Distraction Displays: Mass Breeding Bird Atlas 2

Interim Report #30: Great Blue Heron

Despite the name, they're actually fairly cheerful.

Happy Thanksgiving, gentle readers!  Feast yourselves not only on turkey, but on knowledge!

Perhaps no wading bird in Massachusetts is more familiar to the layperson than the graceful and statuesque Great Blue Heron.  This species has very adaptable feeding habits, readily taking fish, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles, and even small mammals (particularly in the winter).   This broad menu has made it a common sight at ponds, rivers, lakes, streams, marshes, estuaries, coastal bays, and meadows in recent years.  That hasn’t always been the case, however.  A century ago, breeding Great Blue Herons were all but absent from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Interim Report #29: Least Bittern

"We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk..." - Henry David Thoreau

If the American Bittern is inconspicuous, then the Least Bittern is nearly invisible.  Diminutive and secretive, our smallest heron creeps and clambers through the fresh and brackish cattail marshes of Massachusetts.  It has never been abundant (or, if it has, it has been so easily overlooked as to create the illusion of scarcity), but even the assiduous surveys of our dedicated Atlasers turn up precious few blocks with any evidence of breeding Least Bitterns.

Interim Report #28: American Bittern

Are you excited for this Interim Report?  Because I'm pumped!

The unmistakable pumping call of breeding American Bitterns once echoed over the numerous marshes and wet meadows of Massachusetts.  These oft-heard (if not oft-seen) herons passed their time standing patiently amongst the reeds, waiting for prey to swim within reach of their bills.  Nowadays, however, those marshes and meadows are not nearly so numerous.  As their habitat disappears, the American Bitterns are following suit.

Interim Report #27: Great Cormorant

What's so great about 'em, anyway?

Northern cousins to the Double-crested Cormorants, the Great Cormorants replace their smaller kin in Massachusetts during the winter.  This cosmopolitan species has a population in the Northwest Atlantic, particularly in Greenland, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.  Non-breeding immatures are occasionally seen in Massachusetts during the summer, and from the looks of things, it’s possible that the adults will not be far behind.

Interim Report #26: Double-crested Cormorant

"Thence up he flew, and on the Tree of Life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant." - John Milton, Paradise Lost

Two posts today.  We've been behind for a bit, but this brings us back up to speed.

Long reviled as dirty and gluttonous birds, Double-crested Cormorants were persecuted to the point of being extirpated from the Commonwealth in the 19th century.  Never a bird to be kept down, though, Double-crests returned to Massachusetts in the 1940s and have re-established themselves as a breeding species.  Turning the tide of public opinion about these piscivorous fowl, however, will be a difficult proposition at best.

Interim Report #25: Leach's Storm-Petrel

Any petrel in a storm.

Although this bird's numbers range into the tens of millions of individuals, it is seldom seen by most birders.  Leach's Storm-Petrel is a bird of the deep oceans, where it hovers and patters just above the surface, picking off small plankton (drifting organisms) and nekton (swimming organisms) to eat.  The only time these birds come ashore is to breed, and even then only under the cover of night to avoid predation from hungry gulls.  As it happens, a small colony of them have chosen to come ashore right here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Interim Report #24: Manx Shearwater

If you want the truth about this species, you'll have to dig for it!

Of all the birds contained in the Breeding Bird Atlas 2, it is fair to say that few are as mysterious or as surprising as the Manx Shearwater.  Manx Shearwater had long been thought a European breeder, with colonies in Scotland, Wales, Iceland, and the Azores.  No one expected to find it in the Western Atlantic, let alone sitting on America’s doorstep.  Then, in 1973, everything changed.

Interim Report #23: Pied-billed Grebe

“Fly by night, away from here.” – Rush, Fly By Night

This nocturnal migrant is commonly seen floating in small groups when stopping over during migration, yet it is secretive when breeding.  These marsh specialists have declined significantly statewide as wetlands have disappeared to development.  In fact, Pied-billed Grebes are an endangered species in the Commonwealth.  Massachusetts wetlands are now protected by law, but will it be enough to save our only breeding grebe species from becoming just another memory?

Interim Report #22: Common Loon

"For I have a song to sing, O!  It is sung to the moon, by a love-lorn loon, who fled from the mocking throng, O!" - Gilbert & Sullivan, The Yeomen of the Guard

Perhaps no sound is as emblematic of the Northern Wilderness as the haunting tremolo cry of the Common Loon.  Loons historically bred all over Massachusetts, but as shooting culled their numbers and human interference reduced the amount of undisturbed habitat, the loons left.  By 1925, the breeding Common Loon had gone the way of the swommee-swans in Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax – flown away, perhaps never to return.

Interim Report #21: Northern Bobwhite

Patience, Intelligence, Speed.  These are The Powers of the Quail.

The clear, whistled call of the Northern Bobwhite has long been a part of the essential summer experience in the Massachusetts countryside.  These small yet charismatic birds are a favorite among hunters and birdwatchers alike, and they have historically been found throughout the Commonwealth.  Recent years have seen their numbers declining, though, and wildlife managers scramble to save this popular quail in the face of a changing landscape.