Some cooperative birds along the Charles today.
WIR 1/22-1/28
Wednesday 1/22: Nothing
Thursday 1/23: 3 Lesser Scaup on the Charles, nothing else new.
Friday 1/24: Nothing
Saturday 1/25: Wandered up to Lowell to look for Glaucous Gulls. No luck with those but at least 4 Icelands included an adult. Decided to check Moody St on the way home and since I was already on the highway, started at Norumbega. That was frozen, but heading down River Rd I noticed a bunch of Ring-necks at the little pond on the other side of the road. Doubled back after checking the frozen Charlesbank to count them and had a male pintail in among them! Finally reaching Moody St, a Merlin flew over as I walked out to Cronin’s but nothing of interest from there.
Sunday 1/26: Too cold and windy. Checked the res quickly and was quite surprised by 5 Greater Scaup. Also surprised by a Great Horned calling around 11:30 PM.
Monday 1/27: Watertown Charles fairly early: 3 Bufflehead, 1 Lesser Scaup. Then got rained on. Rain cleared early afternoon so went back to Lowell. Only the adult Iceland at the boat club when I arrived and not too many other gulls. Moved on to Sheehy and finally picked out a Glaucous (hopefully now that I’ve got a county one, I’ll be tripping over them locally). Tried down by the ballpark again but didn’t want to walk so went back to the boat club. Two Glaucous and three more Iceland at least.
Tuesday 1/28: Cold.
WIR 1/15-1/21
Wednesday 1/15: Nothing new at the river. Fresh Pond was pretty quiet, no owls or odd gulls.
Thursday 1/16: Long walk around Great Meadows had 3 Marsh Wrens and a chipmunk.
Friday 1/17: Went to Mary Cummings Park for a reported Snowy Owl. Owl turned out to be from the mall but I had a catbird, Red-winged Blackbird, raven, and a tick. Horn Pond after had another raven and a Red-breasted Merganser.
Saturday 1/18: Started at Norumbega (a few mergansers), then Purgatory Cove. Pretty sure the first bird I saw scanning from the car was another Red-breasted Merganser but I never found it again. Did have a Bufflehead and a couple Ring-necks plus more mergansers and the usual landbirds.
Sunday 1/19: Dunback and Waltham St were pretty quiet. GH Owl and a Winter Wren were it.
Monday 1/20: Walked around Lone Tree Hill, Habitat, and Rock Meadow. Another GH Owl but not much else. Afternoon walk on the Charles was quiet, no mergansers at all.
Tuesday 1/21: Iceland Gull was back near Moody St but not much else.
WIR 1/8-1/14
Wednesday 1/8: Res again, still a bit open but 12 gulls and nothing else. Cruised Nine Acre Corner out to School St and nothing more than a couple larks.
Thursday 1/9: About the same from Forest Grove to the Riverwalk including more large gulls, the Iceland, and the eagle and scaup.
Friday 1/10: Eventually wandered to BBN. Trails were solid ice and I gave up fairly quickly. Decided to check the parkway on the way out but as I passed the trail uphill I heard an odd call. Eventually tracked down and confirmed.
And since I was now halfway up the hill, I looped back up as it was too icy to go down.
With a (couple day old) report of an adult Glaucous Gull at Fresh Pond, I wandered over but had nothing.
Saturday 1/11: Dunback was foggy and fairly quiet. Sharpie and 2 Winter Wrens about it. Nothing at Moody St, Purgatory Cove, the res, or Hardy Pond.
Sunday 1/12: BBN and West Meadow again as the ice was manageable. Couple bluebirds and some waxwings were about it.
Monday 1/13: Lindentree had bluebirds and a couple Red-winged Blackbirds, plus a Pileated in the woods. Two goldeneye on the res. Not much at the Mystic Lakes but some kinglets on the ice at Sandy Beach were nice.
Tuesday 1/14: Rainy and nasty.
WIR 1/1-1/7
Wednesday 1/1: The usual BBC trip. Six Snowies, Red-headed Woodpecker, Ross’s and Cackling Geese, 4 Iceland, Black-headed, and Glaucous Gull, etc.
Thursday 1/2: Snow. All the expected stuff at the feeders.
