Behold the King! Three new birds for the channel list.

[00:00:16]Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. Another video from Massachusetts this week as I try to find some new birds for the Massachusetts channel life list and also try to get the Massachusetts year list up to something approaching respectability.

[00:00:30]Come to a location called the Pinehill Grasslands which is about an hour west of Boston. It's a nice grassland prairie habitat that has the possibility of seeing birds like grasshopper sparrow, indigo bunting, and maybe even vesper sparrow. That would be a new one for the channel life list, but they are kind of rare, so I don't know if I'm going to be able to see one. If you're a regular watcher of my videos, you may remember that I came out here last year, got some nice looks at grasshopper sparrows, but then was driven away by ferocious clouds of mosquitoes. So, I do have insect repellent with me this time. So, I'm hoping to be able to stay longer and see more of this interesting location.

[00:01:08]Before I get out of the car and start birding here, I want to show you two good birds that I've seen elsewhere in Massachusetts that are both new ones for the Channel Life list. First one of these is a bird that's become quite famous in the Massachusetts birding community, and that is a king rail that's been hanging around the maintenance area at Plum Island for a few weeks now. Bird's quite reliable at this location, and it's quite vocal. So, getting it as a heronly bird is pretty simple, at least it has been over the past few weeks. trick of course is to see and photograph this bird because it is a rail meaning that it tends to remain hidden in the reeds. So let's see how I managed with the king rail.

[00:01:46]The maintenance area at Plum Island, also known as the wardens, is located a few miles south of the entrance to the Parker River Refuge. It has some decent bathrooms and an open area that attracts sparrows during fall migration, but isn't necessarily one of the liveliest birding areas at Plum Island.

[00:02:03]However, it's the place to be right now with the rare King Rail taking up residents.

[00:02:09]When I arrived early one morning in late June, the King Rail was calling continuously from the reads surrounding this little wet area.

[00:02:19]It was great to hear it, but I became increasingly frustrated over the next 90 minutes or so, as the bird never showed itself. I actually left to do some birding elsewhere, then came back a couple hours later. And this time I was able to get a good look at the rail as it wandered out into an open area.

[00:02:38]Exciting for me as King Rail is yet another lifer for me here in my home state. Coming quickly after the two lifers I picked up after a big storm passed through the area just a couple weeks previously.

[00:02:50]King Rail is quite similar to Clapper rail, but has more reddish plumage overall.

[00:02:56]The two species can also be separated by their calls.

[00:03:14]Taking a look at the range map for King Rail, you can see that it's a bird found primarily along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic coast, and that it's only a scattered and occasional breeder as far north as Massachusetts.

[00:03:26]Let's take one more look at the only video clip I was able to get of this great bird.

[00:03:36]King Rail is, of course, a new bird for the overall channel life list. It's also number 277 for the Massachusetts Channel Life list. I'm trying to get that number up to 300, possibly by the end of this year, but more likely sometime next year.

[00:03:56]After my first stop at the maintenance area, when I was only able to hear the King Rail, I did some burning down at the Hellcat area, which was almost deserted. A big contrast to May when it was packed with burers and impossible to park.

[00:04:09]I went out onto the Hellcat dyke, hoping to pick up some new shorebirds for the year list.

[00:04:16]I didn't see many shorebirds at all, but I was able to pick up a pair of northern shovelers, which had first been reported a few days prior.

[00:04:26]This is an unusual sighting in Massachusetts in the summer as their breeding grounds are a couple hundred miles north.

[00:04:34]I missed seeing northern shoveler during spring migration, so this is a new one for the 2026 year list.

[00:04:41]Shovelers look pretty similar to malards this time of year, except for that giant bill.

[00:04:53]I then walked the Hellcat Boardwalk Trail, which was quite quiet as expected now that spring migration is over.

[00:05:00]However, I did come across some breeding house rims, and this is another new one for the year list.

[00:05:33]On my way out of the refuge after seeing the king rail, I stopped at the main salt pans and was able to find one semi-palated plubber wandering around on the mud.

[00:05:44]I'm looking forward to the fall shoreburn migration, which in Massachusetts actually takes place mostly in late summer.

[00:05:56]Okay, another good bird that I picked up several weeks ago now is a prothonatory warbler that showed up at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. As with the King Rail, Massachusetts is a little bit north of their regular range. So, this was a really good bird to pick up. Last year, there was a prothonatory warbler that showed up at Plum Island that I searched for and managed to get just a brief view of, but no photo, which was a little frustrating as I would have loved to have gotten it on the year list last year when I was doing my 250 bird challenge. I did a little better with the prothonatory warbler this time, as you'll see.

[00:06:31]So, as I mentioned, the prothonatory warbler was at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in conquered Massachusetts. This is a good birding location that has a lot of wet, swampy areas that border the conquered river, which is perfect habitat for this species.

[00:06:47]As I approached the reported location of the prothonatory warbler on a rainy, heavily overcast morning, I could hear it singing loudly, which was really cool.

[00:06:56]I did get some poor video footage, which is better for hearing the song than it is for actually seeing the bird.

[00:07:13]Due to the very low light, the autofocus on my Canon R seven was really struggling to stay on the bird.

[00:07:28]Here's the range map for Pthanatory Warbler. It's an eastern warbler with a normal range that extends about as far north as New Jersey.

[00:07:37]After a while, this beautiful bird did drop down briefly onto a lower branch, letting me get one quick sequence of decent photos.

[00:07:45]This is another new one for the Channel Life list, and it's also number 278 for the Massachusetts Channel Life List.

