The Bobolink Project:
Saving Grassland Birds One Acre at a Time

Joan Walsh, Mass Audubon’s Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology, was the featured speaker at the Boxborough Birders’
Annual Speaker Series on August 3, 2020. She spoke via Zoom about The Bobolink Project, a joint Mass Audubon and Audubon Vermont program, which builds conservation partnership between farmers and bird lovers, and is helping grassland birds to thrive.

Other Resources

• The Bobolink Project
• A Full Life Cycle Conservation Plan for Bobolink
• Bobolink Nesting Calendar 2020
• Landscape History of Central New England

“Bird Migration in Central Massachusetts”

Keynote speakers: Mark Lynch and Sheila Carroll
Thursday, May 23rd at 7PM
Sargent Memorial Library in Boxborough

Mark Lynch is a teacher and trip leader for Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Sanctuary in Worcester. He was a founding member of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, and is currently the book review editor for the journal Bird Observer, with book reviews in every
issue. Mark was one of the regional editors for the Bird Finding Guide to Western Massachusetts, writing several chapters, including locations in the southern Berkshires and about Monson, the Quabbin, and the Brookfields.

Sheila Carroll has been a devoted birder and photographer for more than 35 years, traveling to such places as Tierra del Fuego and Lord Howe Island to observe and photograph birds. Sheila does the photography for Mark’s birding classes and programs and co-leads trips with him for Broad Meadow Brook. (Besides birds, Sheila is passionate about finding, photographing, and identifying odonates―dragonflies and damselflies.) Mark and Sheila were the Central Massachusetts Regional Coordinators for the MA Audubon Breeding Bird Atlas II.

Light refreshments will be provided. Bring your friends!

An exhibit of photographs of birds by Boxborough Birder photographers will also be on display at the library throughout the month of May.

Boxborough Birders is an enthusiastic group of bird watchers from Boxborough, Massachusetts and nearby towns. The group focuses primarily on local “patches” (habitats) in studying and learning about resident and migratory bird species. Walks are organized throughout the year, primarily during spring and fall migration with the sightings posted to eBird and to the Boxborough Birders Google group email. New members are always welcome. To join: go to https://groups.google.com/d/forum/boxboroughbirders.

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Contact Information: Boxborough Birders, https://boxboroughbirders.org/, Rita Grossman, 978-264-4077.

Plovers and Terns and Oystercatchers, Oh My!
Beach Nesting Birds of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boxborough, Mass. – Boxborough Birders is proud to present local ornithologist Becky Harris, PhD, with her talk: “Plovers and Terns and Oystercatchers, Oh My! Beach Nesting Birds of Massachusetts,” at Sargent Memorial Library, 427 Massachusetts Avenue, Boxborough, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, at 7 pm.

Dr. Harris teaches conservation biology at Tufts University for the Masters in Conservation Medicine Program. She has served as director of Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program where she oversaw monitoring, management, and protection of threatened beach nesting birds and their habitats at over 100 sites throughout southeastern MA.

Before arriving at Mass Audubon in June of 2006, Dr. Harris held a research faculty appointment at Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine, directing the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET), which she founded in 2002. SEANET is a long-term collaborative effort using seabirds as indicators of marine and coastal ecosystem health.

“I was lucky enough to find my dream job, but it reinforced for me how challenging on-the-ground conservation work is, and how critical the Endangered Species Act is―a conservation success story, but only if we keep working tirelessly.”

Concurrent with the presentation, there will be a bird photography exhibit (which begins April 16); table exhibits on bird houses, photographing birds, and resources on getting started in birding; as well as recommended guide books and phone apps. A brief welcome to all members will precede the presentation and Q&A with our speaker will follow the program. Light refreshments provided.

This program is open to all ages. Please join us on Tuesday, May 1 at 7 pm, and bring a friend!

Boxborough Birders is an enthusiastic group of bird watchers from Boxborough, Massachusetts and nearby towns, including Acton, Harvard, Stow, and Littleton. The group focuses primarily on local “patches” (habitats) in studying and learning about resident and migratory bird species.

The group organizes walks throughout the year, especially during spring and fall migration, and members post their observations (and often photos) from each scheduled walk to eBird (eBird is the world’s largest citizen science biodiversity program; it is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which receives over 100 million bird sightings each year to its database from bird observers). Boxborough Birders also shares lists with group members via the Boxborough Birders Google group. In the winter, the group participates in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count as part of the Concord circle. New members are always welcome. Visit https://groups.google.com/d/forum/boxboroughbirders to join! This is the first meeting of the members for the Boxborough Birders.

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