Brookline Bird Club

2021 Statistical and Year-End Report

By David Scott, Club Statistician

The Brookline Bird Club recorded 270 species for 2021, based upon 206 reported trips. Two-hundred and sixty-five species were recorded in Massachusetts, with the following out-of-state species recorded from the Rangely Lakes trip in Maine: Canada Jay, Bicknell’s Thrush, Boreal Chickadee, Fox Sparrow, and Spruce Grouse. Despite some restrictions due to the pandemic, the club led trips to most of our favorite birding locations and ran a successful pelagic trip in August. 

With many activities curtailed during the pandemic, there were frequent media stories of an increased interest in birding, and we were delighted to see many new faces on our field trips in the spring. With numbers limited, some trips had waitlists of several dozen. Thanks to Eric Swanzey and Cliff Cook for coordinating the registration system, which allowed us to manage attendance on trips during the early part of the year.

The club recorded few extreme rarities in 2021, but there were still some very good birds recorded. Highlights included: flocks of Common Redpolls, Red and White-winged Crossbills (Salisbury, January 24), Yellow-throated Warbler (Mount Auburn Cemetery, May 11), Golden-winged Warbler (Mount Auburn Cemetery, May 19), Sandhill Crane and Little Blue Heron (Bolton Flats, May 23), Black Tern and Seaside Sparrow (Plum Island, May 30), Acadian Flycatcher (Quabbin, June 5), White-faced Storm-Petrel, Audubon’s Shearwater, Red and Red-necked Phalaropes (overnight pelagic, August 7-8), Hudsonian and Marbled Godwits (Plum Island, October 10), Western Kingbird (Plum Island, November 6). The Winthrop Monk Parakeets were popular in 2021, and the club stopped by to see them on August 28. 

Birds we missed included Iceland Gull, Wilson’s Snipe, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Dovekie, Black Vulture, Clay-colored Sparrow, Yellow-breasted Chat and a raft of ducks – Canvasback, Redhead, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Eurasian Wigeon, and King Eider. 

There were 388 species reported for Massachusetts in eBird, of which the club’s total of 265 represented 68 percent (compared with 75 percent in 2019). The best bird of the year in Massachusetts—though not one observed on a club trip—was the astonishing Steller’s Sea-Eagle, which stopped by the Taunton River before moving on up to Maine. A Wood Stork pulled in a good crowd during its short visit to Gloucester but did not stay long enough for the BBC to catch up with it. 

The club reported most species in Essex County (215), followed by Middlesex (154), Worcester (132), Barnstable (127), Suffolk (120), Plymouth (113), and Norfolk (106). After missing out in 2020, it was good to be back at Mount Auburn Cemetery for the spring migration and the club recorded a total of 109 species there from 37 reported trips, including 26 species of warbler.

With many trips involving multiple locations, including those to Maine and the pelagic, there were 282 eBird checklists associated with the 206 reported trips. American Robin was the most frequently reported species, on 164 checklists, followed by Blue Jay (159), Song Sparrow (150), Black-capped Chickadee (149), Mourning Dove (144), Northern Cardinal (142), American Goldfinch (139), Downy Woodpecker (131), Mallard (125), Common Grackle (123), Tufted Titmouse (118), American Crow (115), and Red-winged Blackbird (114).

The following table shows the trips reporting the most species by month:  

Thanks to all our trip leaders, especially those who led 10 or more trips in 2021: Peter Van Demark, Kathy Dia, Glenn d’Entremont, Linda Ferraresso, Sylvia Martin, Thomas Michel, Nick Paulson, and Dave Williams.

There were two virtual club meetings. In April, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman presented “The Bird Way: How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent and Think”, a wide-ranging talk on bird behavior around the globe. In October, Rosemary Mosco, the creator of Bird and Moon Comics, shared her experiences blending science and art to help people connect with the natural world and engage in its conservation. The club continued to offer webinars on a diverse selection of topics including bird identification, where to go birding, and how to increase engagement in birding. Many of these are archived on the BBC website in the Members section.