weekinreview – Page 68 – brewster's linnet . com

WIR 11/23-29

Wednesday 11/23: Quick scan of Hardy Pond and Cambridge Res didn’t appear to have anything new, although it was too cold and nasty to bother getting the scope out.

Thursday 11/24: Out to New Salem for Thanksgiving. Heard a Pileated but a walk through the center of town didn’t find anything.

Friday 11/25: Stopped at the School St. Fields in Acton on the way home and found a nice harrier. Flint’s Pond had a Double-crested Cormorant and a bunch of Common Mergansers among other ducks.

Saturday 11/26: Cassin’s Kingbird and Sandhill Crane. Also Lady sp and 2 presumed Common Green Darners at Plum.

Sunday 11/27: Tried Waltham St. and Dunback. Fog didn’t clear until I was leaving but did manage a brief view of the Lark Sparrow and spished up something a bit more interesting:

Monday 11/28: BBN along the parkway had nothing exciting.

Tuesday 11/29: Purgatory Cove had 2 Ring-necks and 5 Wood Duck (plus Green-winged Teal that I didn’t see). There were 7 wigeon, 2 coots, and a Pied-billed Grebe on the river.

WIR 11/16-11/22

Wednesday 11/16: Lot 1 had nothing unusual.

Thursday 11/17: Hardy Pond: 1 coot, 1 hoodie, 20ish Ruddy, 2 Great Blue Heron. Cambridge Res: nothing on the first scan but eventually saw a large, dark thing way off. That was a Herring Gull, but scoping that general area turned up a small flock. In the flock, I found a spectacular male Long-tailed Duck, a Red-necked Grebe, and 3 Ruddy. While trying for phone-scoped photos, I noticed something else coming into sight, which turned into a flock of 9 Black Scoter. Also present were a few more Hoodies, 3 Bufflehead, and the big flock of coot.

Somebody returned to the feeder at night.

Friday 11/18: Prospect Hill had nothing around the back side.

Saturday 11/19: Walked through Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Two Rusty Blackbirds at the Falzone parking lot and 3 deer in the big field were about it. On to Dunback, where a Winter Wren cooperated but Fox Sparrows didn’t. Cambridge Res and Flint’s Pond in the afternoon didn’t have anything different.

Sunday 11/20: Pelagic was canceled, on the Cape.

Monday 11/21: No booby again. Herring Cove was loaded with birds with thousands of mergansers and scoters and good numbers of Razorbills. Gannets at Race Point would have made for great photos but it was too windy to attempt holding the camera steady. Again no luck with the Ash-throated and not much else at Fort Hill.

Tuesday 11/22: Figured out why my side had been sore for a couple days, a nice tick. Morning at the doctor meant no birding time.

WIR 11/9-11/15

Wednesday 11/9: Rock Meadow had nothing exciting.

Thursday 11/10: Common Merganser, couple Hoodies, few Ruddy at Hardy Pond. More Ruddy and Hoodie at Cambridge Res.

Friday 11/11: Checked a few ponds midmorning. North end of the Cambridge Res had Hooded Mergansers. Flint’s Pond had Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and mergansers. Cambridge Res had a Long-tailed Duck (197), Hooded Mergansers, and the flock of coots. Hardy Pond had more mergansers, ruddy, and a cormorant.

Saturday 11/12: Fresh Pond for the easy Canvasback year tick, plus many Ring-neck, Ruddy, and coot. Also a loon but not much else. Purgatory Cove: 8 GW Teal was in the corner, 2 Wood Duck (another on the river), few coots, wigeon on the river. Many meadowhawks in the woods. Charlesbank had 50+ coot and a cormorant.

Sunday 11/13: Started with the MBC trip to Arlington Res. Red Fox, nice snipe, about the usual. On to Waltham St (couple Tree Sparrows and nothing else), UMass Field Station (Song Sparrows, geese, juncos), and Gore Place (sulphurs, no birds). Evening walk turned up the best thing of the day with a Flying Squirrel outside the door.

Monday 11/14: Green darners and not much else at BBN.

Tuesday 11/15: Nothing at the duck ponds beyond a couple Autumn Meadowhawks.

WIR 11/2-11/8

Wednesday 11/2: Prospect Hill: 2 deer, very few birds.

Thursday 11/3: Duck ponds were having tree work so ended at Rock Meadow. Fourteen turkeys at the entrance to the gardens, a sapsucker and hermit thrush in them. Coot, Ruddies, and a Kingfisher on Hardy Pond in the afternoon.

Friday 11/4: Purgatory Cove had the usual ducks (mostly on the river) plus 5 Bufflehead. After work stop at the Cambridge Res got the coots in close. Took one picture with the phone, but Marj got better. More Bufflehead here, 35, which blows away my previous high count for the area.

Saturday 11/5: All day in Fairhaven with the BBC. Full details on the BBC trips blog but here are a couple photos:

Was coming home on Rt. 2 so decided to scan the north end of the Cambridge Res. No shorebirds but first Common Mergansers of the fall, plus 2 turkeys around the corner.

Sunday 11/6: Joined the MBC walk at Dunback. Was up early and it was bright, so headed to Waltham St first. Walked in and the Lark Sparrow was right there, a bit of a surprise after seeing negative reports all week. Also had first American Tree Sparrows of the fall and a couple Rusty Blackbirds. The group came back over and I managed to find the sparrow way up in one of the trees, allowing for decent scope looks. Back at Dunback we had 1 Fox Sparrow, a couple Hermit Thrushes, and my latest ever Blue-headed Vireo. Cambridge Res after had nothing new. Flint’s Pond had a few mergansers.

