December 2013 Central Mass Bird Sightings

Sightings are listed in reverse chronological order. The email address of birders submitting reports, as well as other Central Massachusetts birding info can be found via the Central Mass Bird Update homepage.

Bird News:

ONGOING -- Asian Longhorned Beetle Information
12/12/13 -- Open House reception for Sheila Carroll's photo show at BROAD MEADOW BROOK MAS, 4-7 pm refreshments provided

Bird Sightings:

12/29/13 -- Rutland: Had a pair of Carolina wrens at feeder today.
We had this female red-winged blackbird at our feeder on the 26th and 27th. (report from Ted Purcell).
12/29/13 -- Community Gardens and Soccer Fields, Uxbridge: Highlights this morning were a male Northern Harrier and a female Eastern Towhee. The towhee was off the path in thick brush where the weedy fields end and the woods begin. Heard the distinctive towhee call and then got a good look at the bird. (report from Ed Kittredge).
12/29/13 -- Auburn: An adult male and female hooded merganser were in Leesville Pond "river" (corner of Sword Street and Southbridge Street, Auburn) at 1:00 PM. (report from Deb Norling).
12/27/13 -- Millbury: This afternoon, Karin Nelson and I had the following highlights along the Blackstone River, while birding the Millbury Bike Path: 3 Gadwalls, 1 American Black Duck, 3 Hooded Mergansers, 3 Great Blue Herons and 2 Ravens. (report from Alan Marble).
12/26/13 -- Clinton: Just spotted a Bald Eagle flying south over main st in clinton towards the reservoir. (report from Joe Santianna).
12/26/13 -- Wachusett Reservoir: We did a quick survey of Wachusett Reservoir this AM and had the following waterbirds: Common Loon (8: 1 bird was in the rapidly shrinking Thomas Basin off River Road. A loon (I assume the same one) has been here for more than a month and a half. At this point, unless more melts, it cannot get out of here as Common Loons need almost the length of a football field to take off); Horned Grebe (1); Mute Swan (1); Canada Goose (21); Mallard (129: most behind Wheetabix); Gadwall (4); Ring-necked Duck (6); Greater Scaup (59); Common Goldeneye (51); Hooded Merganser (83); Common Merganser (8); Red-tailed Hawk (2). (report from Mark Lynch/Sheila Carroll).
12/25/13 -- Lake Quinsigamond, Shrewsbury/Worcester: This morning at 9:00AM on Lake Quinsigamond at the North Lake Ave, Worcester boat ramp I had (3) Canvasbacks -- 1m, 1f, and I think a male (juv) which flew away ( photo). (report from Bob Abbott).
12/24/13 -- Lake Quinsigamond, Shrewsbury: I wasn't sure if I would see these ducks again since the lake had frozen. But after the thaw, here are the pair of Canvasbacks! (report from Emily Eaton).
12/21/13 -- Wachusett Reservoir, Boylston: At the South Bay gull roost at Wachusett Reservoir there was a first winter Lesser Black Backed Gull on the ice in the closest group at 3:30pm. (report from Nick Paulson).
12/20/13 -- Millbury: This morning, during a walk on the bike path along the Blackstone River in Millbury, I saw a nice array of ducks including Mallards, American Black Ducks, 3 GADWALLS, Hooded and Common Mergansers. (report from Alan Marble).
12/19/13 -- Notre Dame Cemetery, Worcester: The river and pond were 98% ice covered, with not much there. Hilites were 2 Carolina Wrens, a Red-tailed Hawk, a Downy Woodpecker, 8 Crows, 4 American Goldfinches, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 2 Blue Jays, and this Song Sparrow . (report from Brian Mulhearn)
12/18/13 -- Wachusett Reservoir: A Long-tailed duck was swimming right out in front of me (about 30 yards away) at Greenhalge Point in Wachusett Reservoir late in the afternoon. Also present was one Common loon and about a dozen Hooded Mergansers. (report from Brian Keevan).
