It’s time for the Mass Audubon Bird-a-thon! | Mary Richmond's Cape Cod Art and Nature

As many of you know, I’m a huge supporter of Mass Audubon. My family first brought us to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary back in the 60s when it was housed in a home on the property and most of it was field, forest, and marsh with only a few rough trails. I remember vividily almost stepping on a nest of bob whites and also seeing the albino robin the sanctuary director was taking care of in a cage by the home’s back door when I was 8 or 9 years old. They’ve grown a lot! In the 90s and early 2000s I was fortunate to work for them as a seasonal and classroom naturalist educator.

My grandson scanning for seabirds at Manomet Point, Plymouth

For the past ten years or so I have supported the Mass Audubon Bird-a-thon, the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year. My youngest grandson does this with me and is a great spotter and listener for our team. He’s now 15 and this is his sixth year.

We bird with Stu and Kathy Parsons and here is my grandson getting some good advice from Stu when he was first starting out. Now he’s almost as tall as Stu.

The Bird-a-thon is a fun team event that has a bit of a competitive edge to it. Which team will see the most species? Which will raise the most money? Each region has multiple teams that will begin logging the birds they see at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 13th. For 24 hours they will spread out over the state in all sorts of habitats to see what they can see. Each sighting or birdsong must be attested to by at least two members of a team and in our team’s case, we try to spot the singing bird as well, especially if it is an unusual or unfamiliar bird.

Last year at Burrage Pond in Hanson where we hoped to repeat our sighting of the sandhill cranes that can often be seen there.

Our team begins in Sandwich, at Sandy Neck and the Game Farm and we head off Cape very, very early on Saturday morning. We have until 6 p.m. that day, giving us a full 24 hours to add to our sightings. We usually log over a hundren species which is good, but other teams will often log many more. We don’t mind, we have fun doing what we do. We go out no matter what the weather is doing, by the way, so we always hope for a rain free day. That doesn’t always work but that’s what rain coats are for, right?

I’m writing this hoping you will join us in spirit and perhaps donate as well. My grandson and I have our own page and hope to raise a nice donation for Mass Audubon. Your help would be much appreciated. I will post results here after the event so stay tuned.

Here we are at Danial Webster Sanctuary in Duxbury, one of my grandson’s favorite spots. This is where we can always count on seeing the bobolinks sing and court, a bird sometimes known as the skunk bird, due to the stripes on its back.

I’ve included photos of my grandson from over the years, including 2020 when we birded within a square mile of our homes due to the pandemic.

Thanks for reading and for your support!