Massachusetts Wildlife Magazine

[phaw...@comcast.net]

Thanks to Martin Fraser for his kind words last week on the current issue of Massachusetts Wildlife Magazine that includes an article on Bald Eagles by me.  I've received a number of inquiries and there is some confusion.

     I wrote a 2500-word article Eagle Wars, published in the current issue of Mass Wildlife, which is published by the Mass Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.  The article includes a number of photos by several excellent local photographers.The issue includes articles on the value of spending time outdoors (by Sara Lucia Shuff), an article on Belle Isle Marsh by Sean Riley, and an article Massachusetts Homegrown Eiders by H.W. Heusmann. The previous issue had a fantastic article on Bobcat. Over the year the magazine has articles on everything outdoors, including birds, mammals, hunting, fishing, invasive plants, insects, fungi, etc. I've subscribed for decades and given a gift subscription to a sharp seven-year old granddaughter.

      The magazine is small format (9x6 in.) and quarterly. It is available in print only; no digital edition is available online. You can subscribe for 1 year (4 issues) for $6, or 2 years (8 issues) for only $10. You can't beat that value.

    To subscribe, you can visit

https://www.mass.gov/how-to/massachusetts-wildlife-magazine

or you can call 617-626-1590. If you want to obtain the current issue with the eagle article, I'd encourage you to call to ensure that your subscription will include the current issue.

     

Two pieces of current bird news. I was called to the lakes by someone spotting an unidentified Bald Eagle this morning. It had disappeared by the time I got there, but I did have excellent views of a huge juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk, a very uncommon bird around the lakes. A pair nested in the Middlesex Fells this year, but I doubt this bird was from that nest. I keep receiving more reports of Red-shouldered Hawks everywhere north and west of Boston, so keep your eyes open. We're enjoying a weak mid-August cold front. Many young raptors raised in the larger metropolitan area disperse from their nest areas about this time of year, moving roughly 5-50 miles away; some much more. (Some young Red-tailed and Broad-winged Hawks disperse north into Canada!) We've already seen young Peregrines, Cooper's Hawks, and now Red-shouldered Hawks, so keep your eyes open wherever you are. One young minute male Cooper's Hawk chased two young Gray Squirrels for half an hour, and had myriad opportunities to catch one, but I didn't think it would have cognitively known what to do with it if he had caught it, unless instinct kicked in at a higher level. One young squirrel knew enough instinctively to feign death (though it kept its tail in the raised "alarm position." It worked perfectly. The Coop left the dead squirrel alone and chased the one moving in mesmerizing fits of starts and stops.

     The second piece of news is that bald eagles are, like most hawks, going through very heavy molt right now, missing many flight feathers. The odds right now are that if you see a hawk that is not missing any flight feathers, it is a juvenile! Two relatively young adult eagles who could be fairly easily identified by some immature smudging on their crown and forehead, and in one case very obvious smudging on it's tail, have molted much of that smudging and look a lot more like generic adult bald eagles. Be forewarned.   

         

Best,

Paul

Paul M. Roberts
Medford, MA 
phaw...@comcast.net

[Ken Krause]

Hi Paul. Thanks for the tip about Mass Wildlife magazine. My first issue just arrived, and it's the one with your superb "Eagle Wars" article. What a gripping account of the events involving the eagles . . . amazing photos as well! We are indebted to you and all of the other expert volunteer observers who so diligently chronicled what transpired. Thank you!

- Ken Krause