Author: jason

Wednesday 1/23: Riverwalk was busy but just the usual.

Thursday 1/24: Too rainy. Nothing but starlings at Nine Acre, black ducks, swans, geese, and mallard on Pelham Island Rd.

Friday 1/25: Usual at Wayland Community Garden. Probably walked past a Barred Owl but did get cowbird to finish 24 half-months.

Saturday 1/26: Started at Horn Pond, which was quiet beyond a flyover Red-wing. Continued up to Lowell. Iceland Gull at the boathouse, Turkey Vulture and a few other things at the Tsongas Center (BC Chickadee, junco, Song Sparrow new for Lowell).

Sunday 1/27: Tried for a few year birds locally, not overly successful. First stop was Cousin’s Park, where I did have siskins within seconds of getting out of the car. Also had the 8+ Chipping Sparrows and some bluebirds. Geese and Horned Lark at School St, couldn’t find the Red-shoulder, Savannah, or Pileated at Meriam’s and Kaveski (or much of anything). On to Cambridge. Got the GW Teal at Alewife but no Wood Duck. Fresh Pond was very quiet, no ducks at all and I didn’t find anything among the gulls. Think that made me two for seven or so, probably not hitting 100 before the end of January (need 6, which seems unlikely without a weekend). 

Monday 1/28: Looped the marsh at BBN and saw nothing. Had a couple minutes for the parkway after.

Tuesday 1/29: Tried Meriam’s and Kaveski again. Still no Red-shoulder but a Pileated did fly over.

Wednesday 1/16: Winter Wren, Barred Owl, not much else at BBN.

Thursday 1/17: Poked a bit along the river in Wayland as it was too cold to walk. RC Kinglet on River Rd was a bit of a surprise. Heard what was presumably an otter crash into the water at the Old Rt 27 bridge.

Friday 1/18: Snow didn’t happen overnight but still went to the riverwalk. Decent numbers of Bufflehead, Hoodies, a couple Ring-necks. Path to Landry was taped off, so drove over to Moody. One Song Sparrow, so ran to Cronin’s too. Usual there but the first Great Black-backed I’ve had in Waltham in a couple months. Server farm issues at work meant I got to leave early, so I went to Crane Swamp to look for the Clay-colored. Eventually found the junco flock but no sparrows with them. Did have a Peregrine buzz over, which somehow was a county bird but little else. Also buzzed Big Chauncey with no interesting gulls and School St, Flint’s, and the res all with zero birds.

Saturday 1/19: Started at Draw Seven. Lots of RB Mergs but not much else. Checked Earhart for the hawk again, no luck with that but a creeper was new for me in Everett. Continued to Belle Isle. Lots at the feeder but nothing of note. Started to walk around and heard a chip in the pine that had the Orange-crowned back on 12/8. Picked up movement and was shocked to see a Nashville instead. Which was then joined by an Orange-crown. Guessing it’s the Nashville that was across the water on the greenway side, but only about the 5th record I can find for January (one a couple weeks ago in Fairhaven though). Nothing much else there, so went to Revere Beach. Scoter flocks still around, but didn’t look like a ton of gulls and the wind was strong, so I doubled back to Deer Island. Surprisingly, the wind wasn’t bad. Four plus Iceland Gulls, 3 Razorbills, lots of eider. No luck with any grebes though. Headed home from there with a brief detour for the Barrow’s Goldeneye off Bayswater.

Sunday 1/20: Yard birding, nothing exciting.

Monday 1/21: Same

Tuesday 1/22: Same

Wednesday 1/9: Great Meadows was very quiet. Nothing but geese and swans (and a muskrat/beaver) in the impoundments, a few creepers and Swamp Sparrows near the river.

Thursday 1/10: Dunback was quiet beyond the grosbeaks.

Friday 1/11: No luck with the Rough-leg at Meriam’s. Not much of anything there.

Saturday 1/12: Once it sort of warmed up, went to Draw Seven, which was pretty quiet. Earhart had the hawk from 12/22 but I had left the camera in the car and couldn’t find it again after running back. Greater Scaup at the Mystic Lakes was about it for birds of note there.

Sunday 1/13: Chased a few county birds. Success with the Clay-colored and White-crowned sparrows at Hollyhood Cemetery in Brookline and the Cackling Goose at Jamaica Pond. No luck for a January BT Blue at Hall’s Pond though.

Monday 1/14: Tried for the Rough-leg again. No luck with that, did have a few waxwings and a ton of Tree Sparrows.

Tuesday 1/15: Started at Forest Grove. Just the area by the pumphouse was open and I picked out a female pintail pretty quickly (and then spent 15 minutes waiting for it to raise its head to confirm). Decided not to walk there and doubled back to Moody St. Usual birds there. Had time to pull in at Norumbega, nice eagle in the trees.

Wednesday 1/2: Riverwalk was extra quiet. Underpass was flooded so instead of walking to Moody, I drove down to Cronin’s and got a couple minutes there. Did get the coot and a few ducks.

Thursday 1/3: Purgatory had most of the usual ducks, couldn’t find any Gadwall and only one wigeon today. The yellowthroat that I had back at the end of November turned up again at Forest Grove, not sure where that had been hiding for a month. Believe that’s at least the 5th individual in the county this winter and there were only six or so prior winter records in eBird.

Friday 1/4: Started the year’s project (150+ in the SRV on work days) at the Wayland Community Gardens. The blackbird flock was around and a few redpolls were new for Wayland for me.

