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bird sightings
Recent bird sightings as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society:

Various Christmas bird counts were conducted during the past 10 days, with highlights cited below.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary: Sightings included a pomarine jaeger, 66 common murres, 99 razorbills, and four Atlantic puffins.

Boston: Reports featured 62 wood ducks, a Barrow’s goldeneye, 413 hooded mergansers, 34 double-crested cormorants, 40 great blue herons, 33 Cooper’s hawks, seven bald eagles, two white-winged doves, four snowy owls, four short-eared owls, 22 belted kingfishers, five merlins, eight peregrine falcons, an ovenbird, and five orange-crowned warblers.

Quincy: Counts included a canvasback, 303 ring-necked ducks, an Iceland gull, four ruby-crowned kinglets, three American pipits, and 96 snow buntings.

Westport: Highlights featured 177 gadwalls, 49 harlequin ducks, three brown thrashers, a blue-headed vireo, a blue-gray gnatcatcher, and a Nashville warbler.

Worcester: Counts included a Barrow’s goldeneye, four sandhill cranes, and a Lapland longspur.

Plum Island: Reports from the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge included 10 red-necked grebes, two rough-legged hawks, 52 razorbills, two black guillemots, and 13 crossbills.

Miscellaneous: Reports this week included a pink-footed goose in the fields along Route 133 in Ipswich; snow geese in Beverly, Danvers, and Topsfield; a redhead at the Cambridge Reservoir in Waltham; a tufted duck at Kenoza Lake in Haverhill; a great egret at West Island Beach in Fairhaven; three sandhill cranes at the William J. Devine Golf Course at Franklin Park in Boston; two white-winged doves at the Fenway Victory Gardens in Boston; a Townsend’s solitaire on Choate Island in Essex; two painted buntings at Nantucket; and 18 red crossbills in Salisbury.

For more information about bird sightings or to report sightings, call MassAudubon at 781-259-8805 or go to www.massaudubon.org.