Category: birding

Today was an excellent day, good birds everywhere. Starting at Arlington Res with just under 50 species, including 5 species of swallow, 6 warblers, and 5 blackbirds. A quick stop at Arlington Great Meadows was less productive (I was hoping for duskywings and elfins, but the clouds kept butterflies away), but I picked up a few more good birds including a Brown Thrasher, an Eastern Towhee, and a flyby Accipipter.

Later in the day, we headed out to Great Meadows in Concord. It was surprisingly slow, with only cormorants, mallards, geese, and swans on the water. A few Least Sandpipers made the trip worthwhile though.

Quiz: which one’s which?

This parula was singing in a bush well below eye level, wish the shot was a little better.

And this guy was singing right above (and another to the side, and 3 more further, and …)

Now you see me

Now you don’t

That got boring, so let’s sing instead.

No clue what this one was up to

Savannah posed nicely.

As did this Least Sandpiper later in the day at Great Meadows.

The big prize:

Unfortunately, he never got closer than probably a hundred yards, so I couldn’t do much with the camera. Luckily, he was distinctive enough that I didn’t have to run back for the scope.

But before he was found:

Yes, that’s sawdust from him.

There were birds all over, including 6 species of woodpecker, singing Winter Wren, too many Tree Swallows to count, and this guy:

Even further than the woodpecker and after it had clouded over, but still was worth trying.

A few shots from the BBC walk to Crooked Pond today:

Note the closed eye:

Among other things, I took a walk around Lyons-Cutler Reservation today. Walking through the woods, I noticed an eggshell on the ground:

I started looking up and noticed a couple sticks in the tree right on the path. Looking carefully, a tail was visible:

At this point, I was fairly sure it was an owl, but not convinced. I took a few steps off the path and couldn’t find the bird. A few more steps however:

Guess that confirmed it. That’s Block Framingham 4. If the owner of the block wants more details I can try, although it was pretty much see the egg and look up.

Also had at least 4 Great Blue Herons on the nest.

Unfortunately the dove was just about finished when I got home. Every last bit of meat was plucked off. After the hawk left, we walked over and looked around and could barely find a trace other than the feathers.

Watching the hawk as it finished was quite interesting. Working on the last piece appeared to be difficult. The bird was having trouble holding it down to rip off the meat and kept pulling it up from under its other foot. Eventually, it moved to a branch where it was able to hold it down. After finishing, it spent quite a while wiping its bill on the branches, before shaking off a few times and taking off.

Stealing an idea from the Canadians, here’s a December-February list for Waltham. Dates and locations are the first sighting. Birds in bold are my first Dec-Feb sighting in Waltham.

1. Canada Goose (12/1, Leitha)
2. Mute Swan (12/2, HP from yard)
3. Wood Duck (12/25, Lyman Pond)
4. American Wigeon (12/9, HP from yard)
5. American Black Duck (12/2, Charles)
6. Mallard (12/2, HP)
7. Green-winged Teal (1/21, Charles)
8. Ring-necked Duck (12/8, Charles)
9. Common Goldeneye (2/1, Charles)
10. Hooded Merganser (12/1, HP from yard)
11. Common Merganser (12/1, HP from yard)
12. Ruddy Duck (12/2, HP)
13. Great Blue Heron (12/2, HP)
14. Turkey Vulture (12/17, Gore Estate)
15. Cooper’s Hawk (12/17, Lexington St)
16. Red-tailed Hawk (12/2, Prospect Hill)
17. American Kestrel (12/28, UMass Field Station)
18. Merlin (12/13, Hardy Pond)
19. American Coot (12/2, HP)
20. Ring-billed Gull (12/2, Lexington St)
21. Herring Gull (12/1, Trapelo at Lexington)
22. Iceland Gull (1/31, Stanley)
23. Great Black-backed Gull (12/2, HP)
24. Rock Pigeon (12/2, Trapelo)
25. Mourning Dove (12/1, WHS)
26. Eastern Screech-Owl (12/17, yard)
27. Great Horned Owl (12/17, WHS)
28. Belted Kingfisher (12/17, Charles)
29. Red-bellied Woodpecker (12/20, Paine)
30. Downy Woodpecker (12/2, yard)
31. Hairy Woodpecker (12/2, Prospect Hill)
32. Northern Flicker (12/17, Met State)
33. Blue Jay (12/1, yard)
34. American Crow (12/1, Trapelo at Lexington)
35. Fish Crow (12/16, Charles)
36. Black-capped Chickadee (12/1, WHS)
37. Tufted Titmouse (12/1, WHS)
38. White-breasted Nuthatch (12/1, yard)
39. Brown Creeper (12/11, Paine)
40. Carolina Wren (12/17, Lot 1)
41. Golden-crowned Kinglet (12/2, Prospect Hill)
42. Eastern Bluebird (12/17, Met State)
43. Hermit Thrush (1/20, Met State)
44. American Robin (12/1, WHS)
45. Northern Mockingbird (12/2, yard)
46. European Starling (12/2, Smith St.)
47. Yellow-rumped Warbler (1/4, Charles)
48. American Tree Sparrow (12/6, Waverly Oaks Marsh)
49. Song Sparrow (12/2, Charles)
50. White-throated Sparrow (12/1, Leitha)
51. Dark-eyed Junco (12/1, Leitha)
52. Northern Cardinal (12/2, yard)
53. Red-winged Blackbird (12/17, Charles)
54. Common Grackle (12/17, Hardy Pond)
55. House Finch (12/1, yard)
56. American Goldfinch (12/1, yard)
57. House Sparrow (12/1, yard)

