Category Archives: Milly the Raccoon

Milly’s Bird of the Day: The Chipping Sparrow

Happy birding and please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Like Warblers, there are a lot of species of Sparrows who call Massachusetts home.

Sparrows are beautiful and charismatic, but some species can be very difficult to differentiate from one another. Milly is quite fond of Chipping Sparrows because they love the Museum of American Bird Art, and she can easily tell them apart from other Sparrows.

Chipping Sparrows are known for their pulsing 1 note trilling song and the rufous crown on top of the male’s head. Keep a look this spring and summer, from backyards to woods these little energetic sparrows are widespread across our state.

Happy birding and please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Milly’s Bird of the Day: Eastern Phoebe

Look and listen for Phoebes near you and please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Another early migrant, the Eastern Phoebe is a favorite bird of many, especially Milly. These talented builders use a small ledge to construct their mud nests. The nests often end up on the edges of people’s homes, above doorways or under eaves.

Milly is always thrilled to see our Phoebes returning in April and finding new nest spots on our Camp Building and Estate House.

Milly loves watching these birds flutter off of one point as they snatch insects in mid-air.

Phoebes are famous for their bobbing tails when perched and for singing their name when they call, Phoeeeeeeeebeee!

Look and listen for Phoebes near you and please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Nature in a Minute: Milly’s Bird of the Day – Tree Swallows

Milly’s first bird of the day is one of her favorites, it’s the Tree Swallow! Please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Tree Swallow perched on a nest box in the meadow at the Museum of American Bird Art.

Tree Swallows are one of the first migrants to return each spring and once they are here, they’re hard to miss. They are masters at flight, with dozens zooming in circles around one another over our meadow, collecting mosquitos, flies, and more with incredible aerial acrobatics. These birds put on mesmerizing flight shows all spring and summer in the meadow right behind the Museum of American Bird Art.

Milly watches these beauties fly over her sanctuary for hours. Tree Swallows are so named because like Milly, they live in trees.

However, since we have cut so many trees down, Milly and other conservationists place nest Boxes throughout fields to provide more homes for these incredible birds. Please help Milly and her Bird-a-Thon team by visiting her fundraising page here.

Owen Cunningham is MABA’s incredible property manager, Bird-a-Thon captain, and most importantly Milly’s caretaker. He is the author of Milly’s Bird of the Day posts.

Milly has joined the Museum’s Bird-A-Thon Team!

Milly is super excited to be one of the newest members of the Museum of American Bird Art’s Bird-a-Thon! With Milly on board, it is officially a raccoon approved super team!

Bird-a-Thon is an annual state-wide fundraising and birding event for Mass Audubon that began in 1983. Each spring birders from all over the state raise money to protect the nature of Massachusetts and count as many bird species as they can during a 24-hour period in mid-May.

If you’d like to help support Milly raise money for Bird-a-Thon, please visit her personal fundraising page here.

While we stay at home and social distance, the nature of Massachusetts and Mass Audubon still need your help and support, so Mass Audubon has figured out a way to keep this amazing fundraising event going while we continue to stay safe. This year’s Bird-a-Thon will be the first zero emissions Bird-at-home-a-thon. From May 15-16, birders from all over the state will be counting species in their yards and also participating in arts and crafts and other fun ways to score points for their teams. For more information on how you can donate or join a team like Milly did click here.

Where’s Milly? Admiring Trunk Show, by Sherrie York

Where’s Milly today? She spent today inside with one of her favorite work’s of art, Trunk Show, by the amazing artist and wonderful friend of MABA, Sherrie York. This piece is hanging in our recent acquisition’s gallery at the Museum of American Bird Art.

Sherrie will be at MABA this summer for the Wild at Art summer camp and a printmaking workshop. At the summer camp, Sherrie will be traveling with our travel camp, teaching sketching, painting, and more to young artists in the field. You can also learn from Sherrie this summer at her two day printmaking workshop at the Museum of American Bird Art. Lastly, check out Sherrie’s website and her wonderful artwork.