Category: nature

Wednesday 3/30: Purgatory Cove: 1 Common Merganser, 2 Wood Duck, 5 Ring-neck, 1 Rusty Blackbird (river tick!), 1 turtle.

Thursday 3/31: Paine: Red-breasted Nuthatch was about it.

Friday 4/1: Common Loon at the Cambridge Res but no sign of the Long-tailed Ducks and Horned Grebe that had been seen yesterday.

Saturday 4/2: Nothing much on the Cambridge Res, Flint’s Pond, or Nine Acre Corner. Pied-billed Grebe at the res was the best.

Sunday 4/3: MBC Walk at Arlington Res was highlighted by a calling snipe. Cowbirds in the yard.

Monday 4/4: Purgatory Cove: 16 Ring-necks, 2 Wood Duck. Charlesbank: 10 more Ring-neck, coot.

Tuesday 4/5: Back end of Prospect Hill: lots of trilling. Think at least one was a Pine Warbler but between the wind and Sharpie that buzzed through I couldn’t confirm. Also a phoebe way in the back.

Wednesday 3/16: Rained heavily. Hardy Pond still mostly frozen. I saw about 10 gulls and 3 swans.

Thursday 3/17: Poked around BBN. Path to the West Meadow was flooded. Not much of interest but everything around was singing. Couple black ducks in the flooded marsh on Concord Ave, need to keep checking it.

Friday 3/18: Paine. Robins, robins, and robins. Surprised no butterflies. Walked to end of the street at night hoping for woodcock. No luck there but at least 4 peepers were singing.

Saturday 3/19: Started at Rock Meadow. Singing Fox Sparrow and nest-building bluebirds were quite nice. Continued to BBN where 2 Killdeer flew over. West Meadow was pretty quiet (and windy). Walked back down Concord Ave. The marsh had more black ducks but nothing else. Back at Rock Meadow, a Double-crested Cormorant flew over (looked falconlike to the naked eye, took a second with binoculars). Continued on, but that’s posted elsewhere. Also good number of Fish Crows at Shopper’s World.

[audio:http://www.brewsterslinnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/fox.mp3|titles=Fox Sparrow] Fox Sparrow Audio (does the audio player work for anyone?)

Sunday 3/20: Afternoon loop: presumed Green-winged Teal at northern end of Cambridge Res, Bald Eagle over Crosby’s Corner, nothing at the School St fields, 80 Ring-necks, 1 Bufflehead, 2 Wood Duck, 1 Common Merganser, 30ish Tree Swallows, 1 Eastern Phoebe along Water Row. No geese at Waltham St. Very good evening show of woodcocks at Lot 1 with at least 5 calling and several close flights. Do wish the mallard had shut up though.

Monday 3/21: Hardy Pond. Cold and hard to see through the snow but about 12 Common Mergansers and 3 Ring-necks.

Tuesday 3/22: Duck ponds had a swan, which is a patch tick for the Beaver Brook/Rock Meadow reduced patch (141 now that I’ve rechecked things and added the stuff from Concord Ave), but not exactly exciting. Bufflehead on Hardy Pond from the house later.

Wednesday 3/9: Started to walk at Prospect Hill but it was windy and nasty so drove around the Cambridge Res instead (frozen, but Turkey Vulture over 128) and then Hardy Pond (also frozen).

Thursday 3/10: Wigeon on the Charles (just after the railroad bridge), nothing else new.

Friday 3/11: Nothing

Saturday 3/12: Started the day with a Hairy at the feeder, then joined the Menotomy walk at Horn Pond. Too crowded but Saw-whet was nice as were first of year Killdeer, Brown-headed Cowbird, and White-crowned Sparrow. Went to look at the big redpoll flock in Concord in the afternoon. Couldn’t find any Hoaries but nice views of lots of Commons. Also had a stonefly.

Sunday 3/13: Tried the redpolls again. Flock was up towards 200 and included at least one siskin. Several good candidates for Hoary but none sat still long enough to go over all the marks (which is exactly what people we were with posted although others reported 1 both days).