Dec: 1: 16, 2: 33, 6:34, 8:35, 9:36, 11:37, 13:38, 15: 39, 17: 49, 20: 50, 25: 51, 28: 52

Jan: 4: 53, 20: 54, 21: 55, 31: 56

Feb: 1: 57

So final total 57, which is the same as last year. Overall total is now 74, with the additions of Brown Creeper, Eastern Bluebird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Hermit Thrush, and Iceland Gull. From my calculations, there were at least 210 on the overall Massachusetts list this year.

A few pictures from the weekend:

Both at the Charles. And at Lyman Pond:

Those should be the first birds I’ll confirm for the BBA

And today I found my first Killdeer of the spring at the UMass Field Station. Too bad it’s going to be frozen to the ground tonight and the rest of the week. Things should be picking up after that.

My father decided that he really should see the Townsend’s, so we went back over this morning. Although the sun made the drive over pretty rough, it was well worth it. Before we even rounded the corner, the bird was sitting on the fence at the front of the yard. It alternated between the fence and tree for a while, before dropping to the ground. Eventually, it flew to the big tree on the street and then took off. Not only did we get excellent looks, but we heard it calling this time, a very different buzzy note.

Given that it was on the fence, I got a few pictures, much better than the previous ones.

Today I finally caught up with the Townsend’s Warbler that has been hanging around in Cambridgeport for the last few weeks (at least).

After spending almost 5 hours last Sunday (with one person getting a likely sighting) and another 3 hours yesterday (seen 10 minutes before and several times after), today’s effort was almost too easy. We left the house at about 6:50 and were parking by 7:10, which was pretty good for lots of red lights and a detour at Mt. Auburn. We walked over, said hi to Phil Brown and a minute later the bird popped up and proceeded to sit in the open for probably 45 minutes.

I took several photos, but that’s the only one that’s good enough to show publicly.

So that’s 450 in the US now. Should have gotten to that in New Mexico, but within 3 months isn’t too bad.

Today was an early release day, so school got out right about when I normally head for lunch. I waited a few extra minutes and in that time my boss came over and told me to go pick up a computer at Plympton that appears to have a virus.

That wasn’t a big deal and got me over to Prospect Hill instead of the Paine Estate for a change. Not that there was much more doing there, but I did finally get a Golden-crowned Kinglet for the year (think it’s at least 2 years running now I’ve managed Ruby-crowned first). I then headed over to Plympton, and as I walked in, noticed that although the name of the computer was for Plympton it was labeled Stanley and had a moved to ST (temp) note. A quick walk through the library and a call back to the office confirmed that, so off to Stanley.

I grabbed the computer pretty quickly and headed back out. Walking to the car, I noticed a handful of crows with something above them. They didn’t seem to be that interested in it, but I still hoped for an eagle and figured it was a Red-tail. A couple seconds later, it turned and I could see the grayish upperwing of a gull.

I got to the car and started digging the keys out (not easy with a big tower in your hands). The gull came in closer and I was rather shocked to see that there was no black in the wingtips! Very definitely an Iceland Gull although I would have been much happier with an extended view. Unfortunately, it completely disappeared while I was getting into the car, so I couldn’t find any justification to chase it while I was supposed to be heading back to work. Suddenly the wild goose chase was worth it.