The BBC, through our Conservation and Education Committee, has made a conservation donation in honor of Mark Blazis to the Auburn Birdbanding Research Station, which Mark directed until he passed away in November 2021. A former BBC trip leader and supporter of our scholarship program, Mark was a dedicated educator, committed conservationist, and accomplished nature writer. A longtime resident of Grafton, Mark co-authored and edited ten field guides to the fauna and flora of Massachusetts, and he was awarded the Richard Cronin Award– the highest honor of the New England Outdoors Writers Association–for his weekly “Outdoors” column for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Internationally, Mark led many field trips to Africa, Amazonia, the Galapagos, India, the Arctic and Antarctica. He and his wife Helen were honored by an American Red Cross Hometown Hero Award for their work in bringing medical care to the Kichwa tribe in the rainforest of Ecuador, where he also assisted residents in banding birds (see photo) and forming their own bird-guiding company. In addition to numerous awards for conservation education and research from organizations such as Massachusetts Audubon and the Garden Club of America, Mark was personally selected by the late Roger Tory Peterson as North America’s Nature Educator of the Year.

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Upcoming Field Trips

Fruitlands Museum, Harvard

Harvard - Fruitlands Museum 102 Prospect Hill Rd., Harvard, MA, United States

All the nesting birds will still be around, with good views of young out of the nest being fed by parents: Veery, Indigo Bunting, Catbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Tree Swallow, Bobolink, Wood Thrush, Baltimore Oriole, and Warblers. Expect to walk about 2 miles on trails through meadow and woods with some steep sections. Heavy rain cancels [...]

Birch Hill WMA

Royalston - Birch Hill WMA Royalston, MA, United States

Includes three to five miles of walking relatively flat terrain. Might include some bushwacking. Driving on hard packed dirt roads. Co-sponsored with the Athol Bird & Nature Club.

Southwick WMA

Southwick WMA - Suffield WMA entrance Point Grove Road, Suffield, CT, United States

We will hike the fields focusing on grassland breeders, particularly Eastern Meadowlark and Grasshopper Sparrow.

Millennium Park

Boston - Millennium Park Canoe Launch 300 Gardner Street, Boston, MA, United States

Join the Brookline Bird Club in collaboration with Boston Nature Center to look for birds in a unique urban habitat that often draws numerous uncommon and rare birds.Target birds include bobolinks, egrets, flycatchers, grosbeaks, herons, owls, rails, ravens, sandpipers, swallows & swifts, vultures, warblers, and woodpeckers. Birders of all levels will enjoy this trip. The [...]

Pine Hill Road Grassland

Lancaster - Pine Hill Road Grasslands Pine Hill Road, Lancaster, MA, United States

We will hike a sandy/gravelly field area for grassland breeding sparrows and warblers including Grasshopper Sparrow, and wait until sunset for whip-poor-wills.

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