Wednesday 11/30: Started for Moody St, looked like the gull numbers were way lower today so hit the regular part of the river walk instead. Saw very little (more turtles than birds beyond the railroad bridge).
Thursday 12/1: Hardy Pond on the way to work: 1 Ruddy, 3 Common Mergansers. BBN (all around the marsh) at lunch didn’t have anything exciting.
Friday 12/2: Lyman Pond: a few hoodies, not much else.
Saturday 12/3: Started with BBN. Lots of activity along the parkway, although nothing overly exciting (3 red-wings the most interesting). Up the hill and then around to the West Meadow seeing nothing new. More red-wings in the meadow and a calling bluebird on the way out. Over to Fernald to count geese (95 Canada), then Cambridge Res (coots down to 175, 37 hoodies, and not much else) and Flint’s Pond (ring-necks, scaup, mergansers, bufflehead, goldeneye). Afternoon walk around Arlington Res had the usual for there (shoveler, gadwall, wigeon, snipe).
Sunday 12/4: Quick walk around Dunback had a Rusty Blackbird. On to Moody St, where I quickly picked up an Iceland Gull. Otherwise very little there. Only a couple Mallard, swan, and Wood Duck on Purgatory Cove and none of the interesting ducks on the river. But while scoping the river, a Common Raven flew over, an unexpected bird for the river (130 for me)! Decided to walk a bit and while near the landfill, the crows went ballistic along the road. Scanned through the pines on the way back, and with the help of a call, found a pair of Great Horned Owls. Quick stop at Charlesbank found 52 coot, 3 Pied-billed Grebe, and a Double-crested Cormorant.
Monday 12/5: Stopped at Gore on my way home from the doctor’s. Late afternoon and the light was awful (sun directly behind the trees), so not much of anything.
Tuesday 12/6: Paine started pretty quiet. Halfway through my usual loop a raven flew over and called. Continued on and didn’t see much (although the raven kept calling). Reached the big field and watched a Peregrine cruise over. Headed back and found 2 ravens sitting in the hemlocks. Pulled out the phone to try for a picture but the garbage truck picked that exact second to drive up and the birds took off. Definitely wasn’t expecting two new birds for the site list today (although looking it up, the last two additions were both on the same day as well).