Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Rebecca Pugh
Running With Birds: The endangered piping plover returns to Ipswich beaches
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh When you run on the beach this week, watch for the plover who dashes along the edge of the sea. The piping plover just returned to Ipswich, and it digs for worms and other invertebrates at the shoreline. It is thought that piping plovers, when they migrate, fly from Cuba to Ipswich in a single night. With a global breeding population of 8,400 individuals, it is one of the most vulnerable populations in the world.
Running With Birds: Starlings inspired Shakespeare and amazed Mozart
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh In 1890, a New York City pharmacist, Eugene Schieffelin, thought it would be romantic to bring all the birds in Shakespeare’s writings to New York City from the Old Country. One of his imported birds was the starling. The first box of starlings perished on the way here. For the second shipment, Schieffelin paid extra for the sailors to take special care: to talk to the starlings, to feed them treats.
Running With Birds: Red-winged blackbirds signal the start of spring
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running near a clump of cattails and hear the rusty-gate call “conk-la-ree,” the call that starts with a sharp downbeat and ends in a trill, look for the black glossy bird with red and yellow epaulets, and the gray and brown female counterpart with the rose blush on her shoulders.
Running With Birds: Snowy owls return to Ipswich, but rat poison is making them sick
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running by the sea and spot a bird that my favorite ornithologists say looks like a trash bag or an iceberg — but might move its head in a smooth swivel, way away out in the fields — take pause. Snowy owls sometimes fly in the dunes east of the main parking lot at Crane Beach, sometimes over at Plum Island.
Running With Birds: By protecting the horseshoe crab, we invite the Hudsonian godwit's return
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on Chiloé Island in Chile this week, and you spot a bird like this — as Carl Jappe did in 2020 — with a sweet falling “dewww dew,” ending on E above middle C, you might just be running with the same shorebird who will migrate through Ipswich later this year as it returns from breeding in Alaska and the Northwest territories.
Running With Birds: 'What cheer?' The cardinal is here!
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on a snowy road and you hear a call that sounds like, “Sweet-sweet-sweet, jo-jo-jo-jo” or “birdy-birdy-birdy,” look around for a bright red bird with a tufted head, or for a red-gold bird with the same saucy, tufted crest. The cardinals have started calling to each other in Ipswich.
Running With Birds: The junco is winter's most successful sparrow
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running in the forest, listen for birds communicating with each other with quick, electric shock-like sounds. You may also hear the trilling “riiiiiing,” like an old rotary phone. Watch for slate-colored birds with white bellies and dark eyes. You may see their white outer tail feathers if they fly. See if you can catch a sight of the pink bill, then you will know it for sure — you are running with dark-eyed juncos.
Running With Birds: Buffleheads are back, swimming in the cold ocean waters off the coast of Ipswich
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running near Pavillion Beach, watch the water for a flock of diving ducks. Sometimes you see them, one by one, giving a slight forward leap and plunging head first underwater. Unlike several aquatic birds, buffleheads keep their wings tucked in when they are underwater, and swim only with their feet. They spend about half of their time below the surface of the ocean this time of year. Buffleheads are striking.
Running With Birds: House finches bring music and color to winter neighborhoods
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running downtown in the early morning, listen for a musical chatter followed by a catcall-type whistle in the key of G. The house finch is one of the noisiest birds in the neighborhood. It commands attention. It sounds like it is cracking jokes. You might spot it, too, if you are sitting near a bird feeder or a tree full of berries come wintertime. House finches are social, so you will likely hear or see several together.
The gray catbird sings from low shrubs, returning to the same spot every year
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running past a thicket and hear a bird singing a 10-minute aria which sounds like a string of other creatures’ songs, take note. Can you hear a little “meow” at the end of some of the phrases? Is it a squeaky series of songs in the Lydian mode in the key of A? Catbirds nest about four feet above ground. You may hear them mimic crickets, coyotes, cardinals, car alarms, and all manner of other sounds.
