On Saturday, May 23rd my last charged camera battery died. If your thought upon reading that is that some issue was causing me to be unable to recharge them, don’t worry, no such issue exists aside from my repetitious disregard when it comes to remembering to bring both the batteries and the charger in with me when I spend time working on my laptop inside a coffee shop or a fast food restaurant. The primary consequence of this blatant incompetence is that I didn’t take many photos throughout Week Twenty-two, though fortunately I have since gotten my act together and charged not just one, but all five of my camera batteries, and have already taken quite a few photos for Week Twenty-three!
While my photo-taking was lax through Week Twenty-two, there was still a good deal of solid birding. To kick off the week I made my way out the Cape Cod peninsula, starting Monday’s birding at Fort Hill, where I picked up a handful of new Massachusetts birds including Blackpoll Warbler, Orchard Oriole, Short-billed Dowitcher, American Black Duck, and Belted Kingfisher. The trails at Fort Hill were both gorgeous and relatively birdy, but the highlight of the day in terms of both was my next stop, the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. One of the top hotspots in the state, Wellfleet lived up to the hype as it provided a solid mix of woods, marsh, and ocean coast. As the tide came in I watched as flock after flock of shorebirds flew to and fro, most too far away for me to comfortably ID but when a few flocks came in closer I was blown away by the diversity. One notable flock contained Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Willet, Red Knot, Sanderling, and at least one variety of Peep (Semipalmated Sandpiper or Least Sandpiper). The woods hosted Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, American Redstart, Prairie Warbler and more, and in the marsh I spotted Snowy Egret mixed in with the Great Egret.
Once I wrapped up at Wellfleet I made my way out to the end of Cape Cod, Race Point. Home to some insane checklists from seawatches over the days prior that included birds like Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Pomarine Jaeger, and Manx Shearwater – all birds that would be Lifers for me – I figured it would be worth at least spending a short while watching the ocean during my time there, but given that it was midday on a fairweather day there was practically nothing moving aside except a few Northern Gannet and Bonaparte’s Gulls.
The rest of my day on the Cape wasn’t particularly noteworthy; I had a few birds at the Salt Pond Visitor’s Center, and went for a short walk at the mainland, publicly-accessible Morris Island portion of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Traffic on my way off from the peninsula was insane, taking almost an hour to travel just a few miles as thousands of people headed back to the Boston area at the end of the Memorial Day weekend
Home to Ludlow Griscom, an ornithologist who was a pioneer behind the idea of identifying free-flying birds in the wild rather than obtaining in-hand specimens, Massachusetts is often referred to as the Birthplace of American Birding and the place where some of the first American birding communities formed. To this day the Boston area is home to an especially large number of birders, and so it should come as no surprise that, while most states I’ve had at most one or two (if any) birders who have reached out to me on their own to bird together, there were four Boston-area birders who did so! Unfortunately, however, due to skipping New York and cutting some time out of earlier states and therefore arriving in The Bay State earlier than I originally planned (and then not reaching out about that change of schedule until just before I entered Mass), three of those four were unable to work out a time to meet up. For one of those birders, though, my timing lined up with his most free days.
Will Malec was incredibly helpful in providing me with a few suggestions on places to go birding on Tuesday, and following his suggestions I headed to the Manomet Conservation Sciences property where I had a fantastic morning and crossed the century mark for the state thanks to the pickup of birds like Black-billed Cuckoo, Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, and Magnolia Warbler.
On Wednesday I got back to birding, starting my day off with a great morning at Wompatuck State Park. My time at Wompatuck produced an interesting array of birds: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Winter Wren, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak were all great additions to my Massachusetts list. Upon wrapping up at Wompatuck I began making my way towards Boston – or more accurately, just south of Boston. At Squantum Point Park I met up with Will, and the two of us spent the next few hours birding together, first at the Point Park, then at Squantum Marshes – which held Glossy Ibis and a Clapper Rail – and finally ending our time together at the Nickerson Rock Park. While my time with Will wasn’t especially birdy, I had a great time birding with him and talking birds and birding.
Once I parted ways with Will I spent some time trying to get last week’s blog post out at least on Wednesday, but that didn’t end up happening and the bulk of the work was put off to Thursday. I had planned to do a lot more birding either north or farther west of Boston on Thursday, but the only birding I managed ended up being at the Crane Swamp Conservation Area and Hopkinton State Park, neither of which produced much in the way of new Massachusetts birds but both were still very nice places.
