📜 EwA Week Highlights: These Birds Sing the End of Winter

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights March 15, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the March 15th EwA highlights. Next time the highlights are in your inbox, it’ll be spring! 📸 One of our conspicuous harbingers of the end of winter and the beginning of spring is the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). These are some of the first migratory birds to return to New England, and their distinctive trilling song can be heard emanating from their marshy homes as early as late February. Heather spotted this one at Horn Pond this week. EwA iNaturalist Record (© aussies2 · Woburn, MA · Mar. 8, 2025)  Simon observed this small snail-eating ground beetle (Sphaeroderus stenostomus) in the Middlesex Fells last saturday. These beetles are members of the order Carabidae, the ground beetles, which consists of over 40,000 species, most of them nocturnal and predatory. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Simon Gurvets · Woburn, MA · Mar. 1, 2025)  For the third week in a row, the winter firefly (Ellychnia corrusca) was EwA’s most-observed species. Over on EwA Buggy, we’re seeing lots of winter fireflies as well. Activity is certainly starting to ramp up for these beetles as the early April mating season approaches. Once that time arrives, mating pairs of these beetles will be a relatively common sight, as they can stay attached for more than a day. Kristian observed this winter firefly on EwA Buggy just yesterday. EwA Buggy Record (© Kristian Demary · Massachusetts, USA · Mar. 14, 2024)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 523 observations of 249 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 226,162 observations of 12,340 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Spring [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike