Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn An Oasis for Birds and Birders | Page 22

Photo by Sandy Selesky
Did
know...?
• Mount Auburn birders have different nicknames for
certain landmark spots within the Cemetery that you
may not recognize:
- Auburn Lake is called “Spectacle Pond”
- Hazel Dell is called “The Dry Dell”
…and
• sculptors looked to real birds when creating the wings
for the angel sculptures at Mount Auburn;
• there are also several birds depicted on monuments such
as the eagle on the First Corps of Cadets Monument.
…and that
• in 2002, Mount Auburn was awarded the status of an
“Important Bird Area” by the Massachusetts Audubon
Society because it provides essential habitat to breeding,
wintering, and migrating birds.
…and also
• the only Massachusetts state record of a Brewer’s Sparrow
was at Mount Auburn on Dec. 15, 1873;
• two first state records recorded at Mount Auburn were
a Townsend’s Warbler on May 4, 1978, and a Hermit
Warbler on May 16, 1964; and
• since 1985 a total of 5,562 Common Nighthawks have
been recorded on our popular Nighthawks Watch –
only one night August 18, 2008, had no sightings; and
• in recent decades, approximately 50 species of birds have
bred in Mount Auburn.
The First Corps of Cadets Monument, designed by
Theodore Colburn, was erected and dedicated in 1867.
Photo by Janet L. Heywood
20 | Sweet Auburn
…and in 2011
• during the spring migration, birding clubs and groups
visited Mount Auburn 50 times;
• on August 30, participants of our annual Nighthawks
Watch saw 244 Common Nighthawks from the top of
Washington Tower; and
• in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology database for birders,
eBird, 387 checklists were submitted for sightings at
Mount Auburn. They tallied 154 species and 40,930
individual birds reported.