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MSSF

A few bugs from Myles Standish State Forest today while I’m sorting through pelagic photos (not too many good ones this year I’m afraid).

Carolina Saddlebags:

He wouldn’t slow down enough to get a shot off, so I just caught him for a few seconds.

Atlantic Bluet (presumably) and Beetle:

Frosted Whiteface:

Martha’s Pennant:

Skimming Bluet guarding:

They were mostly in tandem pairs. This one appeared to be ovipositing. The male appeared to drag the female headfirst into the water down to some aquatic plant before letting go. He then hovered above the plant and appeared to be guarding while she disappeared. I’m not sure if she’s visible in either photo (I did see her climbing along the plant before I starting taking photos but haven’t found her in either one yet). Both can be enlarged by clicking and then on All Sizes.

And one of 4 Black Ducks on the pond, I’m wondering if they could have bred there.

Summer Snow

Snow Goose in the fog.

Very few summer records for Massachusetts, nice to catch up with this one that’s been hanging around Plum Island for the last few weeks.

Saturday Gossamers

I didn’t get out birding this morning as I was busy fighting Verizon’s overzealous filters blocking all Massbird, but I eventually got out for the Mass Butterfly Club’s trip to Horn Pond Mountain.

Horn Pond Mountain’s a great place to explore but with the recent two weeks of lousy weather it was on the quiet stuff. We did see most of the expected stuff but in low numbers. However, almost everything was spectacularly fresh, obviously having emerged in the last day or so at the earliest.

A couple highlights:

Summer Azure basking with wings open (they almost never do so)

And no longer basking

This Banded Hairstreak was nearby

And this Edward’s Hairstreak was stunning.

Place 13 – Dunback Meadow

I had a very long post about Dunback written up to continue the 100 Places series, but decided to shrink it down quite a bit.

Dunback Meadow, located in Lexington, is one of the best areas around for birding all year. Spring and fall are loaded with migrants, there’s plenty of good breeders, and it’s a great place for winter finches and raptors. It’s also very productive for butterflies.

The town of Lexington has a page up with a map and a bit of information. Two access points are labeled (Allen St and at the Bowman School). You can also enter from the Clarke School, from the end of Blossomcrest Rd (there’s a new trail there not shown on the map) and from Bacon St (no parking there however).

Just about anywhere can be productive but the best spots are the community gardens, the area right around the trail intersection, the birches to the right, and the two sets of pines (the short white pines by Clarke and the taller pines on the hill). Note that all directions below are based on the intersection when coming from Allen St).

Birds to look for include many owls (I’ve had 5 species in the tall pines with this being one of the best spots I know for Long-ears and Saw-whets), redpolls in winter (any of the birches), Northern Shrike (out in the field), hummingbirds (anywhere and everywhere in fall), Olive-sided Flycatcher (many of the dead snags in fall), Connecticut Warbler (down to the bridge entering the woods to the right), and many others. Besides the really rare birds, big numbers of Fox Sparrows can be found (I’ve had about a dozen in one day) and huge numbers of robins build up in fall (to the point of being deafening and making it really hard to find anything else). The crowds attract raptors, including 4 Buteos, 2 falcons, and 2 Accipiters. Pheasant used to be regular (although I did hear one this year for the first time in several years). Winter Wrens frequent the stream in fall and winter and I’ve had Rusty Blackbird and other late blackbirds in fall and early winter.

Butterflies are attracted to a large patch of milkweed straight out from the intersection and also at the community gardens and just about everywhere else. More interesting species include Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, Pepper-and-salt Skipper, and Ocola Skipper. I’ve also had a few interesting dragonflies and occasional mammals including fisher and coyote.

And after spending a few hours at Dunback, the Waltham St. Farms are right across the street, Hayden Woods is behind those, and there are plenty of other places nearby worth checking as well. But on a good day, you’ll find so much at Dunback that you won’t want to leave.

Bobolinks

Never got around to posting a picture for last week’s BPW. I was intending to show a Bobolink from last year based on the ones I saw over the weekend, but I’ll do better than that and show one I found this weekend in my home atlas block.

Rock Meadow is in the process of having the meadows restored with a lot of work being done with invasive plant removal and it looks like it’s paying off. This was the only one I saw but I’d say there’s a good chance of having them breeding by the end of the atlas in two years.

And since I have the picture, this is the one I was planning on using last week. It was a young bird and presumably a postbreeding dispersal in my Dunstable block (they could be in the farm fields but this was not in breeding habitat).

Saturday Fun

Never hit post on this, but fixing the date now.