Monday 11/7: BBN was very quiet. Lots of juncos, a couple darners, 1 meadowhawk.

Tuesday 11/8: Lot 1 was pretty much like BBN yesterday, plus a Tree Sparrow, garter snake, and calling frogs.

WIR 10/26-11/1

Wednesday 10/26: River walk for a change, phoebe, few warblers, nothing but mallards on the water.

Thursday 10/27: Hardy Pond and Cambridge Res in the rain: Ruddies on both, huge raft of coots on the res.

Friday 10/28: BBN at lunch: Bunch of Hermit Thrushes, phoebe, lots of common sparrows and juncos. Ran over to Waltham St after work and found the Lark Sparrow Bob and Karsten discovered earlier. Also Field Sparrow and Palm Warbler. Presuming I saw the American Golden-Plover that was at the Arlington Res a few years ago from the Lexington side, this is #200 in Lexington.

Saturday 10/29: Started with a walk through Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Lots of Hermit Thrushes and 200+ Cedar Waxwings, plus fighting turkeys but not much else. Around the Cambridge Res next: 1 Black Scoter (3rd scoter and 150th bird in Waltham this year!), 1 Greater Scaup, 2 Pied-billed Grebe, a presumed Bald Eagle. Home for lunch and then a quick swing for geese trying to beat the rain. Did more or less beat the rain but it was too dark and the geese were way out so nothing good among them. Also nothing at Flint’s Pond.

Sunday 10/30: Birds in the snow

Monday 10/31: Gore Place for a change, nothing particularly exciting. One sulphur and one darner survived the snow at least.

Tuesday 11/1: BBN had lots of the usual. Huge flock of red-wings down the street in the morning.

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 10/12-10/18

Wednesday 10/12: Purgatory Cove: 9 Wigeon (5 cove, 4 river), Hooded Merganser, 3 Green-winged Teal

Thursday 10/13: Hardy Pond: First of fall Ruddy.

Friday 10/14: Duck Ponds: lots of grackles, robins, yellow-rumps.

Saturday 10/15: Led MBC walk to Waltham St. Fields and Dunback. Not a whole lot of birds at either. Best with the group was a Bobolink at Dunback, but I had a Dickcissel walking out by myself. Afternoon walk around Arlington Res got the Great Cormorant sharing a rock with the Double-crested plus 2 shoveler, 2 Wood Duck, 3 Green-winged Teal, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 2 Solitary Sandpiper.

Sunday 10/16: Rock Meadow early. Not a whole lot, highlights: 1 bluebird, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 White-crowned Sparrow, 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow, 1 towhee. Eight Ruddies on Hardy Pond in the afternoon.

Monday 10/17: Paine was very quiet. Managed to phone-bin a Shadow Darner but that was about it.

Tuesday 10/18: Prospect Hill: Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2 Hermit Thrush, Red Admiral.

WIR 10/5-10/11

Wednesday 10/5: Purgatory Cove: bunch of Green-winged Teal, first of fall juncos.

Thursday 10/6: Prospect Hill before work: lots of White-throats, Black-and-white, many flyover Yellow-rumps and Blackpolls. Beaver Brook at lunch: Blue-headed Vireo, more Yellow-rumps and a Palm were about it.

Friday 10/7: Prospect Hill again, zip.

Saturday 10/8: More or less stayed in for Yom Kippur. Did walk down to the store for get food for Sunday and found a Red-tail maybe 10 feet off the ground (unfortunately had the phone off and it flew by the time it turned on).

Sunday 10/9 and Monday 10/10: Big Sit and some local stuff

Tuesday 10/11: BBN had a BT Blue, a few Blackpolls, and enough Yellow-rumps that I needed another couple hours to sort through them all.

WIR 9/28-10/4

Wednesday 9/28: Prospect Hill was very quiet.

Thursday 9/29: Saw something. Nothing at the Cambridge Res later.

Friday 9/30: Duck ponds were pretty quiet. Finally able to crawl through the fallen trees though and do a full loop.

Saturday 10/1: Joined the Menotomy trip to Dunback: Chat, few other warblers, exotic finch, heard-only Dickcissel. Arlington Res after: 3 Blue-winged Teal, White-crowned Sparrow.

Sunday 10/2: Planned on being lazy but the sun came out so ran to Rock Meadow. Clouded up, but spent over two hours in the gardens, mostly with Karsten and Jeff. Karsten eventually picked up one of the Dickcissels which cooperated for a few photos (somewhat). Also a couple Nashvilles, an Osprey, and a flyover loon (Karsten called it Red-throated, I didn’t actually look carefully and am kicking myself quite a bit). Circled Cambridge Res after and found 9 swans and 5 wigeon.

Monday 10/3: BBN was pretty quiet, few sparrows, few blackpolls. Afternoon elsewhere was better:

Tuesday 10/4: BBN again: Lance-tipped Darner, Buckeye, etc.

About time I found one for the patch.

WIR 9/21-9/27

Wednesday 9/21: BBN had one good flock of warblers including 3+ Blackpolls, a BT Green, a Parula, and a Nashville.

Thursday 9/22: Cambridge Res at lunch: 5 yellowlegs, both Greater and Lesser. Not a whole lot else, Spotted Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpiper, Killdeer, herons. Blackpoll from the yard.

Friday 9/23: Purgatory Cove: 6 GW Teal, 1 BW Teal, 1 Wigeon, 1 PB Grebe.

Saturday 9/24: Purgatory Cove w/parents (and Bob): 7 GW Teal, 2 BW Teal, 2 Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs. Cambridge Res in the afternoon: 2 Parula, 1 Black-and-white, 1 Blackpoll, 1 Yellow-rump, 5 Solitary Sandpiper.