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WIR 10/19-10/25

Wednesday 10/19: Hardy Pond had 1 Ring-neck.

Thursday 10/20: Purgatory Cove: 7ish Green-winged Teal, 1 Blue-winged Teal, 1 Gadwall, 2 American Wigeon, 15ish Wood Duck, 4 Coot.

Friday 10/21: BBN was quiet.

Saturday 10/22: In Westport for the day but not birding. Did have a Peregrine, many Tree Swallows and a few other things driving around.

Sunday 10/23: All over. Started at Great Meadows where there were no good sparrows but did have a Sora and a few Rusty Blackbirds plus a snipe overhead. On to the School St fields and prison fields where the Cattle Egrets have moved on (guess I should have rushed over Saturday afternoon). Decided to check Meriam’s Corner for them too (thousands of grackles and not much else) and Nine Acre Corner. Cambridge Res on way home turned up a Surf Scoter, finally getting one for Waltham. Up the Charles after lunch with parents where we had 24 coots and 2 Pied-billed Grebe at Charlesbank and about the same ducks as Thursday at Purgatory Cove (new Gadwall though).

Monday 10/24: Rock Meadow. Was hoping to find a good sparrow but Anna Piccolo beat me and had already found 2 Clay-coloreds. Good views and I think the first time I’ve heard one.

Tuesday 10/25: Back side of Prospect Hill. One busy flock of chickadees and stuff included a Hermit Thrush and some Golden-crowned Kinglets but not much else around.

WIR 9/14-9/20

Wednesday 9/14: Purgatory Cove had both Green-winged and Blue-winged Teal but no sandpipers.

Thursday 9/15: BBN before work: lots of Blackpolls, lots of things in awful light. Broad-winged at Prospect Hill at lunch and not much else there.

Friday 9/16: Duck ponds: Ovenbird, Parula, Black-and-white, Yellowthroat, couple more got away. Also big flock of geese overhead. Driving down Lexington St later, single nighthawk over the Wal-Lex.

Saturday 9/17: Started at Dunback. Not quite as busy as I hoped but pretty good with 8 species of warbler including Blackburnian and first of fall BT Blue, several Broad-wings and Sharpies, and Philadelphia and Blue-headed Vireo. Stopped at Cambridge Res on the way home, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, Great Egret, Osprey, Semipalmated Plover, 2 Green Heron. Afternoon walk around Arlington Res failed to turn up the Dickcissel but did get 4 shovelers.

Sunday 9/18: Rock Meadow early: big flock of warblers at the entrance including 2 Parula, Redstart, Blackpoll, Black-and-white, BT Green. Gardens had more BT Green and a couple Lincoln’s Sparrows. Looped around, finding a Coyote and not much else. Return trip through the gardens found more Parula, Red-eyed Vireos, and Indigo Bunting. River Walk was quiet (Kingfisher, Spotted Sandpiper) but 4 Pectoral Sandpipers at Purgatory Cove were new for me in Waltham (195). Also a few Semipalmated, Least, and Spotted Sandpipers, 3 Green Herons, and a single Blue-winged Teal. (And most likely a Rusty Blackbird that I skipped over as brownish grackle, oops).

Monday 9/19: Prospect Hill had nothing beyond a big flock of grackles.

Tuesday 9/20: Hardy Pond in the rain, still swifts and swallows.

White-wings

White-winged Scoters on Hardy Pond, found by John Hines. Waltham #193 I believe.

WIR 3/23-3/29

Wednesday 3/23: John Crookes reported a Greater White-fronted Goose along the Charles yesterday, guess where I went. First bird as I pulled in was the Lesser Black-backed Gull, nice to finally get some good views. The goose was present as well (I’m not so sure it’s a wild one but #192 in Waltham for now). Bob Stymeist pulled in at the same time and we watched both for a few minutes (and Bob got some shots of them together). Merlin was nice as well as were the 2 tagged Ring-billed Gulls (one was a returning bird).

You can (barely) hear the goose squawking at the gulls in this recording, it’s the lower, faster clucking.

Update: Still waiting on Bob, but Christopher got some photos.

Thursday 3/24: Prospect Hill had nothing and halfway up I realized I should have gone to the back side.

Friday 3/25: BBN was pretty quiet. Thought I was hearing Wood Frogs but didn’t get close enough to be sure.

Saturday 3/26: Started at Great Meadows hoping for Horned Grebe. No luck with that, but Bald Eagle, 45 goldeneye, 75 Ring-necks, and a Tree Swallow weren’t too bad. Prison fields and School St fields didn’t have much so on to Nine Acre Corner for another Horned Grebe. No luck with that one either but first Pied-billed of the year was there. Also picked out the Eurasian Teal and at least one of the intergrades among the Green-wings and had a Northern Harrier drop in and sit for a few minutes. Cambridge Res was quiet. Arlington Res in the afternoon was pretty quiet, few Killdeer and wigeon was about it. Groundhog ran through the neighbor’s yard.

Sunday 3/27: Started at Dunback with 2 Fox Sparrows. Crossed to Waltham St Fields (3 American Tree Sparrows at the corner of Brookside) where there were at least 6 Wilson’s Snipe flying around. Walked through Hayden Woods as well, hearing a Rusty Blackbird and then had a Red-breasted Nuthatch in one of the spruces on Valleyfield St.

Monday 3/28: Duck ponds: Fox Sparrow and 3 Wood Duck.

Tuesday 3/29: Lot 1: Hermit Thrush in almost the same location as the one on the CBC. Flushed a woodcock as well. Wood Frogs were out in force and some early bees were out (Colletes or Andrena).

