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WIR 7/25-7/31

Wednesday 7/25: BBN was pretty quiet. First of year Band-winged Meadowhawk plus another Mocha Emerald and Painted Skimmer were about it (Warbling Vireo may or may not have been wandering).

Thursday 7/26: Finally found a migrant waterthrush (Northern) at the duck ponds but otherwise very quiet. Still lots of mud and still nothing on them (beyond a rabbit and a robin).

Friday 7/27: North end of Cambridge Res: 3 Semipalmated Plover, Pectoral, 3 Semipalmated, many Least Sandpipers, Great Egret.

Saturday 7/28: Eventually wandered back to the Cambridge Res. Pretty much the same with a Greater Yellowlegs replacing the Pectoral. Stopped at the duck ponds on the way back and found 3 Solitary Sandpipers, along with a (probably another) waterthrush.

Sunday 7/29: With nothing better to do, Cambridge Res again. Started at the south end, where an adult Bald Eagle was sitting on the shore. North end was almost the same as yesterday, with a Lesser Yellowlegs being an addition. Wandered over to Great Meadows in the afternoon, got the Whistling-Duck for the second half of July but otherwise very little. Ran into Bob there and we went back to the Cambridge Res and had basically the same birds (unfortunately the raven Bob had there earlier didn’t return). Also saw the Hardy Pond egret moving from rock to rock before I left (on the yard list).

Monday 7/30: Nothing much at BBN (mostly along the parkway). Good stuff down the street though with 4 Green Herons on the morning walk and a presumed Cooper’s in the afternoon.

Tuesday 7/31: Pretty much the usual at Rock Meadow although no bluebirds. Phoebe down the street in the morning (did hear it yesterday but saw it today).

WIR 7/18-7/24

Wednesday 7/18: Quiet (as expected) at Paine.

Thursday 7/19: The usual at BBN. Good numbers of butterflies. Big swarm of mostly Spot-winged Gliders around the neighborhood in the afternoon.

Friday 7/20: Parents found an egret on Hardy Pond, so made a quick stop there at lunch to pick it up. Headed to the north end of the Cambridge Res, where there were a couple Least Sandpipers, my first Solitary Sandpiper of the fall, and several Spotted Sandpipers. Found the egret again in the evening but couldn’t get it onto the yard year list.

Saturday 7/21: Started at Dunback, which had the usual. North end of Cambridge Res again after, where there were more Least Sandpipers but otherwise the same (did confirm the Ring-billed Gull as a juv).

Sunday 7/22: BBN and West Meadow to start. Birds were slow but bugs were good with patch tick Broad-winged Skipper and Swamp Darner. Also pulled out the net and chased some of the Somatochloras on Turner Field, getting a couple Clamp-tipped and a Mocha Emerald. Mink ran in front of me on the way out too. Quick check of the duck ponds had very little.

Monday 7/23: Purgatory Cove had nothing different.

Tuesday 7/24: Prospect Hill: very distant kestrel was it for birds. Lots of Wild Indigo Duskywings and Northern Broken-Dashes, plus a Spinylegs eating a still fluttering whitetail.

WIR 7/11-7/17

Wednesday 7/11: Duck ponds were pretty quiet. Mud growing but only a Killdeer.

Thursday 7/12: Found something. North end of the Cambridge Res had a Spotted Sandpiper family and not much else.

Friday 7/13: Not much at Purgatory Cove.

Saturday 7/14: Concord 4th of July Butterfly Count. May post more eventually but decent numbers of mostly the usual butterflies. Not a whole lot for other insects (although a ton of Cicada Killers was nice) and quiet for birds. We did end the day with three or four Osprey flying to and from the nest in West Concord.

Sunday 7/15: Refound something.

Monday 7/16: Nothing at the duck ponds. Killdeer flew over the yard.

Tuesday 7/17: Charles: Powdered Dancer was about it. Lots of Blue-fronted as well but not much for birds or butterflies.

Whistler again

Given the expected heat on Sunday, I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I wanted to do. However, upon hearing about plans for pancakes, I realized I could get up and go to Great Meadows early, take a quick walk down to the bitterns, and get home for breakfast. That almost happened.

Turkeys were all over the roads on the way over. After parking, I started down the trail and paused to photograph a rabbit that didn’t want to move.

Once passed that, I reached the bridge. There’s a muskrat hut on the right and I noticed some ducks on it. Scanning, there turned out to be both a Mallard and a Wood Duck family on there. I moved on and some of the ducks dropped into the water and started swimming off.

Two steps later, I heard an odd call. It sounded like something I had heard a couple weeks ago but as that hadn’t been reported since I assumed I was hearing one of the ducklings. I stopped to look and heard it again from a different spot. I looked up and there was the Whistling-Duck. I quickly snapped a couple photos as it circled over, went to the far corner. It came back and disappeared back in the corner it came from.

I quickly sent a brief message out (figuring 6:50 on a Sunday was a little early to start calling people) and after a quick scan failed to find it, continued on. I checked by the benches where it was originally seen and found a few geese. Moving on, I wandered towards the river, hoping to find some sandpipers on the little bit of mud that wasn’t under the lotus.

Just past the new platform, I heard the duck again. Turning around, I watched it come crashing down, apparently near the benches. I rushed back and found it just off the edge of the path. Couple more pictures, make sure it seems settled, and post again. I then settled in to wait for the expected crowds (believe this is the first one in Mass to not be found late in the day or to vanish at dawn). I even sat down and made a sketch (which I don’t need to reproduce here).

