May Highlights

As is usually the case with birding May — it goes by way too fast. Migration in New England got off to a relatively slow start, everything seemingly a week or two later than usual. With several forays outside of the 5MR this month it was far from a focused effort but with some persistence and a little luck, I was able to add 53 birds in May to my year list. Here are some highlights:

Great Crested Flycatcher

I started off the month checking out new marshy areas nearby in MA and it paid off with the first Virginia Rail of the year – a new bird for me in the 5MR (and apparently I had never eBirded VIRA in MA before!). At another spot very close to home I picked up more early migrants like Blue-headed Vireo, Black-throated Green Warbler and Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

On the way back home from south of the border I decided to see how the gull flock was holding up in West Newbury/Haverhill along the river and nearby farm. Impressively there were still up to 200 gulls in the field and was delighted to see this Lesser Black-backed Gull in the mix!

Heading north of the border to a favorite kayak-birding spot – the Powwow River at Hilldale Ave. – I ran into a nice migrant group of Rusty Blackbirds. While most stayed out of sight singing their gurgly-creaky hinge song, one bird provided some nice close looks at the riverbank.

Rusty Blackbird

The Powwow River turned out to attract at least two rarities this season, including a Yellow-throated Warbler (just outside of the 5MR, not seen by me), and another great bird that Amanda and I found while kayaking – a SUMMER TANAGER, calling ‘pituck’ many times from the woods. Despite efforts to call it in with playback and a brief search on land (not public, so didn’t push it), we could not get a visual of the bird.

Other great birds we picked up at this spot throughout the month included Least Flycatcher, Alder Flycatcher, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, Prairie Warbler, a large group of BAY-BREASTED WARBLERS, and both cuckoos, including this curious Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Another great highlight that included some luck was a nocturnal migrant – Gray-cheeked Thrush with a couple of nice clear ‘wheeer’ calls overhead as we were packing the car at 4:30am for our trip to Canada. A relatively dissatisfying life bird experience for Amanda…but thankfully we had some nice looks at one two days later in New Brunswick! Some great warblers like Tennessee, Blue-winged, Magnolia, Canada, Blackpoll were picked up and many were new to the 5MR.

Blue-winged Warbler


I ended the month with a total of 153 species to date. This made up for 54% of the birds in Essex County and 11 of which were new for me in my 5MR.

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