In this time of ornithological plenty that is May, I once again have a month’s worth of good material to condense into one report. It’s gotten to the point where Swallow-tailed Kites don’t even make the cut. For starters, it seems that we are in week two of Ibisfest on Cape Cod. This not quite real event began last week when a few dozen White Ibis, normally a bird of the deep south, invaded the Cape and shattered the previous high count. The fest continued into this week with yet another rare ibis species settling in down in Chatham and Harwich. This created the unprecedented possibility that a birder could achieve a North American Ibis Trifecta all in one marsh.
Which I did yesterday, on my second try. These Nantucket Sound marshes of Chatham, places like Cockle Cove and Buck’s Creek, are fairly close to my house, and have been great places to see flocks of feeding Glossy Ibis in spring, perhaps the best place on the Cape in recent years. These are presumably birds nesting in remote parts of nearby Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Both the big marshes and little pocket marshes alike, from Harwich east, are likely to have some of these shiny, gangly waders munching on fiddler crabs in spring and early summer.
Birders were drawn to the area searching among the glossies for White Ibis leftover from last week’s invasion. Among them was Scott Dresser, who was the first to notice the cyptic rarity hiding in plain sight amongst the Glossies – their rare western cousin, a White-faced Ibis – just the second ever record for the Cape and Islands. You practically need a magnifying glass to tell the difference - both species have white lines around the face in spring, it’s just that the white goes all the way around in the White-faced. They do have red legs while Glossies’ gams are gray, but these are often buried in the grass and mud. I found I had to take photos and zoom in on them to tell the difference, but I was able to see all three ibis species yesterday in the span of a few minutes.
Meanwhile, on the bay side, a colorful little songbird of the western prairies had birders gunning their engines last Friday. While walking Crosby Beach with his mom, local kid-turned-ornithology PhD student Keenan Yakola spotted an odd little bird hanging out with a Horned Lark and chasing flies in the wrack line. He got a quick phone video and started to spread the word – a Chestnut-collared Longspur. I was luckily in the area and was able to refind it after a while and get some quick photos. In winter they are a brown little streaky thing that would make you throw your binoculars out a window, but in spring this is a handsome and distinctive little bunting, with a rich red-brown nape, a black striped head, and a buff yellow face. There are less than 10 records ever in Massachusetts – this one was the fourth or fifth for the Cape and islands.
That bunting was a one day wonder, and I think Ibisfest is almost over, as we have run out of likely ibis species. What will next week’s big bird event be? A glitzy Gull Gala at Race Point? A Shorebird Shindig? An all-night Owl and Goatsucker Hootenanny? Whatever the event is, you can be sure I’ll be on the red carpet or in the green room, bringing you the hard-hitting news about fake bird events you’ve come to depend on.
