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Not far from my parents’ house in Wellfleet, MA is the pedestrian-accessible Great Island. Part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, it draws both hikers and birders. My mother, an enthusiastic birder herself, says the birds most commonly seen there at this time of year are migratory waterfowl (Red-breasted mergansers, White-winged scoters and Common loons) as well as shore birds such as the Black-bellied plover, the Greater yellowlegs and the Sanderling.
Last October however, a young scientist-turned-science writer named William von Herff, spotted an Eastern meadowlark.