It’s sparrow season, here’s a few from Saturday:
Funky Chipping Sparrow, Busa Farm (really far away)
Vesper Sparrow, Waltham St. Fields
Clay-colored Sparrow, Waltham St. Fields
Second Clay-colored (I think and haven’t had anyone say not), Waltham St. Fields
Now to find my own Lark…
Wednesday 9/19: BBN was pretty quiet. Good variety of dragonflies but the flock of warblers didn’t show up until I had to leave.
Thursday 9/20: Made quick trip to the UMass Field Station in the morning. Barely had time to check the community garden portion but had a Lincoln’s, Swamp, and White-throat. Prospect Hill at lunch had 3 ravens and a sharpie.
Friday 9/21: Hardy Pond before work: kingfisher, Chimney Swifts, Blackpoll. Purgatory Cove: Wigeon, 5 GW Teal, 50+ Wood Duck, 22 Mute Swan (ugh), 3 Rough-winged Swallow.
Saturday 9/22: Cambridge Res to Waltham St. to Rock Meadow to Met State, posted most on ArlingtonBirds but add a Field Sparrow at the north end of the res and Purple Finches at Waltham St.
Sunday 9/23: Led MBC trip to Lincoln where Karsten found a Blue Grosbeak. Farm Meadow was hopping with common stuff as well. Lindentree was quiet by the time we got there.
Monday 9/24: West Meadow was quiet at lunch. Dunback in the afternoon looking for Western Kingbird. Another nice Merlin, plus a Virginia Rail(!).
Tuesday 9/25: Rock Meadow started with a Blackburnian in the parking lot. A fertilizer truck was driving all over the fields, so stuck to the gardens where I found 2 Indigo Buntings and not much else.
Wednesday 9/12: Nothing exciting at Hardy Pond.
Thursday 9/13: Rock Meadow before work: Palm Warbler among a handful of others. Green-winged Teal at Purgatory Cove.
Friday 9/14: Prospect Hill: Redstart and pewee at the base. Walked up to the water tanks and back and saw one bird on the hill. It was a Connecticut Warbler.
Saturday 9/15: Arlington Res: Dickcissel at Busa, not much else. Up in NH for a wedding, lots of Monarchs along the beach. Quick stop at Cambridge Res had something:
Sunday 9/16: Started at the Wayland Community Gardens with first of fall Lincoln’s Sparrow and Blue-headed Vireo. Moved on to Assabet River NWR hoping for crossbills. No luck but one nice flock of warblers and a Field Sparrow, plus first of fall White-throated Sparrows (and probably a junco).
Monday 9/17: Rock Meadow and BBN: 10 warblers, almost all in good numbers. Also Scarlet Tanager, Lincoln’s Sparrow, many White-throated Sparrows, a Wood Thrush, etc. Tried to pad the list up to 50 with a stop at the duck ponds. Didn’t quite get there but did have a Swainson’s Thrush (to balance out the one that got away at BBN).
Tuesday 9/18: Paine: borderline late Ovenbird, Parula, Pine Warbler, couple RB Nuthatches. Likely more but looking up into the gray sky made things impossible.
Wednesday 9/5: 60+ Wood Ducks and a couple Spotted Sandpipers at Purgatory Cove (sandpipers and half of the ducks on the river). Cambridge Res after work had a nighthawk but otherwise about the same.
Thursday 9/6: Prospect Hill in the morning was on the quiet side. Two parula, a Blackpoll, a Pine, a Redstart, and lots of RB Nuthatches. More nuthatches at Paine.
Friday 9/7: Just about nothing at BBN.
Saturday 9/8: Walked to Rock Meadow. Redstarts all along, Black-and-white and Blackpoll at Lot 1, Wilson’s and 2 Bobolink at the West Meadow, and a Canada Warbler at BBN.
Sunday 9/9: Started at Great Meadows which was pretty quiet. About 20 Least Sandpipers and a Solitary at the Cambridge Res. Decided to stop at Hayden Woods on the way back and found one flock with a couple Parula, Blackpoll, and Scarlet Tanagers.
Monday 9/10: BBN in the morning: turkey (in flight), Redstart, Bobolink were it. Wild Indigo Duskywings at Prospect Hill at lunch, but next to no birds.
Tuesday 9/11: Rock Meadow was pretty quiet but I did eventually dig up a parula.
A few photos from last weekend.
Presumed Pickerel Frog
Black-billed Cuckoo
Upper Spectacle Pond
Black-tipped Darner
Wednesday 8/29: Green Heron and Gray Hairstreak (yet another butterfly patch tick) at the duck ponds, very little else.
Thursday 8/30: Morning run around Rock Meadow: patch tick Bay-breasted (finally), BT Green, Black-and-white, Chestnut-sided, 3 Warbling Vireo, 2 RB Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, 2 hummingbirds. BBN at lunch: BT Green, Shadow and Green-striped Darners, Spotted Spreadwings. More spreadwings and 2 Turkey Vultures during a fire drill at work.
