Greater Boston CBC 2011

Sunday was the Greater Boston CBC, so I suppose I’m required to post a bit about it. Too cold for many pictures.

I got up a little before 6, intending to go owling. That didn’t work out as my car really didn’t want to start. On the third attempt, I finally got it to start and decided to just let it run for a few minutes and charge up the battery. I took a quick walk to the end of the street (no owl calling on its own and I wasn’t about to play a tape) and then over to Graverson, where a screech-owl flew in almost immediately. That’s #157 for the year in Waltham, a new high.

Back home, I moved my car out of the way and we went to meet the rest of the group at Dunkin Donuts. Everyone was there within a couple minutes and we headed for Dunback. Before arriving, I got a call from John of the Lexington group, who was waiting for us at Waltham St. We ran over and began to hunt for the Lark Sparrow.

Working along the back, an interesting bird flushed up but disappeared into the brush. We eventually looped the field without finding much. John had to take off to meet with his group, so we started circling back. At almost the same spot, a bird flushed and disappeared again. This time I got enough of the tail to say it was almost certainly the sparrow. We backed off a bit and waited it out. After a good 10 minutes, he came out to the front of the bush and sat for a minute or two. Definitely the right way to start, with a new bird for the count that was a lifer for a good portion of the group.

After passing the word along, we returned to Dunback and headed out. A quick stop to drop Eric’s car off, and we drove through Potter Pond, picking up 2 Hooded Mergansers, a Great Blue Heron, and 4 turkeys in almost the same spot as yesterday’s 4. We then parked on Concord Ave and walked up to the path to the West Meadow boardwalk. On the way to the boardwalk, we had a few woodpeckers and Red-tail. The boardwalk itself was pretty quiet. The far end usually is loaded with White-throats but had none today (plenty of robins at least). I also discovered that my ipod apparently doesn’t like the cold and wasn’t turning on. Fortunately I have the owl mobbing recording on my phone as well, but it failed to attract anything.

Reaching Lot 1, we scanned the pines for owls and came across a nice flock of White-throats. Checking the more open areas for waxwings and thrushes didn’t reveal much and there was nothing on the pond. We hopped into Eric’s car and drove back to Lew’s before heading up the parkway. There wasn’t much around Dawes, so we walked down the parkway. There were lots of American Tree Sparrows and a good woodpecker show including a Red-bellied and our only flicker of the day.

From here, we did a quick drive through Fernald (less than half of yesterday’s geese) and then up to Northeast (nothing). Eric had to leave, so Lew and I headed to Wendy’s to meet everyone else for lunch. Lunch was not exactly good and we all agreed to try somewhere else next year.

After suitably warming up and dealing with the paperwork, we headed back out, starting with the Moody St. part of the Charles. Walking up, we scanned the gulls on the water without finding the Iceland. That was because it was actually flying right over our heads:

Iceland above

We walked down a bit and counted the Mallards and geese but decided not to bother with the whole loop. On to Shaw’s, where I wandered down to the left with my father while everyone else checked the right. We found next to nothing, the rest found a Ring-neck and a few Hoodies.

From here, we actually were pretty much out of places to go, so we headed to the edge (or a little beyond) of the circle and stopped at Forest Grove. Scanning through the ducks on the river by Edgewater Drive revealed not only yesterday’s Gadwall, but a few wigeon and a Green-winged Teal. While looking at those, a Turkey Vulture flew over.

That basically wrapped up the day. We dropped Mark and Barbara back off at their cars and gave Hardy Pond a quick scan (finding nothing that Judy and Nancy didn’t have earlier in the day). That got us home in time to relax for a few minutes before totaling everything up and we even got to watch a few minutes of the Patriots game.

Although numbers were low and we missed a bunch of things that had been around, we still tied my highest species total in the sector (46) and added 4 to the cumulative total (Gadwall, Iceland Gull, Wild Turkey, Lark Sparrow). The sparrow was the third first for the entire CBC I’ve had, although the second stakeout (and Turkey Vulture was the third, which might be more expected than some birds that are recorded regularly).

Already ready for next year.

Cape 11/20

Sunday was supposed to be the last BBC pelagic of the year (actually the Saturday before but bad weather pushed it back). At the last minute, I decided to go and then spend Monday on the Cape, finally getting around to chasing the Brown Booby and anything else that was around. Unfortunately the trip was canceled due to high wind, so I decided to head down and spend Sunday working my way out to Provincetown.

The good thing about the cancelation was that I could get up and leave at a normal hour. I reached the Cape a little before 9 and realized that the wind was going to be a problem here as well. I poked around Falmouth a bit, scanning Salt Pond and not feeling like getting out of the car at several other ponds and not seeing much.

I eventually moved on to Marstons Mills and the pond there. Looking pretty much like Lyman Pond, it was loaded with wigeon and Gadwall. Once the birds moved a bit, the male Eurasian Wigeon was very obvious. Also dug up a Bufflehead and a Hooded Merganser.

Eurasian Wigeon

Next stop were some of the beaches in Dennis, where I took one look at the people being blown around and moved on. After a stop for gas, I headed to Fort Hill to look for the Ash-throated Flycatcher that’s been hanging around. On arrival, I heard from Vin and Mike that it was seen earlier. I wandered towards the spot and ran into my friend Geoff and ended up talking to him and someone I didn’t know for an hour.

Others had been searching harder than we were and also had no luck, so we decided to move on (the other guy turned out to be Carl, who was there with Wayne and Jim) and look for the booby. After a lunch stop, we reached MacMillan Wharf and started scanning the breakwater. Wayne immediately found some Razorbills and Harlequins but nothing jumped out. We moved to the other end and found many more Razorbills, a nice Red-necked Grebe, a Common Tern, and eventually a Thick-billed Murre. There were hundreds of cormorants to sort through but we couldn’t find the booby among them (and other reports from the day were all negative as well).

Razorbill

Red-necked Grebe

Common Tern

Murre and Razorbill

We eventually decided to move on to Race Point. A flock of Snow Buntings was flying by as we arrived but they didn’t stop. On the beach, we had more terns and many gannets, plus a few ducks and Razorbills. We realized that daylight was running out and went for a run to Herring Cove and then back to the wharf. Herring Cove was busy and it was getting dark, so we turned right around and hit the wharf. Even more cormorants were present, but we scanned until it was too dark to see and couldn’t find anything among them.

At this point, we said goodbye and I headed off to find my hotel and get ready for an early start tomorrow.

Snow Birds

Some highlights from a snow-filled Waltham St. Fields today.

Killdeer

Unhappy Killdeer

Chipping Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow posing nicely

Palm Warbler

‘Yellow’ Palm Warbler

Dickcissel

Dickcissel

Dickcissel

Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow continues

Lark SparrowLark SparrowLark Sparrow

Have a suspicion that there were two birds, although these photos are all of one.

Columbus Weekend

The long weekend provided lots of birds. Sunday was the Big Sit, so I spent the day at the tower by parking lot 7 on Plum Island with Joshua Rose and Nick Paulson. Felt slower than last year but we ended up with 72 species (plus several things like peep sp) so it couldn’t have been that bad. Highlights included a good afternoon jaeger show, 2 bitterns, and a Merlin hunting at dusk. And this guy:

Empid

Whatever it is.

There’s been plenty of good stuff still being reported at the Arlington Res, so that was the first stop today. I quickly picked up some of the White-rumped Sandpipers before attempting to wade through the piles of Yellow-rumps and sparrows at Busa without finding much. Working around the res, I got better looks at the sandpipers and eventually got the Great Cormorant to wake up enough to confirm it.

White-rumps

White-rumps

From here, I headed to Danehy Park in Cambridge, hoping for Blue Grosbeak and sparrows. The hill where they’ve been seen was in use as a race track for screaming kids on scooters, so you can guess how that worked out. Did find a sapsucker, Nashville, and couple Cooper’s.

Quick stop home and then off towards Concord to look for Snow and White-fronted Geese. On the way, I watched a Pileated Woodpecker fly over Rt. 2. At the prison fields, I found more geese than I can remember seeing. A quick scan through found one smaller, darker bird. Jumping out to scope it, it turned out to be a Brant! A somewhat overdue county bird (fairly regular and I’ve either missed or been too lazy to chase several). A very quick scan through the rest of the geese didn’t turn up anything (other stuff was reported later, don’t know if I missed them or they flew in).

Brant

So no new birds for the county for about 10 months and then 2 in just over 10 days.

275

Nice series of events last night and this morning:

1. Laptop keyboard and trackpad stops working.

2. Make Apple store appointment for the morning.

3. Decide that even though it’s raining, might as well stop at Arlington Res on the way and hopefully find the Blue Grosbeak.

4. Arrive at Arlington Res, take quick look at berm.

5. That bird looks rather white.

6. Run back to car for scope.

7. Confirm Sanderling, county bird #275 (and 25th shorebird).

Sanderling

Sanderling

Laptop also appears to have started working on its own, which left time to run home and grab the camera (did manage identifiable phone-scoped shots but no one needs to see those).

South Beach 8/13

A few photos from the BBC trip to South Beach yesterday:

Royal Tern

Highlight of the day and a state bird, Royal Tern.

Royal TernSeal

Gray Seals were all over the ocean.

Seals

Cory's from land

Quite a few Cory’s Shearwaters were flying by and hundreds if not thousands of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels were around as well.

Sanderling

Sanderling

Mix

A mix of terns (Common, Forster’s, Black) plus a Willet and Snowy Egret.

Saltmarsh

Saltmarsh Sparrow

Nest

Couple shots of an interesting nest at the Paine Estate today. Owner ID appreciated.

Nest

Nest