The saltmarsh sparrow lays a fragile nest between full moons and their related high tides
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running near the Hamlin Reservation — or another place nearby, where the saltmarsh meets your running trail — and you hear a sparrow chipping on a high C, listen for the song which sounds a bit like an old-fashioned typewriter as the carriage returns. Then watch for a buffy bird streaked with slate and brown, with an orange eyebrow and moustache, running or walking along the marsh.
Glossy Ibis Ipswich: A Birdwatcher's Guide
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers by Rebecca Pugh If you are running at the Hamlin Reservation by the marsh, watch for the glossy ibis out foraging during the falling tide. These football-shaped birds flock together in the summertime, and they shine in colors of chestnut and emerald. Take care, though. They are shy. If you run too fast, they will fly away. But If you stop and try to blend in, they might rest there in the marsh. And you can watch them.
The red-winged blackbird just got back, and is singing from wetlands in Ipswich
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Red-winged Blackbirds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on Little Neck Road, and you pass the scrubby wetlands near Pirate Park, listen for the rusty-gate call of the newly arrived Red-winged Blackbird. Look for red and yellow shoulders on a glossy black bird, at the tops of the reeds. Red-winged blackbirds just got back. Once you know what to listen for, you hear their sounds coming from the wetlands all around you.
A Swainson's hawk, rare in these parts, hunts in the salt marsh on Plum Island
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on the west side of Plum Island, and you spot a grey, white, and brown hawk perched on a hollow tree, take note. A rare Swainson’s hawk was spotted by Miles Brengle last week. It is supposed to be in Argentina this winter, hunting grasshoppers, but one has found its way to the wintery fields here in the Great Marsh.
The snowy owl — elusive, powerful — hunts this winter on Cape Ann
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running by the sea at dawn and see massive wings that make you think you are in a Harry Potter movie, pause for a moment. The snowy owls are back for the winter, and they are busy hunting. Sometimes they fly in the dunes east of the main parking lot at Crane Beach, sometimes over at Plum Island, sometimes at other beaches.
The barred owl calls from the forest at dusk and in the dark of the night
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running through the woods at dusk, and you hear the sibilant bird call, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you now?” starting on middle C, falling nearly an octave, you can take comfort in the truth that you are running in a forest with an owl in it. Owls are beloved and sometimes hard to see, but at night, if you are lucky, they are easy to hear.
Egrets are fishing in the Great Marsh, storing up fat for their migration south
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Egrets by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on Jeffreys Neck past the split, look to the left side of the street — to the left of the marsh that is there — and see if you spot the 50 or so great egrets and snowy egrets roosting in the trees. Great egrets have a yellow bill and black feet, and snowy egrets have a black bill and yellow feet. Both are large-sized hunting birds, although the snowies are a little smaller than the greats.
The flash of blue as you run through the playground at Doyon means bluebirds thrive locally
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running With Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running through the Doyon playground at the edge of Willowdale State Park, watch for a flash of blue on the backs of five to 12 robin-sized birds. Bluebirds are feeding in the playground, and their colors are unmistakable. Part of their pattern is to fly diagonally to display their colors, so if you are watching, you are not likely to miss it.
The pileated woodpecker makes nest cavities for diverse species
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running With Birds by Rebecca Pugh Photo credit: Nathan Dubrow If you are running at Appleton Farms, listen for the “wuk, wuk, wuk, wuk” sound, loud and getting louder, from a noisy bird. Check your tuning fork, because they call in the key of C. Look on the trunk of a dead tree for a crow-sized woodpecker, black with bold white stripes running down the face and chest and a shock of red feathers on the crown. Pileated woodpeckers are here all year.
Column: Ospreys are high-voiced fishing birds, hunting on the sandbars
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running at Great Neck and you see the rapid wingbeat of the ocean-hunting bird, listen for the high-pitched “Kyew, kyew, kyew, kyew” call. Look for outstretched wings with dark-colored tips and dark thumbs. Osprey are teaching their young how to hunt at low tide, and are feeding a busy family. Ospreys hover over the water and then pounce feet-first for fish.