Friday 8/31: Cambridge Res again. Two Pectorals, a few Semipalmated Sandpipers, the usual.
Saturday 9/1: Out to Otis for the weekend. Didn’t leave the porch but had probably 400-500 Monarchs plus a kestrel and probable harrier.
Sunday 9/2: Explored Otis State Forest. Ended up with 11 species of warbler including a Tennessee, plus Least Flycatcher, Black-billed Cuckoo, and a few other things.
Monday 9/3: Nothing of note out west, but a quick check of the Cambridge Res had about the same as Friday.
Tuesday 9/4: BBN before work: Yellow-billed Cuckoo (oops, forgot to update the list at the time and this was #100 for the patch year list) and parula. Swallows at Hardy Pond at lunch, nothing at the Cambridge Res.
Wednesday 8/22: Nothing doing at Rock Meadow but good stuff later.
Thursday 8/23: Blue-winged Teal at Purgatory Cove. Great Meadows BBC trip in the evening was fairly quiet. Little Blue and Snowy Egret showed fairly well but the circling shorebirds and blackbirds did not.
Friday 8/24: Few RB Nuthatches at Paine.
Saturday 8/25: Long walk around Prospect Hill. Olive-sided Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Canada Warbler, 25+ RB Nuthatch. Would have been better if the possible Mourning Warbler popped up for another couple seconds of viewing. Stopped at north end of the Cambridge Res after, all the usual shorebirds plus 4 Great Egrets.
Sunday 8/26: BBN: Blackburnian, Parula, Raven, Solitary Sandpiper.
Monday 8/27: North end of the Cambridge Res was pretty quiet.
Tuesday 8/28: Bank Swallows at Hardy Pond before work.
There was a Warbling Vireo in the tree across the street this afternoon, which became yard bird #99. Time to look back at this post and take a guess at 100.
Since that post, we’ve had Wild Turkey, Bald Eagle, and Warbling Vireo. Added to the street and Hardy Pond lists were White-winged Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, and Least Tern. Not expecting any of those from the yard, so it’s either something previously mentioned or something totally unexpected.
My top pick at the moment is Black-crowned Night-Heron. They’re regular on Hardy Pond and it’s just a matter of time before one lands in sight of the yard or flies over. Raven’s probably #2 and pewee and phoebe tie for #3. Anyone else want to guess?
Good time in the yard after the vireo, almost immediately I watched an Osprey go over (4th yard record) then snapped some photos of dragonflies and got a Clamp-tipped Emerald, which is #26 for the yard.
Wednesday 8/15: North end of Cambridge Res was pretty quiet.
Thursday 8/16: West Meadow: 2 deer, family of RB Grosbeaks, and Fiery Skipper (3rd butterfly patch tick in 2 weeks).
Friday 8/17: Busy day. BBN before work: lots of warblers, mostly redstarts but Black-and-white, couple Yellows, and a Chestnut-sided. Also Red-breasted Nuthatches, gnatcatcher, and a Bobolink. Duck ponds at lunch were quiet (and flooded, especially the path below). Sitting outside at home in the afternoon, I looked up from the laptop and was stared down by a hummingbird (#97 for me in the yard).
Saturday 8/18: RB Nuthatch flyover down the street. Eventually wandered to Great Meadows where I got both the Snowy Egret and Little Blue Heron (nice views of the egret but the heron did its best to keep as far away as possible) but nothing else. Quick stop at the Cambridge Res on the way home had 4 Least, 1 Solitary, 1 Spotted, and 4 Killdeer along the road and a couple more killdeer elsewhere.
Sunday 8/19: Dunback: Wilson’s, 4+ Yellow, 3+ Redstart, Olive-sided Flycatcher, grosbeaks and hummingbirds everywhere.
Monday 8/20: BBN: couple Chestnut-sideds on the hill were overshadowed by a Broad-winged Hawk circling with a Red-tail at the top (patch #150!). Another Chestnut-sided and a Blue-winged down below.
Tuesday 8/21: Prospect Hill had a stunning fresh Blackburnian plus a BT Green and Black-and-white. Vulture over the yard followed eventually by 2 nighthawks.
Wednesday 8/8: Walked edge of Forest Grove to the landfill without much. No shorebirds at Purgatory Cove.
Thursday 8/9: North end of the Cambridge Res. Numbers down a bit, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Semipalmated Plovers, etc.
Friday 8/10: Didn’t get out but two quick passes of Hardy Pond had nothing.
Saturday 8/11: Cambridge Res: nothing. North end: about the same. Duck ponds: nothing.
Sunday 8/12: North end Cambridge Res: less than previous days (no Semi Sandpipers).
Monday 8/13: Osprey and Zabulon Skipper at Rock Meadow.
Osprey was the first new bird for the patch in 2 months. Zabulon was a lifer.
Tuesday 8/14: BBN: tanager, redstart, couple Warbling Vireos, interesting oriole that I eventually decided was just a Baltimore. Heard-only Red-breasted Nuthatch was another year tick for the patch (everything but the tanager was at the farthest point possible so of course I didn’t have time to track it all down).