Saturday 1/5: Tried the Cohasset bit of Norfolk, but still have no clue where to actually stop and scan the water. Gave up, drove through Hull (turkeys), then Nut Island (6 Razorbill), Wollaston Beach (turnstone), and Squantum (most of the sea ducks, both loons, etc).

Sunday 1/6: Poked around the Watertown line a bit. Peregrine by Cookson, 5 Chipping Sparrows at Gore. Then did the first patch visit of the year. Started with a catbird, Winter Wren, and a few other things on the parkway. Continued onto the trails and had nothing other than a big flock of Red-wings. Looped the res after and had a Greater Scaup.

Monday 1/7: Too windy to hit Heard Farm like I wanted, so looped Nine Acre (1 heron, 20 geese, 4 robins) up to Heard Pond (kingfisher on Pelham Island Rd).

Tuesday 1/8: Was between the snow and the rain, so made it to Heard Farm. Just about the first bird out of the car was a Barred Owl. Further down, the chickadees seemed agitated (again). I walked a bit closer and a shrike flew by (commute #220!). Eagle by the pond, then the shrike perched up. Continued around and noticed a cormorant sitting, which was pretty far down on the list of expected birds today. Maybe only the second January record for the Sudbury River Valley. Too many dogs on the other side, but a big flock of blackbirds contained at least three species.

Wednesday 12/26: Started at Horn Pond, which was pretty quiet. Continued to Silver Lake, which was birdless, then Martin’s Brook. The Tufted Duck was still present and a scaup was new there. Spent a good bit of time with them and finally got the wing views I wanted. Back to Silver Lake, which now had a bunch of gulls. Closest bird on the beach was an Iceland but the rest looked like Herring and Ring-billed. Barely had 20 minutes with them before an eagle flew over and they all took off.

Thursday 12/27: Chipping Sparrows at Mt. Auburn, loon at Fresh Pond.

Friday 12/28: Quick Spy Pond/Mystic Lake loop didn’t have anything exciting.

Saturday 12/29: Went for the Painted Bunting. Got distant but good views after about an hour and a half, which was about as much as I could take. Continued to Chandler, Lost, and Hammond Ponds without anything of note.

Sunday 12/30: Concord CBC. Pretty quiet. Barred Owl at Minuteman the best.

Monday 12/31: Did a quick loop of Rock Meadow, Clay Pit, etc without anything before spending the rest of the day not holding down food.

Tuesday 1/1: Felt enough better to go out for the morning. Nothing at any of the ponds but finally got the grosbeaks on the ground at Dunback along with the Marsh Wren (where’d that been?), the Yellow-rump, and a few other things.

Wednesday 12/12: Nothing at all at the community farm. Ravens and the wigeon at Forest Grove.

Thursday 12/13: Next to nothing on the river walk.

Friday 12/14: Yellow-rump, Winter Wren, 3 Red-wings but no grosbeaks at Dunback.

Saturday 12/15: Semi-CBC scouting. Started at along the river in Watertown, which was quiet. Prospect Hill had 2 Hermit Thrushes and a Barred Owl, but I don’t think we’re climbing the hill. Coot at Moody St was surprisingly Waltham #150 for the year. Normal ducks at the res. No grosbeaks again at Dunback, maybe another Barred. Did have a vole hide poorly enough to more or less pose.

Sunday 12/16: CBC. Early owling was mostly a failure, one Barred called on its own and nothing responding. Dunback was birdy, we got the Evening Grosbeaks as a flyover and it appeared no one else saw them later in the day. Splitting here, I went to Lot 1 and had very little, then UMass where Snow Buntings came in. While we watched those, the sleet started and we bailed. I drove around a bit and saw nothing while waiting for the other group to finish before we headed to lunch. After lunch, we went to Gore (and Cookson) and had 3 redpolls, 3 Chipping Sparrows, and hundreds of starlings. We then did the river. Two Gadwall at Moody St joined the ducks I had yesterday, but little else. Even with the fair weather, we passed 50 species for the first time!

Monday 12/17: Gadwall and Wigeon at Purgatory, which is a bit too far outside the circle for the wigeon to be count week.

Tuesday 12/18: Too windy, so drove a big loop. Eagles at Saxonville Beach were the only things of note.

Wednesday 12/5: Siskin and nothing else at Prospect Hill.

Thursday 12/6: 4 Gadwall at Purgatory. Palm Warbler at Forest Grove.

Friday 12/7: Absolutely nothing at Meriam’s.

Saturday 12/8: Waited on Black Hawk news (which was a no until midafternoon), so headed to Earhart (quiet at Draw Seven and the greenway), then Belle Isle (Orange-crowned about it). Winthrop Greenway had a late Nashville, and thousands of scoters and gulls at Revere Beach (couldn’t find anything in the gulls though).

Sunday 12/9: Leucistic Song Sparrow and a Red-wing about it at Horn Pond. Cormorants and an eagle at the lakes, 2 more eagles by Spy Pond. Lots of mergs all over including Clay Pit. Interestingly, Hardy and most of the res were frozen. Presuming I’m counting town year lists correctly, the mergs at Clay Pit were #1600 in my 17 town local area this year. Don’t think my original goal of 1700 is actually reachable without not going elsewhere.

Monday 12/10: Not much at BBN. Sharpie at the top of Mackerel didn’t help. Winter Wren in the big marsh.

Tuesday 12/11: GH Owl and the usual at Lot 1.