Cemetery is prime bird watching site

It’s the best time to begin learning the songs of those beautiful creatures, and the perfect opportunity to visit Rhode Island’s best sites for viewing the migrating hordes.
  Strangely enough, perhaps the best place to observe spring migration is Swan Point Cemetery, a 200-acre estate on Blackstone Boulevard in Providence. The gardens, ornamental trees and forested portions of the cemetery are often filled with birds in early- and mid-May, and many of them remain to nest and raise their young. Early every day during the month, dozens of birders can be found walking the many miles of roads and paths throughout the site in search of unexpected arrivals.
  An urban cemetery the best place to find migrant birds in spring because it is an oasis in the midst of a heavily developed area. Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., is a similar hot spot in the Boston area. Although not a cemetery, Miantonomi Park in Newport is another excellent migrant trap.
  Most songbirds migrate at night, and when the sun comes up, they land to rest and find food.  If they are flying over Cranston and Providence when the sun rises on their northbound journey, Swan Point Cemetery may appear to be the largest and perhaps only place to safely stop. It is not unusual to observe 50 species of birds at Swan Point on a two-hour morning walk, and it seems that the most colorful birds are especially abundant.
  Baltimore orioles are gregarious and aggressive, darting about among the flowering trees and shrubs and battling each other for the best nesting habitat. Indigo buntings, American goldfinches, and northern cardinals can often be seen perched together like a bright flag of blue, yellow and red. Scarlet tanagers confine themselves to the forested northern portion of the cemetery along with the raucous great crested flycatcher and the local song leader, the wood thrush.
  The birds that generate the most attention, however, are those that are only stopping by on their way farther north. Swainson’s and gray-cheeked thrushes, bay-breasted, Tennessee and blackpoll warblers and Lincoln’s sparrows are all sought-after species that turn up in the cemetery every year.  And southern species such as the Kentucky warbler, prothonotary warbler, blue grosbeak and summer tanager, all of which sometimes overshoot their breeding ranges, can be found in the cemetery most years as well.
  The combination of beautiful scenery and exciting wildlife watching makes Swan Point Cemetery an ideal spot for a quiet walk during this migration season.
 
Todd McLeish is a science writer at the University of Rhode Island and a lifelong birdwatcher. Contact him at tmcleish@uri.edu.