12/18/13 -- Webster Square, Worcester: I just watched many hundreds of Crows heading towards the direction of the Worcester Airport between 4:00 and 4:15 pm. (report from Brian Mulhearn)
12/17/13 -- Sturbridge CBC: On Tuesday December 17, 41 birders braved cold (MINUS 8 before dawn. My sector warmed to 0 by mid-morning); and snow (kicked in by late morning); to do the 18th Sturbridge CBC. This circle covers parts of the Brookfields, Warren, Sturbridge, Brimfield, Holland, Charlton, Southbridge and Spencer. Despite the daunting temps, the dedicated participants clocked in 30.55 miles on foot. This circle has lots of ponds and rivers, but because of the recent frigid temps, most of the water was ice covered to an extent I had never seen on the count before. There was also the 6 plus inches of snow that had fallen Saturday into Sunday and this had a crust of ice on top of that. This was one tough count this year. Not surprisingly, we tallied only 63 species plus two "count week". Missing were many species of waterbirds and what waterbirds there were, were in low numbers. But there was a nice almost full moon to owl by, and almost no wind pre-dawn. But boy! am I glad I upgraded my winter gear the day before.
Totals: Great Blue Heron (1); Mute Swan (2); Canada Goose (299); Black Duck (39); Mallard (489); Greater Scaup (1); Hooded Merganser (27); Common Merganser (16); Bald Eagle (1ad+1imm); Sharp-shinned Hawk (2); Cooper's Hawk (4); Red-shouldered Hawk (2); Red-tailed Hawk (22); A Kestrel (cw); Ring-necked Pheasant (2: this species does not breed anymore in the County and should be regarded as "released birds"); Ruffed Grouse (1: this species has declined rapidly in the circle); Wild Turkey (124); Ring-billed Gull (124); Herring Gull (6); Rock Dove (358); Mourning Dove (349); E Screech Owl (5); Great Horned Owl (10); Snowy Owl (cw); Barred Owl (7); N Saw-whet Owl (3); Belted Kingfisher (1: lowest count ever. The previous 4 counts had 19, 10, 17, 18); Red-bellied Woodpecker (70); Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (8: count high); Downy Woodpecker (292: count high); Hairy Woodpecker (55); N Flicker (22); Pileated Woodpecker (2); Blue Jay (432); A Crow (151); Common Raven (1); Black-capped Chickadee (1415); Tufted Titmouse (459); Red-breasted Nuthatch (12); White-breasted Nuthatch (250); Brown Creeper (11: one bird was brought into Bill and Nancy Cormier's Bird Store and More in the late afternoon. It had hit a glass window. They rehabbed it overnight, and released it the next morning); Carolina Wren (40); Winter Wren (5); Golden-crowned Kinglet (23); E Bluebird (90); Hermit Thrush (4); American Robin (3795: count high); Gray Catbird (3: count high); Northern Mockingbird (10); Cedar Waxwing (536); Euro Starling (805); N Cardinal (338); A Tree Sparrow (193); Song Sparrow (79); Swamp Sparrow (3); White-throated Sparrow (180); Dark-eyed Junco (1422); Red-winged Blackbird (10); C Grackle (1); Rusty Blackbird (1); Brown-headed Cowbird (11); Purple Finch (11); House Finch (173); A Goldfinch (450); House Sparrow (593)
(report from Mark Lynch).
12/15/13 -- Douglas: I just had a brown-headed cowbird under my feeder here in Douglas, which is a late date according to the Audubon Daily Field Card, which gives it an end date of 11D. (report from Mary Sughrue-Yacino).
12/14/13 -- Downtown Worcester: During today's Worcester CBC, Bob and Diane Abbott and I had 2 Peregrine Falcons perched on the Peoples United Bank Building near the Worcester Public Library. (report from Alan Marble).
12/14/13 -- Lake Quinsigamond, Shrewsbury: I saw a new duck today and I haven't heard that it's been on Lake Quinsigamond before. It's a male Canvasback! Swimming and diving with the Mallards. (report from Emily Eaton).
