our guest tonight has done just that. Natural historian and writer ALAN TENNANT and pilot George Vose one day just up and decided to follow some migrating Peregrines north in George^Òs tiny and rickety plane. They had no flight plan and no idea where they would end up. The ensuing adventures crossed several international boundaries, brought them close to death a few times and gave them both an amazing peak into the day to day live of these magnificent falcons while they covered hundreds of miles of the falcon's migration. Alan's chronicle of these adventures is ON THE WING: TO THE EDGE OF THE EARTH WITH THE PEREGRINE FALCON.
  • The Harvard Museum of Natural History is collection of "21 million specimens of animal, vegetable and minerals from every imaginable part of the earth". And every specimen has a story and some of those stories are wild, whimsical and downright bizarre. Tune in at 9:30 when we talk with staff writer for the museum NANCY PICK about mastodons and murder, a child's book of psychedelic plants, museum sponsored frog tosses, upper crust tapeworms and something called "Vladimir Nabokov's genetalia cabinet". All this and much more can be found in Pick's THE RAREST OF THE RARE: STORIES BEHIND THE TREASURES AT THE HARVARD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.
  • WICN (90.5FM) is broadcast throughout central New England and is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on "Listen Online". (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY on WICN).

    • 1/16/05 -- WICN radio interview
    This Sunday at 9PM WICN (90.5FM) will air my interview with historian and writer Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) about his new fascinating biography of John James Audubon. Below is the blurb from the station's website:
      JANUARY 16: We spend the full hour tonight speaking with Pulitzer prize winning author RICHARD RHODES about his new biography: JOHN JAMES AUDUBON: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN. Rhodes has written a dramatic and very entertaining history of this early American artist and ornithologist that is also a colorful history of the United States in the early 1800s. Audubon bore witness to the last great flights of the now extinct Passenger Pigeons, the brutal taming and destruction of the wilderness he loved and he himself became a symbol of a mythic ^Ñwild America^Ô in the eyes of Europeans. This is a compelling story of an artist and naturalist who wanted to capture the wild essence of a new country in his work before it forever disappeared and share it with the world.
    WICN (90.5FM) is broadcast throughout central New England and is also webcast throughout the world. To get WICN on your PC, go to: www.wicn.org and click on "Listen Online". While at the website, if you click on WHAT'S ON then COMING UP you will find listings for Inquiry for the next two weeks. Shows are ARCHIVED on the website for 30 days during the calendar month following the month of broadcast. So the Audubon intevriew will be archived for the month of February. (submitted by Mark Lynch, host of INQUIRY on WICN).

    2/1/05 -- Due date for annual submissions to The Chickadee
    Just a reminder that your 2004 Worcester County observations are needed for The Chickadee. Your observations can be reported in any format including on the county checklist, computer output from a listing program, or personal list. Observations are welcome from Forbush Bird Club members and non-members alike. Non-members who submit observations will receive a complimentary copy of The Chickadee. For those of you unfamiliar with The Chickadee, it is a yearly journal published by the Forbush Bird Club that details bird records from Worcester County. It has been continually published since 1931. 
    Please submit your observations as soon a possible (no later than February 1)
via mail or email to:

Charles Caron
247 Bragg Hill Road
Westminster, MA  01473

email:  caronenv@aol.com
    (submitted by Charles Caron, Editor of The Chickadee).

    2/4/05 -- Wachusett Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, Princeton
      The perfect place to go this Friday night (Feb 4) is Wachusett Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Princeton  where the Winter Friday lecture series kicks off with    Chris Leahy,   author and Mass Audubon naturalist discussing birding around the nation. Chris, author of The Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife, is a dynamic speaker and will have copies of his book available for sale and signing. The program is 7:30 to 9 pm -- $6 members, $9 nonmembers. To register please call (978 464 2712) Thursday AM if possible. (submitted by Dick Johnson via Joan Zumpfe).

    2/24/05 -- Lecture: Birds of the Seekonk River, by Mark Lynch 
    Sponsored by Broad Meadow Brook
Program Location: Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary
Instructor: Mark Lynch, Master Birder
Program Audience: Adult
Fee: Adults $6.00 m/ $9.00 nm
Program Date(s) and Time(s):
    Thursday, February 24, 2005 - 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
    The tidal Seekonk River hosts some of the most unique breeding and migratory birds and creatures in the entire Blackstone National Corridor. This is the only spot in the National Park where common terns and black-backed gulls breed. Numbers of post-breeding egrets and herons line its urban shores from mid-summer until fall and even migrant flocks of shorebirds find the river attractive. Hundreds of migratory ducks gather here every fall and winter despite pollution and disturbance.

    Mark Lynch has conducted several years of systematic surveys of bird life along the Seekonk River and will reveal some of what he has discovered. He will also talk about the numerous serious challenges facing wildlife in this very disturbed, but rich habitat. 

    Registration is required by contacting:
Broad Meadow Brook
414 Massasoit Road
Worcester, MA, 01604
Phone: 508-753-6087
www.massaudubon.org
    (submitted by Kristin Steinmetz)

    2/26/05 -- Lecture: Winter Birds at the Southern End of the Corridor, by Mark Lynch 
    Sponsored by Broad Meadow Brook
Program Location: Seekonk River
Instructor: Mark Lynch, Master Birder
Program Audience: Adult
Fee: Adults $15.00 m/ $20.00 nm
Program Date(s) and Time(s):
    Saturday, February 26, 2005 - 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    The tidal Seekonk River at the terminus of the Blackstone National Corridor is an important area for wintering waterfowl. Species like bufflehead, scaup, mergansers, goldeneye, and canvasbacks can be found feeding in this very urban stretch of river between Providence and East Providence. This is also an important location for wintering gulls. Join us for some unique urban natural history exploration and learn about this very different part of the Corridor. Instructions and Directions: Snow date February 27. We will carpool from the Rt. 20/Mass Pike "Park and Ride" at 7:00 am. 
    Registration is required by contacting:
Broad Meadow Brook
414 Massasoit Road
Worcester, MA, 01604
Phone: 508-753-6087
www.massaudubon.org
    (submitted by Kristin Steinmetz)     Back to Central Mass Birding Homepage