Tag: weekinreview

Monday 8/10: Met State in the morning, fairly quiet. Did have a brief look at an interesting Somatochlora but no net or camera, so it got away. Lunch at Lyman Pond: Spotted Sandpipers and the usual odes. Great Meadows after work, Virginia Rail, many Bobolink, no YH Blackbird.

Tuesday 8/11: Great Meadows in the morning, got the blackbird. Great Egrets overhead on the way over. Vulture down the street at lunch.

Wednesday 8/12: Paine at lunch. Big flock of stuff but couldn’t pick out anything beyond Warbling Vireo.

Thursday 8/13: Back to Paine to see if the flock was around, didn’t seem to be. First Red-winged Blackbirds actually in the yard in a few weeks.

Friday 8/14: Dunback in the morning, 1 Prairie Warbler and the usual summer birds. Prospect Hill at lunch, very quiet. Bunch of darners and emeralds over the yard at night, but the interesting ones were too high to ID.

Saturday 8/15: Went to the Charles and walked along the Watertown stretch without seeing anything really. Good swarm again at night, with a Wandering Glider and Black Saddlebags added among the others. Also watched a kingbird chase off a Cooper’s. Bat over the yard while attempting to mow the lawn at 8:15 at night.

Sunday 8/16: Great Meadows, Virginia Rail young, several shorebirds including Pectoral Sandpiper, and a Blue-winged Teal. Then up to Lowell for Yellow-crowned Night-Heron but we ended up searching the wrong stretch of canal. Hope it sticks around another week.

Starting a weekly feature the week before I head off for a couple days and then have to deal with a death in the family may not have been the best idea. Post coming sooner or later on the DSA meeting from 7/30-8/2 and I had no time to get out last week (other than a quick trip to Great Meadows where I had a nice swallow show and a very surprise American Bittern flushing off the side of the main trail).

Out in Otis over the weekend visiting family. I took a quick walk along the nature trail in their complex, which was fairly quiet other than a couple BT Blues. The yard had a hummingbird, a Scarlet Tanager, and a BT Green, which got my Berkshire county list over a whole 20 species.

It occurred to me that I’m out enough that even when I don’t post things, there’s probably something of marginal interest, so I’m going to start a Week In Review. Hopefully on Fridays with an actual post of weekend stuff later, but we’ll see.

Starting with:

7/20: Lunchtime walk at Prospect Hill, very few birds but a Somatochlora overhead and the first Northern Broken-Dash and Common Wood-Nymphs of the year were good.

7/21: It rained.

7/22: Car in for oil change and inspection, so no birding but a fledgling cardinal at the feeders was clearly a new brood.

7/23: Big numbers of House Finches in the yard all of a sudden. Paine Estate at lunch had the first Great Crested Flycatcher in a couple weeks and a House Sparrow (only about my 10th record from there in weekly visits for a couple years now). A Red Admiral was a belated first of year.

7/24: Met State at lunch was quiet other than a family of at least 5 House Wrens. A pondhawk caught and ate a forktail in the yard.

7/25: Finished my atlas work for the season (maybe), highlighted by finally getting a Carolina Wren (or five), a Broad-winged Hawk calling, Green Heron, and a pair of Indigo Bunting. Several good bugs including Lance-tipped and Canada Darners, a Blue-fronted Dancer and a good number of butterflies. A Widow Skimmer in the yard was only the second record.

7/26: Met State in the morning, Indigo Buntings and rain. Went to check out the new boardwalk but was flooded out before getting there. Great Meadows in the afternoon, 3 Osprey, Hoodie, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Racket-tailed Emerald, Appalachian Brown.