Yesterday was a long day. I was out of the house and at Minuteman NHP in place to do my yearly survey at 5AM. The survey involves 7 stations and a 10 minute count at each one. Since the stations are all deep in the woods and it’s barely light out, it’s almost all by ear (although I did actually pick up a Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager by sight this year). I forgot that I had broken my timer and couldn’t find a good replacement the night before, but lucked out in that my iPod happened to be on a song that was exactly nine minutes long, so I could check the time without too much difficulty. Next year, I’ll make up a 10 minute long blank file that will work perfectly.

With the survey done, I decided to stop in Concord and do a bit of atlas work. I started with a few of the farm fields near Nine Acre Corner. There weren’t many birds around (I did confirm Tufted Titmouse) but along the edge of one field, I found a bunch of nice dragonflies including several Chalk-fronted Corporals, my first Blue Dashers of the year (not that I won’t be seeing them by the thousands shortly), and one or two Delta-spotted Spiketails. Since I was out primarily for the survey, I left the camera at home, but here’s one from Lincoln a couple years ago:

I moved on and decided to drive down Old Road to Nine Acre Corner (quite the name). I saw a parking lot with signs that looked like a conservation area, so I pulled in. There was a big sign about staying on the trails and keeping dogs out of the fields to protect grassland birds, so I zipped down to the fields. There were at least 5 Bobolinks flying about, although they were all males. The field appears to have potential for some other stuff, but other than confirming Red-wing, the only thing of note I picked up were ticks (3 of which needed tweezers later).

I then headed to the Old Rifle Range to pick up pewee and a couple other birds that hadn’t been within safe dates when I last visited. I got all those and heard a somewhat surprising Veery and Ruby-throated Hummingbird (I’m guessing that’s the first heard only hummingbird I’ve recorded).

I then cruised past the Harrington fields and again didn’t find an entrance, but since I found the grassland stuff elsewhere, I’m less concerned now, so I continued to Knox Trail. There was a yard sale sign pointing down the road, even though the only buildings are part of an office park. That proved annoying as lots of cars were driving up and down. The Osprey was a no show and I’m wondering if the nest was abandoned as I’ve yet to see any activity on it but I did find an oriole nest and a few other things. There were plenty of dragonflies about, including first of year Slaty Skimmers and a Cyrano Darner that was making continuous circles along the water. It would have made for a nice photo but again, no camera so here’s one from last year:

Not the best view there, but it’s a big greenish darner with a huge forehead.

I went home for a long nap at this point.

At 6, we headed out for dinner. Two flat tires later, we ended up just getting pizza at home. But in the meantime, I built up quite a good list sitting on the side of the Pike including several Great Blue Herons, a Green Heron, and a couple huge flocks of blackbirds.

Wing me

Since I didn’t bother taking any photos this weekend (Saturday it was cloudy and dark and I have no idea why I didn’t Sunday), here’s an Eastern Phoebe from last weekend:

I started to post this thinking that the wing looked funny but after looking more carefully I think the tuft on the belly is just obscuring it a bit and it is all there.

Treeful

Was going for a photo of the Prairie Warbler and Indigo Bunting when the hummer flew in. Unfortunately no time to adjust the zoom to get a better framing. The Prairie moved a couple trees to the left almost immediately and the hummer took off shortly after.

Late Weekend Bugs

Finally catching up with last weekend.

Saturday, I headed out to do my first concentrated odeing of the year. I started at the heron rookery in Littleton (which has dwindled quite a bit). Lots of bugs including many dragonflies (12+ species including FOY Chalk-fronted Corporal, Marsh Bluet, Sedge Sprite, and Eastern Pondhawk), a few butterflies, and assorted other things including 2 true bugs and my first Robber Flies of the year (photos of the last few aren’t good enough to show off).

The only cooperative ode was this pair of Aurora Damsels (actually many pairs were cooperative but this is the one I stopped to photo):

After that, it was on to Fort Pond Brook. I headed for the stream, where I picked up my first River Jewelwings of the year. There were some clubtails buzzing up and down along with many baskettails, but I couldn’t get a swing off. Working back out to the path, I found a mating pair of Stream Cruisers that posed very nicely:

And another Robbery Fly that didn’t photograph well. After restocking on tissues, I headed up the hill where there were lots of butterflies and dragonflies. Butterflies included my first Ringlets and Dusted Skippers of the year and dragonflies included many Lancet Clubtails and first of year Spangled Skimmers and Turquoise Bluets.

Things clouded up and started to look a bit threatening, so I decided not to check one last spot and headed home.

Sunday, I headed to Prospect Hill to check out a few birds. I was quite successful with that. Insect highlights included my first Twelve-spotted Skimmer of the year, an Eight-spotted Forester, and 16 species of butterfly including first of year Northern Cloudywing and Viceroy along with Dusted Skippers for the first time in a couple years on the hill and at least 4 American Ladies.