Wednesday 4/5: Bunch of Palms, couple Pines, and a Rough-winged Swallow at Forest Grove. Nothing at the res, Ruddy, a cormorant, and a Common Merg still at Hardy.
Thursday 4/6: Super early gnatcatcher, a few Fox Sparrows, Palms and Yellow-rumps, and the same ducks at BBN.
Friday 4/7: Commute year birds at Hanscom included Turkey Vulture, sapsucker, RC Kinglet, and Field Sparrow plus a towhee, 2 Fox Sparrows, 2 Rusties, etc. Also first Syrphids of the year (2 species TBD). Afternoon emergency.
Saturday 4/8: Started at a cold and windy Millennium. Calling Virginia Rail, lots of Palms, FOY Chipping Sparrow, Turkey Vulture. Stopped at the high school marsh but the wind was more than I wanted to deal with so I missed the snipe. Took a ride out 135 to Fisk Pond in Natick next and pushed my list there past 50 with a couple ducks, a phoebe, a Chipping Sparrow, and a few other things. Drove home past Heard, nothing beyond Gadwall and a Rough-winged Swallow.
Sunday 4/9: Continued to town listing kick, went up to Dracut hoping to go from 18 to 50. Got there relatively easily, although I don’t know if I could have gone much higher. Beaver Brook Farm had a nesting Cooper’s and lots of common stuff. I pulled in at some marshy spot and added a few waterfowl, then went to Yapp Farm, which was pretty busy (RB Nuthatch, tree sparrows, singing Winter Wren the most interesting). That got me to 49, so I tried Long Pond and added Bufflehead, Turkey Vulture, and Fish Crow. Billerica was at 48, so a quick stop at Vietnam Veterans Park was next. GW Teal and Ring-necks in the pond next to the parking area got me there, but I did a loop and just missed getting to 60 (staring at the sky for 5 minutes before leaving and no hawks). Also more Syrphids, FOY garter snake, and some bees. First Cabbage White (and first butterfly) of the year along the highway heading home. Quick res circuit had a few Common Mergansers and a Tree Swallow. Ended the day with my town list totals ticks up past 5000 too!
Monday 4/10: Loon at Flint’s. Ibis were still at French Meadow, so 247 up for the ‘commute’ (and between them, the snipe, and the Solitary, 102 for the year). Everything was pretty far out and looked like they were happy there, so I headed off rather than wait for better views. Nothing much at Nine Acre, another loon at the res.
Tuesday 4/11: Kestrel, Rusties, usual at Ricci.