The Habitat Gardening for birds workshop was attended by 30 people on Aug 25, 2019 at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Attendees enjoyed the talk and the tour of the garden. Catherine Carney Feldman was very knowledgeable and a great speaker. She bases a lot of her information on the book Bringing nature home by Doug Tallamy.

All species on our planet need habitat—a place to call home. Habitats provide shelter from the weather and predators, a place to raise young, water, and of course food. With over 2,000 acres, the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary was a perfect place to see what birds require for habitat and to learn the basics of how you can transform your own landscape into a sustainable habitat for birds. Participants received a guided tour of the nature gardens, as well as a list of native trees, bushes, and ground cover that provide food for birds.

The BBC is engaged in ongoing conservation advocacy on its own initiative and in alliance with the other eighteen member clubs of the Association of Massachusetts Bird Clubs. In June 2019 the BBC supported a Citizens Climate Lobby campaign to pass a state bill intended to reduce carbon emissions. In July we joined the Association in sending a letter to Historic New England urging HNE to help protect Eastern Meadowlarks by re-evaluating its haying practices and management of grasslands at Cogswell’s Grant in Essex and its other properties.

At a July meeting of the Association, club representatives agreed to urge their members across the state to report sightings of birds on the state Endangered Species list. State ornithologist Drew Vitz reported that the Eastern Meadowlark will likely soon be a state-listed species. Through the efforts of Zack Weber, the BBC has taken a lead on this issue by offering annual field trips focused on finding and reporting state-listed species.

The July Association meeting included a discussion of “plirding”—picking up trash while birding—an idea being promoted by a group led by Ray Brown of the Talkin’ Birds radio show. Stay tuned for further “plirding” developments. The Association will meet next at 10:00 on Sunday, November 17 at the Mass Fish and Wildlife offices at Westborough WMA. Any individual member of any member club is welcome to attend Association meetings and join the Association’s Google Group. If you’re interested, contact John Nelson, chair of the BBC Conservation and Education Committee and acting Association chair: jnelson@northshore.edu.

The BBC is again selling the Federal Migratory Bird Conservation and Hunting Stamp.  We are doing this in support of the National Wildlife Refuge System and to support conservation of federal lands. Ninety-eight cents of every Stamp dollar goes to land acquisition from willing sellers through purchase or easements.

The new Stamp is good from July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

You can purchase a stamp directly from the BBC: https://brooklinebirdclub.org/duck-stamps/

You can also purchase stamps at any refuge, or through the ABA. Get your Stamp now and go visit Parker River NWR!

Wednesday, July 31, 6:30–8:45 p.m. in Woburn, MA
Limited to 100 participants

With their diverse adaptations, varied habitats, marvelous migrations, and often confusing plumages, shorebirds are a perennial favorite among birders in New England. More than two dozen shorebird species visit our coastal beaches, salt marshes, and muddy lake shores during autumn migration each year.

This workshop will examine the natural history of shorebirds within an ecological context that considers their classification, identification, breeding ecology, migration, and conservation. Specific reference will be made to the importance of Massachusetts to the conservation of shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere. An associated walk will be held the morning of Saturday, August 3, at Parker River NWR.

The walk is limited to 20 people, with priority given to BBC members and workshop attendees.

Cost: $15 for both events for BBC Members or $10 for one; $25 for both events for non-members or $20 for one. To reserve a space, email diana.fru@gmail.com and send a check for the full amount made out to Brookline Bird Club Agent to Diana Fruguglietti, 5 Ellen Road, Woburn, MA, 01801. Meeting locations will be sent to attendees upon registration.

Huge numbers of birders on the BBC trip at Mount Auburn Cemetery recently. There are trips every day until the latter part of May.

200 enthusiastic birders attended Noah Strycker’s talk at our April 11th annual general meeting at Harvard University’s Geological Lecture Hall in Cambridge. Following refreshments, membership sign-ups and renewals, and palpable energy building as our northeast bird migration season approaches, audience members were regaled with Noah’s engaging slides that accompanied his strange-but-true, often hilarious and always enthralling tales of launching from Antarctic with Chinstrap Penguins, traipsing through high-altitude Andes cloud forests and under Harpy Eagle nest sites, across northern Eurasia and around vast expanse of Australian and New Guinea habitat in search of much-wanted birds for his 2015 World Big Year list.

Delivered with deep knowledge of birds, and noteworthy humility, Noah reminded us that even if our own bird lists are complied by county, state, country and continent, birds do not live by those rules. In fact, they survive because they don’t recognize borders. He responded to audience questions and comments, and autographed copies of his book Birding Without Borders; we wish Noah well as he continues his study of Chinstrap Penguins at SUNY Stony Brook.

Spring offers some excellent opportunities for BBC members to get involved in citizen science projects.

This spring, as in past years, the BBC is offering a “conservation series” of field trips that target species on the state endangered species list. Reports of these species in breeding season provide data that aids Mass Fish and Wildlife in its preservation of habitats for state-listed birds. For a complete list of spring field trips, click on the “conservation series” link at the bottom of the field trips/events page.

Also, in conjunction with Mass Audubon, BBC director William Freedberg is seeking volunteers for two Mass Audubon projects, an Eastern Meadowlark Survey and an Avian Collision Team survey of bird-window collisions in downtown Boston. For more information on getting involved in these projects, contact wfreedberg@massaudubon.org.