[00:07:58]Back at the pineill grasslands, I headed out onto the trail after applying a good coating of deep woods off. As I left the parking area, I could already hear a number of different singing birds.

[00:08:11]As you can see from the sign, this location is part of the Bolton Flats Wildlife Management Area.

[00:08:18]As I passed the sign, a chipping sparrow was feeding on the gravel path right in front of me.

[00:08:25]This is a common species, but it's actually a new one for the year list as I've been a bit casual about adding birds this year.

[00:08:36]Chipping sparrows are found at Horn Pond and are also quite common where I work, so no excuse to miss getting them on the year list.

[00:08:51]As I walked along the gravel trail, I could hear indigo buntings, grasshopper sparrows, eastern bluebirds, and prairie warblers all singing.

[00:09:01]The next bird that popped up was actually a field sparrow, a bird that's already on the year list as they breed at my home patch.

[00:09:12]This one was enjoying a nice juicy insect. Or maybe it was taking it back to a nest.

[00:09:20]I could hear several grasshopper sparrows singing in various directions from where I was standing. And after a short wait, one of them popped up pretty close to me.

[00:09:35]I lost track of that one, but then I spotted another one perched up and singing a bit farther away.

[00:09:56]If you know your eastern bird songs, you might also have heard an indigo bunting singing in this clip.

[00:10:04]And here is the singing indigo bunting.

[00:10:06]This is another new one for the year list.

[00:10:13]I usually photograph them at Horn Pond in the spring, but it seems like a slower year for them there this year.

[00:10:29]And then another grasshopper sparrow popped up right next to me, letting me get some really nice footage.

[00:10:39]Appropriately enough, it has captured a grasshopper, although the name actually comes from the insect-like sound of its song.

[00:10:58]This photo gives a good look at the white median crown stripe and the yellow above the eye.

[00:11:09]The last new bird from this visit was a single turkey vulture that floated over.

[00:11:14]Another new one for the year list.

[00:11:34]Okay, so I'm back from a very pleasant walk of about three miles through the Pineh Hill grasslands. Saw a lot of really nice birds. Uh saw and heard probably around 14 or 15 grasshopper sparrows, which is really great. They seem to be doing really well here. Lots of young birds. The only disappointment was not seeing or hearing a vesper sparrow at all through the walk. I really had my eyes peeled the whole time. Was running Merlin, listening for it with no luck. I don't know if they're here or not. I'm going to have to keep an eye on EIRD. And uh if reports start popping up, I'm going to try to get like a more specific location uh where they're being seen cuz this is a big area. And I'll definitely come back and try to get the vesper sparrow here at some point uh if it's being seen. So, as for right now, I do have some more birds to catch up the list on, including some really nice ones. So, stay tuned for that. We'll do a few more birds from my home patch and other areas like that. Uh to finish out this video, let's start out with some good close-up footage of my favorite warbler, the blackthroated blue warbler. It was very late in spring migration, and I was just taking a quick walk after work without any real expectations of seeing much.

[00:12:42]This fellow popped up amazingly close to me along a wooded trail.

[00:12:51]It was singing as well, although it was hard to hear with the noisy cat bird singing at the same time.

[00:12:58]>> Normally, the swbller would be feeding actively when I see it, and it would be difficult or impossible to take good video, so it was a real treat to have this guy just sitting in one place.

[00:13:12]Blackthroatated blue warblers are fairly common in migration here in Massachusetts, but this was still one of my most enjoyable birding moments of the year.

[00:13:31]Another good bird from Horn Pond was this olivesided fly catcher. They're a hit or miss species in Massachusetts, and I actually didn't see or photograph one at all last year during my 250 bird challenge.

[00:13:43]I did see one back in 2024 here at Horn Pond when I did my little big year, so it's already on the Massachusetts Channel Life list.

[00:13:55]Owlsided fly catcher looks like a large eastern wood pee-weed, but the white patches on the back are diagnostic for this species.

[00:14:10]This is a worm eating warbler which I also saw at Horn Pond back in late May.

[00:14:14]They are uncommon to rare in Massachusetts and in fact this is a new bird for the channel life list and for the Massachusetts channel list.

[00:14:24]Unfortunately, I was only able to get a few photos when it popped up very briefly in front of me. Hopefully, I'll get some video and better photos sometime in the future.

[00:14:36]Here's a male American red start, which is in that very awkward stage of mol when the old tail feathers have fallen out and the new ones haven't come in yet.

[00:14:48]And this is an orchard oral, a handsome bird that breeds at Horn Pond. I find them a bit more difficult to photograph than their more common cousin, the Baltimore oral.

[00:14:59]I was also able to photograph a perched northern ruffwing swallow, a rather plain swallow that is breeding at Horn Pond this year.

[00:15:07]That's my fifth swallow species photographed this year. At this point, the only regularly occurring swallow that I'm missing for the Massachusetts Channel Life list is bank swallow. So, I need to work on photographing one of those.

[00:15:36]Okay, so I'm going to wrap this video up here. Looking forward, I think the next video that I'm going to put out is the one from my trip to Florida. As I mentioned in a previous video, I went to a work conference, so it was a work trip, but I did have some time to do some birding and uh saw a lot of crazy exotic species down there, parrots and parakeetses and things like that. So, that'll be kind of a fun video. Not sure exactly when I'll get that one finished up, but that will be the next one that I'll put out. We are kind of coming into a slow time of year here, so my videos will be a little more sporadic over the next month or two, but uh going into the fall, I'm sure we'll be able to pick up the pace again. So, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.