The red-winged blackbird sings in the wetlands this spring
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Red-winged Blackbirds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running by the saltmarsh, and you hear the rusty-gate call of a winged neighbor, look for red-and-yellow shoulders on a black glossy bird. The red-winged blackbird has just started singing again, and once you know what to listen for, you hear their sounds coming from the wetlands all around you. Red-wing blackbirds declare themselves and set territory this time of year.
The red-necked grebe, rare so far upriver, swims at the Green Street Bridge this morning
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh Miles Brengle writes, “Sandy Weatherall found a red-necked grebe at the Green Street Bridge this morning, so I went to photograph it, as the species is uncommon so far up the river. They are here every winter but tend to stick to the open waters along the immediate coast.” Miles sent us this picture, photographed in Great Cove this week. Grebes are known for their elaborate courtship displays.
Dark-eyed juncos have graced us with their company this winter
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running in the forest, watch for a knot of long-tailed sparrows. You may hear them communicating with each other through a series of high-pitched “chip” sounds, like a quick electric shock. If you are lucky, you will also hear their trilling “riiiiiing riiiiiing” — it’s like an old rotary phone. If they are standing still, you may see slate-colored birds with white bellies and bright, dark eyes.
The eastern bluebird sings at Cowles Memorial Cemetery, a comfort song for all who mourn
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Hiking with bluebirds by Rebecca Pugh If you hike up through the Cowles Memorial Cemetery, stop at the top of the old staircase and listen for a melody. Bluebirds sing there all year. Their song is striking because they sing in harmony with themselves: one thrush’s syrinx can sing several notes at a time. The richness in their song comes from a layering of pitches.
The pine warbler, rare in the winter here, shows up in local pine forests
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Cross-County Skiing With Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are cross-country skiing through the groves of white pine trees out by Hood Pond, listen for the trilling sound of a shy, steady bird that might just have returned from Louisiana. Its song sounds a little bit like a tiny toy wind-up cymbal.
The red-tailed hawk hunts in fields and salt marshes in winter
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers If you are running in an open field and see a hawk, take note. It might have a reddish tail — but it might not, depending on how old it is and how the sunlight hits its feathers. Look for a brown head, a brown-edged wing, a belly-band stripe of dark feathers. The call — “cheeeaaaahhhhhr” — lasts for two or three seconds. If you hear that, you know you’re running with a red-tailed hawk.
Purple sandpipers breed in the Arctic tundra and winter on the North Atlantic shore on rocks exposed at low tide
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Swimming With Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you’re swimming by the rocky portion of Crane Beach, and you spot a pot-bellied shorebird with a drooping bill of orange and gray, stop to see if you see mostly greyish above and whitish below, with speckles on the breast. Some of the black shoulder feathers might be edged in reddish brown, and you might see a purple sheen if the light is right. Juveniles and nonbreeding adults are covered in slate gray.
Northern pintails forage for seeds and insects in flooded fields, rivers' edges, and marshlands
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Hiking with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are hiking through a damp field, look in the wet furrows for a flock of dabbling ducks. Sometimes you only see the tail end of a dabbler sticking up as it forages under water for insects and seeds. You might be out and about with a raft of northern pintails. They are feeding right now in shallow wetlands and flooded croplands near you. Northern pintails are migrating ducks.
A flock of starlings sails over Pavilion Beach in geometric formation
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you’re swimming or sitting at Pavilion Beach, taking in the waning sun in these last days before the winter solstice, watch for a congregation of star-shaped birds. Watch how the flock takes shape and how the shape moves. Starlings, like many of us, are wanderers. They, like most of us, are immigrants. They make beautiful patterns as they move in formation.
The common eider has returned for the winter, hunting for mussels and sea urchins in the rough seas
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Swimming With Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are swimming in cold salt water, look for a raft of black-and-white male common eiders with chocolate-brown female common eiders. They move in large flocks this time of year, away from the shoreline, out by the sandbars. These beloved birds breed in the high Arctic tundra then return to tidal coastlines, such as in Ipswich, for the winter. You might see hundreds of them.
