tbrownell@lafite.dec.com (able was I ere I saw elba) (09/13/88)
>Over the last year-and-a-half or so, I've observed a great reduction in >the number of white breasted nuthatches in our area, Bedford Mass, >about 20 miles west of Boston....................... Don Malpass [malpass@LL-vlsi.arpa], [malpass@spenser.ll.mit.edu] My opinions are seldom shared by MIT Lincoln Lab, my actual employer RCA (known recently as GE), or my wife. They must be at my house. I live in Millbury Mass, about 5 miles south of Worcester, hence 30 miles west of you. Nuthatches have been overrunnning my yard this fall. I typically see between five and ten individuals per day. At one point last week, I spotted five on a single tree branch, displaying and "arguing". On another note, the fall migration has been quite good this fall on the eastern side of the continent as well. Although rarities have been somewhat elusive in New England, there has been at least one Black-tailed Godwit and one Sandhill Crane reported. Shorebird numbers seem solid, and the Heron/Egret population is doing very well, with typical reports in the thousands at night-time roosts such as the one on Plum Island (Parker River NWR). Warblers have been good as well, with 20-25 species reported at the traditional coastal "funnels". I have had 14 of the typical 28-30 northeastern migrant warbler species in my own backyard, and those were spotted with only a half hour of birding daily before work over a two week period. Previous record was 7. Terry Brownell Digital Equipment Corporation Hudson, Massachusetts