The first to arrive was extra lucky, having just happened to be there and had no knowledge of the bird. After that, there was a slow trickle for quite a while and then it became a steady flow of people. The duck cooperated for most of the time, but eventually swam out of sight. I was hungry at that point and headed out. The duck apparently came back into the open fairly soon after and stayed for pretty much the whole day.

Unexpected Milestone

Not exactly what I was expecting this morning when I pulled in at Hardy Pond for a quick scan.

Actually saw one (of the two) diving while still driving in. That set off alarm bells but I expected Black Terns so they really started ringing when I took a look and saw how white they were. Mad scramble for the scope and they were obviously Leasts. A bit headless chicken at that point (call someone? send email? take pictures?) but I eventually got the video.

I suspect they cleared out almost immediately (all the swifts in the area started getting higher and higher and the terns weren’t immediately visible on a last scan before heading to work, not to mention no one else seeing them).

Believe it’s the third record for the county and it’s #200 for Waltham! I did see the Great Meadows birds in 2003 (almost to the day). Given the dates, I will speculate that they’re potentially from the interior populations doing a bit of post/failed-breeding wandering or otherwise early migration (which would mean they’re probably more regular but hard to stumble across*).

*The only reason I stopped today was that my parents were running errands so my father and I didn’t take our usual pre-work walk down to the end of the street. Any other day and I would have not been there.

WIR 7/4-7/10

Wednesday 7/4: Waited for the rain to clear then checked Lone Tree Hill and Rock Meadow for butterflies. Not much around. The good-looking spot at LTH had two families of turkeys so I couldn’t check thoroughly. Tons of milkweed at Rock Meadow but nothing beyond Monarchs. Usual birds around.

Thursday 7/5: BBN was pretty quiet. First Wood-Nymphs of the year and some presumed Mocha Emeralds.

Friday 7/6: Purgatory Cove: 2 BC Night-Herons, 6 (only) Wood Duck. With the cleaning in progress, probably not going to be much for shorebirds this year. Late Common Baskettail was interesting.

Saturday 7/7: Great Meadows fairly early, nothing much doing. Apparently just missed the Least Bittern.

Sunday 7/8: Quick walk around the duck ponds in the morning. Family of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and what appeared to be several groups of Harvesters were the highlight. Purgatory Cove in the afternoon: different night-heron, Fish Crow, Red-bellied presumably at a nest.

Monday 7/9: Prospect Hill had nothing interesting.

Tuesday 7/10: Looped the marsh at BBN without much.

WIR 6/27-7/3

Wednesday 6/27: Prospect Hill was fairly quiet. Too cloudy for insects and nothing exciting for birds.

Thursday 6/28: Had the day off. Great Meadows, nothing different. At Alan Ankers’ recommendation, checked out the Cranberry Bog in Carlisle for odes. Nothing exceptional today (although the possible reddish saddlebags would have been had it stayed around) but lots of potential. Quick stop at Fort Pond Brook didn’t have much.

Friday 6/29: Half day off so came home at lunch and then lazed around.

Saturday 6/30: Lot 1 and West Meadow in the morning. Blue-winged Warblers off Walnut St were presumably another pair (or offspring). Delaware Skipper, Banded Hairstreak, and Dun Skipper new butterflies for the year, plus a couple patch year tick dragonflies.

Sunday 7/1: Joined the MBC trip to Horn Pond Mountain. Found the usual hairstreaks, a buckeye, etc. Orchard Oriole was the best bird, nothing exciting among the odes.

Monday 7/2: Nothing doing.

Tuesday 7/3: Not much at the duck ponds. Skimming Bluet was new for the patch this year. Evening twitch of the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck at Great Meadows went much better than last year’s.

352/278

Last night I did my usual routine after dinner: turned off phone, took off shoes, took off socks, and picked up laptop. I was debating if it was hot enough to lose my pants as well when I noticed that Echofon (twitter client) was showing activity even though I had just checked. That generally means someone has been spamming the BBC account. Sure enough, I switched over and saw a new mention. However, not spam: @jryandoherty: @bbcbirds Black-bellied whistling duck @ great meadows concord!

After whacking the retweet button, I realized it was still a little before 8 and fairly light out. A quick check confirmed that sunset wasn’t for another half hour or so. Grab socks, put on shoes, and run out the door (suddenly glad that I’ve been too lazy to take the scope out of the car). No traffic and green lights meant I made it in 15 minutes.

I started down the path and at the bridge I heard an odd whistle. It took a second time but then it clicked that it would be the duck. A quick scan of the water didn’t turn it up and I could see people further down so I kept walking. Another couple feet and it called again. This time I scanned the air and found it in flight. Nice looks as it circled a couple times before dropping into the far corner.

I made my way down to the group, thanked Ryan, and said hello to Bob, Martha, Ryan, and Jeff. Turns out that the bird had been sitting right on the edge (as seen in Ryan’s photos). That would have been nice, but a couple minutes later and I would have seen nothing so I won’t complain.

Eventually Simon joined the crowd and we moved to the new platform hoping the extra couple feet in height would be enough. It wasn’t, but the duck eventually called and then flew off (barely showing enough for the late arrivals). I attempted some phone video but since I can’t see or hear the bird it’s not being posted.

With the duck gone and the mosquitoes coming out, we headed off. Definitely a good night.

WIR 6/20-6/26

Wednesday 6/20: Little bit in the morning, didn’t get out at lunch.

Thursday 6/21: Nothing new at the duck ponds.

Friday 6/22: No work, went to Great Meadows fairly early. No bitterns but Virginia Rail on the path, Hooded Merganser, etc. Cyrano Darner was also nice.