Category: nature

WIR 2/22-2/28

Monday 2/22: Beaver Brook Ponds, few Hoodies, many robins, 1 grackle, etc. Red-wings singing at work and at the end of the street.

Tuesday 2/23: Checked Woerd Ave and some South St. Charles sites without anything of note.

Wednesday 2/24: Decided to be crazy and check the Charles in the rain. Four goldeneye, 2 ring-necks and not much else.

Thursday 2/25: Wasn’t quite so rainy so hit Lyman Pond. Just short of nothing there but a calling Hairy Woodpecker was a new bird for the site for me (or not, had one on the CBC and didn’t update my spreadsheet).

Friday 2/26: Paine at lunch. Dodged mud and ice to find a big flock of robins and red-wings by the big vernal pool.

Saturday 2/27: Stayed in, nothing of interest.

Sunday 2/28: Mystic Lakes: 5 Great Cormorants, a few ducks. Two pairs of red-tails but no eagles.

WIR 2/15-2/21

There’s a gap from Texas.

Monday 2/15: Important guests for breakfast then finally caught up with the easy Saw-whet in Burlington that all my friends have seen already. In the afternoon, got the Tufted Duck on the Wayland/Sudbury line, very glad that he hung around until I got back.

Tuesday 2/16: Went to the duck ponds at lunch but the sleet and snow picked up, so didn’t get out of the car and didn’t find anything driving around a bit.

Wednesday 2/17: Charles at lunch. Scaup still around with 15 ring-necks spread out. Two Common Mergansers. First Wood Ducks of the year hiding on the other side. Both Sharpie and Cooper’s in the yard.

Thursday 2/18: Moody St at lunch, nothing of note. Sharpie over Kingston and the same Cooper’s in the yard again.

Friday 2/19: Lot 1 at lunch. A total of 5 individual birds but one was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet so I was fairly happy.

Saturday 2/20: Looking for the Tufted Duck found on the Charles yesterday (why didn’t I go at lunch). No luck with that, but Turkey Vulture, 3 Bufflehead, 2 Grackles, and many Red-winged Blackbirds weren’t bad.

Sunday 2/21: Checked the Charles again without much of anything.

Consecutive Photos

Back from a fantastic trip to Texas. Much more coming soon, but after last year’s Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl/Ivory Gull back to back

2009

I got another odd combo. Probably actually a bit more likely as the two birds were close together and many others made the drive from one to the next:

2010

Unfortunately the first shot of the second bird wasn’t the best (it’s the dark blob facing away to the right of the coot), so I’ll include a later one that’s just a bit better.

Jacana

WIR 1/26/-2/5

A week and a half this time as next week will be very different.

Tuesday 1/26: Beaver Brook ponds were flooded but had 2 Hooded Mergansers and a few American Black Ducks.

Wednesday 1/27: Charles, refound the Lesser Scaup and finally had a goldeneye for the year but very quiet otherwise. Not a single gull! Also had at least 25 Mallards buzzing around the neighborhood after sunset.

Thursday 1/28: Nothing of note.

Friday 1/29: Freezing cold but hit Lyman Pond quickly. It was frozen.

Saturday 1/30: Still freezing but checked Dunback briefly. Creeper and not much else.

Sunday 1/31: Plum with MBC. Snowy Owl (even further than last time), Rough-legged Hawk, Horned Lark, Bald Eagle, and lots and lots of ice and wind.

Monday 2/1: Beaver Brook North, nothing of real note.

Tuesday 2/2: Purgatory Cove: Lesser Black-backed Gull (last year’s bird back?) but no eagles.

Wednesday 2/3: Paine: creeper and not much else.

Thursday 2/4: Moody St, nothing much (no dark-mantled gulls at all)

Friday 2/5: Charles: scaup still around, 1 fish crow calling, fairly quiet otherwise.

WIR 1/19

Tuesday 1/19: Still snowing, stayed in at work.

Wednesday 1/20: Figured the only place with open trails would be Beaver Brook. Nothing other than Mallards that wouldn’t be in the yard right now (and not the 50 red-wings that flew over the yard in the morning).

Thursday 1/21: Charles by Moody St. Few Common Mergansers, nothing interesting among the gulls.

Friday 1/22: Duck ponds, 4 hoodies in with the mallards.

Saturday 1/23: Went to Cape Ann with my parents and a friend. Most of the usual stuff, missed King Eider and a few of the gulls. Did get 2 Peregrines on the tower, many Harlequins, and 2 Iceland Gulls including this adult:

Iceland

Sunday 1/24: Stayed in. Great Black-backed Gull was yard bird #26 for the year, lots and lots of the usual stuff in very quick waves.

Monday 1/25: Raining. Quick check of Hardy Pond had a few gulls and some mallards flying around. Did have 6 Red-wings fly over at work.

WIR 1/12-1/18

Tuesday 1/12: Checked the duck pond. Bunch of mallards, 1 hairy, not much else in 15 minutes.

Wednesday 1/13: Charles, more of the same plus 5 Fish Crows.

Thursday 1/14: Paine, nothing different.

Friday 1/15: Beaver Brook North, nothing different.

Saturday 1/16: Took a long walk to Lot 1 and then the West Meadow. Two red-wings at Lot 1 were the highlight, although lots of regular stuff.

Sunday 1/17: Checked Rock Meadow in the morning, 2 bluebirds, 2 Carolina Wrens, lots of regular stuff. Led the Waltham Land Trust duck walk along the Charles in the afternoon. All the regular stuff (minus the goldeneye) were there and a Lesser Scaup was a very nice surprise. A big crowd as well.

Scaup

Monday 1/18: Snowed, stayed in taking photos (see next post).