Downy woodpeckers stay all winter and choose a few favorite trees to linger in
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are rolling through a farmland or forest and find a spot where the hollow trees rise up, listen for the drum song of the downy woodpecker. It takes about a second and a half, a steady sound all on one pitch, fast enough to almost blend into a single note. Then pause. Then, sometimes, an answer from another downy woodpecker — often on a different pitch from a different spot in the forest.
Northern harriers glide through the early November landscape
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are hiking or sitting near the salt marsh or in an open field and see a large gliding bird with a white rump-patch, you are in luck. The northern harrier soars low to the ground over marshes and fields this time of year. With its five-foot wingspan, it takes up a lot of space in the sky as it gets ready for the winter. If a harrier flies near you, watch for its alert gaze.
Sanderlings, some of the longest-distance migrants, flock here on North Shore
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Walking With Sanderlings by Rebecca Pugh If you meander along the edge of the open water this week, and you see a small sandpiper who looks a bit like a running tennis ball with a black bill and black legs, look again. Sanderlings migrate here from the Canadian Arctic tundra. They feast in the fall on the tiny mollusks and small fishes turned up by the waves. Some will stay in Ipswich all winter. Others will migrate to southern South America.
Greater yellowlegs call their haunting song as they migrate along East Coast shorelines
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Swimming with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are swimming in the open waters of the East Coast, listen for the “two, two, two” of the greater yellowlegs. The song is a falling major second, from B to A above middle C. If you are a musician, you will recognize that the lower note of their call is the A that the concert leader offers to the orchestra to tune the instruments.
The merlin: hunting, observing, thriving
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running With Birds By Rebecca Pugh If you are running through the middle of town and you hear loud bird chatter on A440, slurring up to Bb, look for a falcon with a rapid wing beat. Some observers say that merlins look like pigeons on fast-forward — their speed is about 30 miles per hour. You have to pay attention, because you only have a few seconds before they fly out of range.
A juvenile Baird’s sandpiper forages for food at Crane Beach
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running at Crane Beach this week and you see a sandpiper with a slightly curved black bill and short black legs, look again to see if you can spot long wings that extend beyond the tail and a broad buffy breast. If it is in flight, watch for its wide wingspan — common to birds who migrate long distances.
Eastern wood peewee? Or olive-sided flycatcher? Insect-hunting birds in the flycatcher family
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you run through the deciduous forest this time of year, watch for the circular hunting of the flycatchers. These distinctive birds stand at attention, sally out from a perch to catch bugs, and return to the same perch, again and again. Their voices are scratchy, and their attitudes are territorial.
The roseate tern might flash its pale pink chest as you run past on its shoreline
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on a sandy beach along the Atlantic Coast, watch for the long-tailed, faintly blush-bellied roseate tern as it hunts for menhaden and other local fishes and tends its nests in the vegetation by the shoreline. The roseate tern has a dark cap, a black-red bill, and red legs and feet. Its wings extend past its tail when it is standing still.
Bank swallows nest safely in northern U.S. and Canadian coastal areas
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh The swallows are out hunting bugs in the marshy and swampy areas near Massachusetts beaches and damp, open regions across the continent this week, and you might be able to see them if you are running in the twilight. Several different species of swallows work together this time of year: barn swallows, tree swallows, cliff swallows, northern rough-winged swallows, and bank swallows.
The arctic tern, the longest-distance migrating animal on the planet, stops at Crane Beach this week
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on Crane Beach, and you hear a bird cry that sounds a bit like a thumb on a balloon interspersed with a series of high-pitched “kip” calls, look around for a small gray-and-white bird that dives in the sea for fish, shakes off water as it flies back into the air, and swallows its fish head-first. The breeding arctic terns have a thin red bill, red feet, and a long forked tail.
The bobolink is a noisy breeder in open fields and coastal grasslands
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running With Bobolinks by Rebecca Pugh If you are running at Appleton Farms, you might hear a bird song from the middle of one of the grassy fields. It goes down an octave and comes back up again. Look around for a rumpled bird perched out in the open. The bobolinks are defending their territory.