Superbowl Weekend Birds

Some highlights from Superbowl of Birding Weekend (not that I competed).

Saturday:

Brown Thrasher, Dunback Meadow

Common Redpoll, yard bird #96!

Sunday:

Thick-billed Murre, Jodrey Pier

Adult Iceland Gull, Jodrey Pier

Check Every Bird

Based on a discussion from today’s sightings, a couple points that are worth repeating every so often:

Check every bird
Walking around Hardy Pond today (after a 7:30 AM reverse-911 call warning of icy conditions), I watched a medium-sized hawk fly up and land on a pole. Almost certainly a Cooper’s, but I took a closer look. Hmm, Buteo. With a lot of streaking on the front. It flew into the yard across the road. Crows saw it and chased it off, but not before I got a good look at the tail, enough to say Red-shouldered. Waltham bird #190!

It wasn’t that nice out (raining a bit, although not icy, no idea what the call was for), so I easily could have said Coop and not taken a closer look.

Know the Common Birds
I’ll be honest and say that I did almost pass by the hawk (or at least wasn’t going to look until I was much closer, at which point it probably would have flown off). But something looked slightly off, so after a few steps I did stop and check it out. Without knowing Cooper’s and Red-tailed well, I wouldn’t have picked up the slightly different shape.

You don’t have to know every bird, but knowing the common ones means the less common ones stick out. For another example, see the Cerulean. Even though I didn’t recognize the song, I knew it wasn’t one of the common ones and chased it down. And of course, Harry is another example.

So, take a few minutes and check out the flock of House Sparrows at your feeders. They’re incredibly variable, spend some time comparing different individuals. Learn what they look like from every angle. There may not be a Chaffinch or other rarity (coincidentally posted today) there now, but one of these days there will and if you’re not careful it may slip right by.

WIR 11/10-11/16

Wednesday 11/10: BBN was quiet, juncos must have moved on.

Thursday 11/11: Started the day off at Dunback, where we had 2 Fox Sparrows and a Yellow-rump. On to Fresh Pond with 5 Canvasbacks, many Ring-necks and Ruddies, and a Lesser Scaup.

Friday 11/12: Charlesbank had tons of coots (35 or so) but not much else.

Saturday 11/13: Started at Cambridge Res with a big flock of Ring-necks and other stuff in awful light. Flint’s was pretty quiet, Great Meadows was very quiet beyond a Common Yellowthroat. In the afternoon, we went back around the res and succeeded in finding the Red-throated Loon that had been around (189 for Waltham) and then found a big flock of coots and wigeon with some Gadwall instead of the Ring-necks. Arlington Res was quiet.

Sunday 11/14: Horn Pond was on the quiet side. Highlights were a Great Blue Heron sitting at eye level, a White-throated Sparrow chasing a moth around almost at our feet, and a Great Horned Owl (in the open, yet I still walked by it repeatedly even knowing it was around).

Monday 11/15: Out doing chaperone duty at Harvard in Kenmore Square, so ran through the Victory Gardens while I waited. Probably 3 individual Blackpolls, an Orange-crowned, and a Baltimore Oriole made for a decent hour.

Tuesday 11/16: Back end of Prospect Hill. Didn’t stumble across any owls or Pileated but a raven flew over calling, first I’ve had there in quite some time. Also pretty sure a couple peepers were calling by the vernal pool.

WIR 8/17-8/23

Tuesday 8/17: Paine had a couple Red-breasted Nuthatches and not much else.

Wednesday 8/18: Dunback before work was pretty quiet. Two Brown Thrashers, 2 Warbling Vireos, 1 kingbird on the move, and a ton of flickers were about it. Prospect Hill was dead at lunch. Surprise yard bird at night when several Least Sandpipers flew over.

Thursday 8/19: Duck ponds had sandpipers finally: 4 Solitary (3 juv), 1 Spotted, 1 Least (juv), 1 Semipalmated (juv). Also two redstarts, assuming migrants but still wondering after the one in early July.

Friday 8/20: Cambridge Res before work had a good variety of shorebirds and two BC Night-Herons. BB North had an Indigo Bunting at lunch.

Saturday 8/21: Plum with Menotomy. Most of the usual stuff (guess I’m too late for Purple Martin and Willet this year, oops) plus a Forster’s Tern. Unfortunately no one was looking up when a Buff-breasted Sandpiper flew over our heads and miscommunication caused us to miss a Hudsonian Godwit.

Sunday 8/22: Started with a quick check of Arlington Res. Not sure how the water is so high, but 2 Spotted Sandpipers were out in the vegetation. On to Horn Pond, where there’s been a terrific shorebird show lately. Tons of Semipalmated (both plover and sandpiper) and a Snowy Egret were highlights. Beaver Brook ponds were quiet on the return. Thought it was too rainy to go out again but I made one more trip.

Monday 8/23: Rained all day so didn’t expect much. Transformer outside work caught fire and they had to cut power to fix it, so everyone was sent home at 11. We were supposed to check in around 12:30 to see if things were back but I called every few minutes and never got an answer. At 2, I decided to run over and see. No lights and no staff cars, so I headed to Hardy Pond. Almost immediately, I found a bunch of Black Terns in with the swallows. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and blowing right in from the pond so it wasn’t pleasant to view. I ran home and we walked over from the other side (so on the nonmotorized list but couldn’t get them from the house).

That was good enough, but John Hines stopped by again. This time he had a Sterna tern on the Cambridge Res and wanted some help (and a scope) to confirm it. We ran over and immediately found three. We were fairly sure they were Commons but it took quite some time to get good enough views to feel confident. Yet another county bird!