ux/ui design | creative design
September was a big month for me and did very little birding around the 5MR. Leading up to and then quickly after Friday the 13th, birding was put on hold and everything would change forever — the birth of our first child! Needless to say, it kept outings extremely limited or very close to home.
It marked the ONLY month of the year that a new species was not added to the year total, but thankfully October turned things around.
As October rushed in, things started getting a little more interesting and outings picked up slightly. While I did my best with the “October Sparrow Challenge” picking up 10 sp. of sparrow, highlighted with a Lincoln’s and White-crowned, but wasn’t enough to take the cake. It was another granite-stater Pam Hunt with 13 species that took the sparrow-crown.
The highlight of the month, and perhaps for the whole year up until this point was a rare RED-HEADED WOODPECKER that I found at Kimball Farm in Haverhill, MA. It was my first record for the 5MR and possibly a first for the city of Haverhill.
Other highlights included some nice waterfowl starting to show back up including this White-winged Scoter among several Ruddy Ducks, Coots, and other assorted waterfowl.
At the end of October, a total of 6 new species were added to the year list including: RED-HEADED WOODPECKER, White-crowned Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow, American Coot, Ruddy Duck, and White-winged Scoter.
This put the total year list up to 166.
Contact me at kyle.wilmarth[at]gmail.com