Weekly Bird Report

with E. Vernon Laux

Bird News can be heard every Wednesday morning at 8:35am and afternoon at 5:45pm.


Vern is the author of Bird News: Vagrants and Visitors on a Peculiar Island. He also writes a bird column for the Cape Cod Times, and writes Nantucket's "Natural World" for the Inquirer and Mirror.  He is the resident naturalist and land manager at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation on Nantucket.

For archives of Bird News, including episodes dating from before October 2012, go to the Bird News Archives

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Weekly Bird Report
6:32 am
Wed June 12, 2013

Oak Bluffs Mockingbird Ready to Join a Conversation

Credit hjhipster / flickr
Northern Mockingbird

A number of summers ago a mockingbird in Oak Bluffs did something new. A man that loved large parrots had obtained a new bird, a Green and Yellow Macaw. This particular macaw used to live with a family with an infant and had quite a vocabulary. It loved to say “Hello.”

The bird's caretaker had the bird outside on a perch while doing things and the bird was constantly saying “Hello.” Hour after hour, the bird was talking, and that was the word constantly repeated. He brought the bird in at night to the safety of his house.

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Weekly Bird Report
5:56 pm
Wed June 5, 2013

Birds' Clever Waste Disposal Keeps Nests Clean

Credit Tim Hamilton http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1

Baby birds require from their parents near-constant feeding. But cleaning up after them isn't so hard. Most land birds have developed a technique for ridding waste that make diapers look antiquated. Bird nestlings magically dispose of their excrement in little fecal sacks. The waste is packaged in a little white balloon for disposal, which the adults efficiently remove.

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Weekly Bird Report
8:32 am
Wed May 29, 2013

Despite Bad Weather, Good Bird Sightings Mark Holiday Weekend

Credit Dick Daniels http://carolinabirds.org/
Chuck-will's-widow

Area birdwatchers went into the Memorial Day weekend with high hopes, as it is historically a great weekend for birding. But the weather did not cooperate, with strong northwest winds, soaking rains, fog, and chilly temperatures. Nonetheless, some fine sightings were made, including:

  • 2 Mississippi Kites
  • Worm-eating Warbler
  • Chuck-will's-widow

Also of note is the seasonal return of Sooty Shearwaters.

Audio of the Weekly Bird Report is posted above.

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Weekly Bird Report
5:10 pm
Wed May 22, 2013

Will This Be the Best Birdwatching Weekend of the Year?

Credit JJ/WCAI
Gull eggs in a nest on the grass.

Many years, Memorial Day weekend is the best of the year for birding. Historically, it is the hands-down winner for providing the most exciting birding of the spring migration, as both vagrants and visitors alike appear during this long weekend.

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Weekly Bird Report
4:46 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Mid-May: the Night Sky an Avian Highway

Credit Vern Laux
Scarlet Tanager

This past week brought widespread reports of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanagers and Baltimore Orioles. On the Bird Report, Vern Laux celebrates an exciting time of year for birders, as migrant birds pass by and summer resident species return for another breeding season. The majority of land birds migrate at night - a mysterious and largely unseen phenomenon!

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Weekly Bird Report
3:15 pm
Wed May 8, 2013

1st-time Visitor to Nantucket: Townsend's Warbler

 

On Nantucket Sunday morning the local birding group found a male Townsend’s Warbler, the first time the species has been identified on the island. The Townsend's Warbler is usually restricted to the Pacific Northwest. 

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Weekly Bird Report
2:48 pm
Wed May 1, 2013

Spring Bird Migration

Credit Vern Laux
Osprey

Spring bird migration is at its peak.  On the Weekly Bird Report, Nantucket ornithologist Vern Laux says that singing Carolina wrens, pine warblers, and ospreys can be seen throughout the Cape and Islands.

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Weekly Bird Report
6:17 am
Wed April 24, 2013

Raptors Make Unusual Sounds for Courtship Season

Credit Vern Laux
Osprey female

Ospreys, Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks and Northern Harriers are hard to miss across the Cape and Islands this time of year. On the Weekly Bird Report, Vern Laux remarks on these diurnal raptors. Silent for most of the year, at this season raptors engage in noisy courtship displays and make plenty of interesting sounds.

Audio posted above.

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Weekly Bird Report
3:23 pm
Wed April 17, 2013

Tormented by a Woodpecker? Don't Worry, It's only Looking for a Mate

Credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/philmo/
Northern Flickers
Weekly Bird Report
4:43 pm
Wed April 3, 2013

Your Ears are a Great Tool for Local Birding

  Go ahead, use your ears to identify the birds in your backyard.  On the Weekly Bird Report, Vern Laux says learning the calls of a few singing birds in our area is not hard, and he walks us through some common birdsong heard at this time of year, including the Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee, the Northern Flicker, and the American Robin. Should you take an interest, says Vern, you could learn the songs of all the nesting species in your neighborhood, or even on the Cape and Islands, in one summer season!

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