12/12/13 North Brookfield: This morning at the sewer plant there was an adult Chipping Sparrow among 75 Juncos, 8 White-throated Sparrows and 15 Song Sparrows. (report from Rodney Jenkins)
12/10/13 -- West Millbury: This afternoon, a male Eastern Towhee has been scratching around under my feeders at home. (report from Alan Marble).
12/7/13 -- North Worcester County: Highlights today:
Fitchburg Airport Horned Lark ~25; Snow Bunting 12
Crystal Lake (Gardner) 60% iced covered: Canada Goose ~60; Mallard 10; Am. Black Duck 2; Redhead 3 (2 drake and 1 hen -- only my 2nd sighting of this species from N/Worc County; the only other was 3 drakes from Crystal lake in 2005); Common Goldeneye 5 (all hens); Hooded Merganser 1 hen
Lake Dennison Area (Winchendon): the lake was iced in. Northern Shrike 1 (imm.) in a (brushy marsh along Priest Brook)
(report from Tom Pirro).
12/7/13 -- Wachusett Reservoir: Today we did a quick survey of Wachusett Reservoir. Numbers were low likely due to a DCR boat that was out and about.
Common Loon (7); Mallard (16); Long-tailed Duck (2m); Bufflehead (8); Common Goldeneye (24); Hooded Merganser (11); Common Merganser (3);
Landbirds were more or less typically except for the single Yellow-rumped Warbler we had on River Road.
A quick trip to Davis Farms (Sterling); found the 2 Snow Geese along with 600+ Canadas.
(report from Mark Lynch/Sheila Carroll).
12/7/13 -- Coachlace Pond, Clinton: At Coachlace Pond today there were 3 Snow Geese (2 ad, 1 imm). (phone report from Dave Grant).
12/4/13 -- Mandell Hill, Hardwick: A Snowy Owl was observed at Mandell Hill in Hardwick today from 9:00 AM until 3:15 PM. Most of that time it was perched on a stone wall overlooking a pasture in the back end of the property. (report from Jeff Smith).
12/4/13 -- Coachlace Pond, Clinton: At the west end of Coachlace Pond in Clinton the strong flow of the water under the railroad bridge keeps a small area of the pond open. The rest of the pond is iced over. Resting in the water and on the ice was the resident flock of 600-700 Canada Geese and 2 adult white Snow Geese. The only ducks were a handful of Mallards. The diving ducks have moved on or to somewhere in Wachusett Reservoir. (report from Bart Kamp).
12/4/13 -- Lake Singletary and Millbury Farm, Millbury: Jessica Johnson and I birded a private farm in Millbury where we had a 1st Winter ICELAND GULL . Later on I checked Lake Singletary in Millbury and I had 2 1st Winter ICELAND GULLS. I presume that one is the same bird that we saw earlier.Also on the lake were over 40 Ruddy Ducks, 2 Common Goldeneyes, over a 100 Common Mergansers and Hooded Mergansers. Photo is on my flickr. (report from Justin Lawson).
12/2/13 -- Wachusett Reservoir: Today we birded Wachusett Reservoir, making stops at South Bay, Gate 17 walk through, Scar Hill Bluffs, Mile Hill Road overlook, the dike and River Road. We had the following water birds: Common Loon (6); Mute Swan (4); Canada Goose (14); Mallard (8); Surf Scoter (1f); Bufflehead (10); Common Goldeneye (50); Hooded Merganser (54); Common Merganser (11). (report from Mark Lynch/Sheila Carroll).
12/2/13 -- Lake Singletary, Millbury: This afternoon there was a nice array of ducks, geese and gulls on Lake Singletary. Found with the Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls was an Iceland Gull. Park in the boat ramp parking lot and walk up West Main St and look over the chain-link fence. (report from Alan Marble).
12/1/13 -- Lake Quinsigamond, Shrewsbury: There were 2 female Wood Ducks today, in a large group of Mallards.
On 11/30 and for a few days after, there were a female Lesser Scaup and a female Ruddy duck. They were with many geese and Mallards.
(report from Emily Eaton).
12/1/13 -- Phillipston: Had a 1st-year male Baltimore Oriole show up on a suet feeder today. (report from John Williams).