Friday would serve as the end of my Massachusetts birding, with my morning visits to Brewster’s Woods and Great Brook State Park producing my last new state birds in the form of Green Heron, Hermit Thrush, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Wild Turkey, and Brown Creeper. After spending a couple hours birding in the morning I finally got last week’s post up before getting prepped for something rather exciting: recording an episode of the Bird’s Eye View Podcast with Mathew Radford, who I birded with back in Oklahoma in March! Mathew and I spent about an hour and a half chatting about how I got into birding, my Michigan Big Year, and my journey so far this year. The episode we recorded should be out on Wednesday, June 11th and will be able to be found on pretty much every platform where podcasts are typically posted.
After Mathew and I finished up our recording I headed north and got started on my first visit to New Hampshire, beginning my birding in the state at the Lovewell Pond, which gave me a great start in the state with birds such as Barred Owl, Wood Thrush, Eastern Towhee, and Ovenbird. After my walk at Lovewell I followed the trail across the road to Southwest Park, where Pileated Woodpecker, Veery, and American Redstart added to good start in New Hampshire.
The last of May was unfortunately a rainy afternoon, but before the skies turned dark and stormy I managed a great morning of birding. My two first stop, the Broadview Farm Conservation Area and the Massabesic Audubon Center, were nice walks with a decent mix of the common birds like Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Yellow Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat, but aside from a Least Flycatcher at Massabesic there weren’t many noteworthy birds. That changed, however, at my third and final stop of the day: the Fremont Spruce Swamp. In addition to good pickups in Red-shouldered Hawk, Brown Creeper, and Swamp Sparrow, the spruce swamp hosted an impressive eleven species of warbler, including Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler!
Sunday kicked off June in spectacular fashion as I headed towards the New Hampshire coast. Lubberland Creek Preserve was a great start to the day with birds such as American Black Duck, Black-billed Cuckoo, Purple Martin, and most notably Saltmarsh Sparrow. Adams Point Wildlife Management Area added to the day’s solid start with Warbling Vireo and Scarlet Tanager, and then the Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge further built on that start with Wild Turkey, Wood Thrush, and Blue-winged Warbler. After that trio of more inland stops I finally headed to the coast itself, driving down to Rye Harbor State Park where I picked up Willet, Semipalmated Plover, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Common Eider, and Common Loon. From there I drove north along the coast and made a series of stops, the most notable of which came at the Seal Rocks, where I spotted a Purple Sandpiper working the rocks farther out in the water. Eventually I closed out my birding for Week Twenty-two at Odiorne Point State Park, where Laughing Gull, Fish Crow, and Magnolia Warbler brought me to a total of 97 species in The Granite State – leaving me in great position to hit 100 on my return voyage next week.
Before I return to New Hampshire late in Week Twenty-three, though, I will spend five or six days birding Maine, including one of my most anticipated highlights of the year as I head out for a Puffin Tour and, hopefully, cross the 600-mark for my Life List. Sitting at 597 after picking up Great Cormorant and Roseate Tern in New Jersey during Week Twenty, I am hoping my time in Maine produces 3-5 Lifers and propels me comfortable beyond the 600-mark, a very notable benchmark for a birder who has never left the country and until this January had only ever taken two birding trips outside of Michigan! In the meantime, though, – as always – Happy Birding!
eBird Trip Summary:
https://ebird.org/tripreport/381273
First and foremost - thank you to anyone who chooses to support me in this insane adventure of mine. When I initially had this idea and began planning I didn't even consider the possibility that others would want to support me, but I am extremely grateful to those who have reached out to do so. For those who are interested in supporting me, I have set up a Patreon, which can be accessed by clicking the logo to the left (or you can send me a message via the contact page). Again, thank you for your incredibly generous support!
All Patrons will receive my "Daily Notes" 12-36 hours after the end of each day, and Patrons subscribed to the "Sponsor" tier will receive monthly postcards, mailed out between the 25th and end of each month.
For anyone who wishes to support me without using Patreon, clicking the "$" Icon will link you to my Venmo as well. There is also an option on Patreon to purchase my Daily Notes Collection for a one-time $10 payment without becoming a paid member, which will give you access to the Daily Notes without having to subscribe to a monthly subscription. For those who it requests the last four of my number for, it's 1403.
Thank you again to those of you who have supported me so far, it's tremendously generous and greatly appreciated.
Follow me on my journey to see 100 species in every Lower-48 State during 2025, experience some of the incredible places and events in American birding, and meet and bird with as many local birders as possible along the way.
Posts will be made every Wednesday (I will try to have them out by 5pm, but situationally they might be a bit later) and will cover the previous Monday through Sunday. Additional posts will be made periodically with no set schedule.