Monday 3/14: Purgatory Cove: 1 Gadwall, 40ish Ring-neck, 2 Wood Duck, 12+ Common Merganser, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 1 Great Cormorant (in the same tree!), and the Lesser Black-backed Gull finally reappeared.

Tuesday 3/15: Rock Meadow had 2-3 bluebirds (pair in the trees by Concord Ave and a female checking out the closest nest box to the trail towards the back) but not much else.

Wednesday 3/2: Forest Grove was pretty quiet (2 Ring-necks was about it). Also a couple Hoodies at the boat ramp.

Thursday 3/3: Too cold.

Friday 3/4: Prospect Hill was quiet.

Saturday 3/5: Indoors at the Birder’s Meeting all day. Good stuff although felt like it was too nice to be inside when I left (did cloud right over again).

Sunday 3/6: Moody St area. Wigeon was around and there was a slightly leucistic starling but not much else. Woerd Ave and Charlesbank didn’t have much more.

Monday 3/7: Checked the field station and Lyman Pond, nothing.

Tuesday 3/8: Nothing new at the duck ponds.

Wednesday 2/23: Hairy putting on a good show at the end of the street. Interesting call down there as well.

Thursday 2/24: Redpoll flew over the street. Grackle as I got out of the car at work. Charles had about the same including the funky goldeneye back with one of the young males.

Friday 2/25: Rainy.

Saturday 2/26: Menotomy trip to Plum and vicinity. Highlights included about 9 Bald Eagles, a Rough-legged Hawk, and a Northern Shrike. Pictures sooner or later.

Sunday 2/27: Too snowy and nothing of note in the yard.

Monday 2/28: Surprisingly not rainy. Charles had 17 Ring-necks, 2 coot, 1 goldeneye (regular-looking female). Thankfully that should be the last date the Ring-necks and coots show up on the eBird gadget.

Tuesday 3/1: Blackbird explosion down the street with 20+ grackles and 5+ Red-wings. Two tree sparrows were nice as well. Beaver Brook Ponds had nothing different at lunch beyond a Turkey Vulture flying up Mill St.

Wednesday 2/16: Forest Grove, pretty quiet. Big flock of ducks in one of the little open spots but appeared to be all Mallard. Crows were going slightly crazy directly over where I parked and on return, I heard a Great Horned Owl calling (12:40 in the afternoon, rather odd). Eventually found it in the tree next to the car.

Thursday 2/17: Turkey Vulture over Waverly Oaks Rd and Beaver St. Not much at Beaver Brook (although black duck was apparently new for me there). Two Wood Ducks in front of the YMCA.

Friday 2/18: Charles: Scaup back, 19 Ring-necks, 4 Hoodie, no Common Merg, no Goldeneye, no Fish Crow. At the Newton St overlook, there were 8 Wood Ducks walking on the opposite shore (a good couple feet from the edge). A few feet further on, I watched 6 Wood Ducks flying off to the north and there were only two in that spot when I returned, so looks like they mostly moved on.

Saturday 2/19: Too windy

Sunday 2/20: Drove around the Sudbury River Valley a bit. Bluebird at Nine Acre Corner, 1 Ring-neck and 1 Common Merganser at River Rd, nothing else. Charlesbank had 8 Ring-necks and 4 Hoodies. Nothing at Forest Grove. Four blackbird sp down the street.

Monday 2/21: Stayed in.

Tuesday 2/22: Duck ponds. Very little open but a kingfisher was a nice surprise.

Wednesday 2/9: Meh

Thursday 2/10: Did Paine for the first time in a while. Will be some time before I bother again as the total list for 20 minutes walking was 1 Mourning Dove and 1 American Crow.

Friday 2/11: Rock Meadow was very quiet.

Saturday 2/12: Extended Charles plus a chipmunk in the yard.

Sunday 2/13: Dunback had lots of chickadees and Blue Jays and pretty much nothing else. Cambridge Res had nothing.

Monday 2/14: Prospect Hill, pretty quiet.

Tuesday 2/15: Too cold.