The chestnut-sided warbler sings its noisy song from new-growth forests
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh Chestnut-sided Warbler, photo credit, Eric Schultz If you are running in an open woodland and hear an explosive bird song that might be close to “I wish, wish wish to meet Miss Beecher” in the key of E major, starting on the fifth and falling to the tonic, you can celebrate the chestnut-sided warbler, which sings from sapling trees and new-growth forests.
The white-crowned sparrow stops here to refuel on its journey to Alaska and arctic Canada
- Advertisement - Please Support Local Advertisers Running With Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on Turkey Shore Road, and you hear a sparrow whistling in fourths, moving between G and C above middle C with a long trill at the end, watch for a sparrow with a black-and-white striped head. The white-crowned sparrow stops here to refuel on its migration northward and westward. Soon, it will depart again for arctic Canada and Alaska — its breeding ground.
Berlin Statement on Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in Polar Regions
Author(s) , Ralf Ebinghaus, Elena Barbaro, Susan Bengtson Nash, Cristina de Avila, Cynthia de Wit, Valeria Dulio, Janine Felden, Antonio Franco, Juergen Gandrass, Marco Grotti, Heike Herata, Kevin Hughes, Morten Jartun, Hanna Joerss, Roland Kallenborn, Jan Koschorreck, Anette Kuster, Rainer Lohmann, Zhanyun Wang, Matthew MacLeod, Caren Rauert, Jaroslav Slobodnik, Roxana Suhring, Katrin Vorkamp, Zhiyong Xie Abstract Polar regions should be given greater consideration with respect to chemical...
The short-eared owl surveys the open fields and marshland, searching for mice
Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running by the marshes or grasslands, and you hear a hooting sound like “woop, woop, woop” — all on the same pitch: E above middle C — look for a medium-sized owl. With dark-streaked wings and tail, eye markings like sunglasses, and a posture that says, “I own everything here and I have lived here for 60 million years,” you can identify it. You are running with short-eared owls.
The common eider is getting ready to migrate north to build its famous downy nest
Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Common Eiders 2023 by Rebecca Pugh The Common Eider Swims in the open water If you are running near salt water, and you hear a sound like an antique car horn — “aroooo” — look for a large sea duck with a face that slopes at a 45-degree angle. With a black cap, a white back, dark sides, and a sage neck, you can identify it. You are running with common eiders. Please Support Local Advertisers The eider is famous for its feathers.
The red-breasted merganser is back from Canada and loves the icy waters
Please Support Local Advertisers Running with birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running near salt water, and you hear a sound like a soap bottle being emptied, look for a duck that swims low in the water. If you see a bird who looks a bit like a black duck but with a thinner beak, you are getting closer to knowing what it is. If it has a tousled head with feathers sticking up in an impromptu crown, you can be nearly certain of it. If the bill is red and the neck is slender, you know it for sure.
The cardinal is flashing its reds and golds in the snowy neighborhoods
Please Support Local Advertisers Running with Birds by Rebecca Pugh If you are running on a snowy street, and you see a flash of gold and maroon, look to see if you can spot a bird with a feather crest, puffed up in the cold. You might also see a similar posture on a fire-engine-red bird. If you see a bright red beak and a bit of a black face mask, you can know it for sure. You are running with cardinals.
The nuthatch calls with its tiny, noisy song, busy caching food in the gaps of tree trunks
Please Support Local Advertisers Running with white-breasted nuthatches by Rebecca Pugh If you are running in the deciduous forest and hear a string of tiny, rapid wha, wha, whas, look at the trunks of the nearby trees. You might spot a long-billed, short-tailed, blue-grey songbird with a silvery chest and rusty-red hip-feathers. Sometimes it forages upside-down. The white-breasted nuthatch spends all four seasons here.
The evening grosbeak gathers bittersweet berries and pine nuts in the forest
Our new Privacy Policy will go into effect on January 1st, 2023. Follow the link to read our updated Privacy Policy
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Rebecca
Contact Rebecca, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack