Wednesday 11/25: Started early at Fresh Pond but no sign of the Western Flycatcher. Second run later in the day missed the bird by about 5 minutes.
Thursday 11/26: Nastier than I hoped, did a res-Flint’s-NAC run without much of note.
Friday 11/27: Started at BBN where I finally got a Marsh Wren for Waltham (and a second later). Also a late catbird, a crow/raven/Red-shoulder group mobbing a Great Horned Owl and jays mobbing a Barred Owl, and a couple Yellow-rumps. Back to Fresh Pond. Bird was slightly cooperative, although not vocalizing. Not a ton else in a full loop.
Saturday 11/28: Decided a trip up Rt. 3 was a good idea. Lake Mascuppic zero birds, so on to a quick check of River Front Park. That was pretty dead but at least I got some common stuff I needed for Tyngsborough. Two Pileated over High St on my way to Amos Kendall. One distant crossbill and a siskin but not much else. Arched Bridge was even quieter (even though it was getting sunny), but I had a couple more crossbills close enough to record just before leaving. Quick check of Waltham St on the way home had nothing.
Sunday 11/29: Started at Alewife/Thorndike (after a Merlin eating breakfast on Lexington St). Not much there. Continued to Torbert McDonald, which wasn’t bad. Flyover redpoll and a Yellow-rump to start, then a few more redpolls at the far end. Started to cut back across and noticed something among the geese, which turned out to be a meadowlark! Couldn’t make it a Western, but not a bad bird for here. Another 20 redpolls went over while watching it.
Next stop was Draw Seven, email check before I got out had me scanning for Jonathan’s Brant. No luck with that but the Surf Scoter was present and another redpoll flew over. I moved on to the Wellington Greenway to check further up the river and noticed that it had moved to Sylvester Baxter, so I got the scope out. And couldn’t find it. Lots of geese visible in the water back at Torbert, so I went back there instead of getting the scoter for Everett too. No Brant visible but the meadowlark was still hanging around.
Monday 11/30: Falzone was pretty quiet.
Tuesday 12/1: Evening Grosbeak, lots of waxwings, few flyover redpolls at Dunback.