Short Trips for Target Birds Series

MASSACHUSETTS: New England Winter Specialties

King Eider, photo by Alex Lamoreaux

TOUR FOCUS
BIRDS & WILDLIFE

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SCHEDULED TOURS

2026 :: February 1 - February 4

TRIP LEADERS

TOUR COST

From: $1,750 (See details)
Cost is per person, double occupancy from Boston, Massachusetts. (BOS)

GROUP SIZE

4 - 7 Participants

AVAILABILITY

 7 spaces available

PRIVATE TOUR OPTION

This tour is available as a private trip for any size group. The tour cost will vary with the number of people and any custom requests.

TESTIMONIALS

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Highlights of MASSACHUSETTS: New England Winter Specialties

  • Best of New England’s winter birding!
  • Thick-billed Murre, Dovekie
  • Snowy Owl, redpolls, and crossbills
  • Common Eider, King Eider, Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck

Description of MASSACHUSETTS: New England Winter Specialties

Cape Cod in the winter offers a rare opportunity to study great flocks of alcids, loons, and gulls as wells as seaducks and other winter waterbirds. Mixed flocks of Surf, White-winged, and Black Scoters gather along the coastline and Common Eiders are indeed, common! One or two rare, arctic King Eider can be found during most winters, and there are usually dazzling Harlequin Ducks tucked up against a rocky shoreline somewhere.

We will seawatch at Cape Cod’s famous Race Point beach scanning for flocks of razorbills and among them common and thick-billed murres, as well as possibly dovekie, which we will seek out using the most recent reports.

We should be able to pick out an Iceland Gull from one of the many flocks of Herring Gulls, and Black-legged Kittiwakes will float by offshore. Great Black-backed Gull is also common here, and Glaucous is a regular winter visitor, and if we are lucky there will be at least one snowy owl somewhere on the Cape.

We will also spend some time inland looking for Snow Bunting and Lapland Longspur, which are found annually in the area, and we should encounter at least a few flocks of American Tree Sparrows or Common Redpolls.

Location Map