Friday 1/3: Still stayed in. About the same.
Saturday 1/4: Figured the Mystic Lakes would be open. They barely were but a couple Great Cormorants and a flock of Snow Buntings were nice. Continued to Oak Grove and got the sparrows easily.
Sunday 1/5: River walk: Wood Duck, Lesser Scaup, lots of the usual ducks, and a Bald Eagle finishing a meal. Continued to Moody St where the Iceland Gull was in close. Checked the area east of Watertown Square after but couldn’t find the thrasher. Very quick check by Forest Grove didn’t have anything worth walking for and what I thought was open water on the res on the way home was ice.
Monday 1/6: Cold.
Tuesday 1/7: Quick check of the Cambridge Res. Surprisingly a bit of open water, but 2 gulls and nothing else.
WIR 12/25-12/31
Wednesday 12/25: Stayed in.
Thursday 12/26: Peregrine near the Elm St carwash but otherwise not much between the river walk and Prospect St. Tree Sparrow at the feeder was the first in a couple years.
Friday 12/27: Wandered to Revere Beach where 1 Glaucous and 1 Iceland cooperated.
Saturday 12/28: Waltham St and Dunback were generally quiet. Lots of Tree Sparrows, a couple bluebirds, a few hawks, etc.
Sunday 12/29: Forest Grove had a creeper and not much. Peregrine at Moody St. Another creeper and not much along the riverwalk. Eagle at the res.
Monday 12/30: First Red-bellied in the yard in a few months. Too windy at Meriam’s and Kaveski. Snow Buntings and Horned Larks at School St.
Tuesday 12/31: Started at Rock Meadow, which had a Sharp-shinned Hawk and not much else. Decided a quick check of the field station was a good idea. No sparrow flock that was there during the CBC (but a big bunch of turkey(?) feathers). Walked the field hoping for buntings or something. Got 3/4 of the way around, figured there weren’t any and noticed 9 almost at my feet.
Continued to School St (no buntings/larks while I was there) then Hanscom (more buntings, a male Harrier, and a distant Snowy).
YIR 2013
January:
(No photos of the county Red Crossbill)
February:
(Repeat of that, not that bird)
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
Plus the cameraless Lark Sparrow
September:
October:
November:
(And Short-eared)
December:
Not much travel this year. Four lifers, all in MA. Two additional state birds. Five county birds and three for Waltham. Five new yard birds (and 82 total!). For the Beaver Brook/Rock Meadow patch, 127 total with 8 additions. For the Charles, 105 with 7 additions.
For the bugs: 5 new odes (4 for the state, 6 for the county) and 2 new butterflies (3 for the county).
WIR 12/18-12/24
Wednesday 12/18: Nothing doing.
Thursday 12/19: Great Horned and Winter Wren at Dunback. Nothing exciting at Moody St.
Friday 12/20: Turkeys and bluebirds at West Meadow plus a grackle almost at Dawes. Nothing along the parkway. Normal stuff on the river walk, although I chased a presumed Iceland Gull from Elm St to Prospect without getting a good look.
Saturday 12/21: CBC, more eventually but nothing terribly exciting.
Sunday 12/22: Stayed in.
Monday 12/23: Stayed in.
Tuesday 12/24: Five flickers together at BBN were about it. Tried for count week ravens at Prospect Hill with no luck.
WIR 12/11-12/17
Wednesday 12/11: Nothing much on the Charles, loon and hundreds of ducks on the res.
Thursday 12/12: Nothing at Paine or Gore. First goldeneye of the season on the Charles.
Friday 12/13: Too cold, although lots of ducks on the res but I didn’t have a scope for them.
Saturday 12/14: With the CBC canceled for Sunday, I wandered to the Oak Grove Cemetery instead of scouting. Couldn’t find the Lark Sparrow and it was too cold to get of the car and see the Chipping (not to mention working trucks and a Merlin scattering stuff). Also checked the Mystic Lakes quickly but didn’t see anything beyond mergansers. Stopped at the res on the way home, but stuff was too close to the highway and the heat waves were too strong to really sort through, although I could pick up pretty much all of the ducks that had been there.
Sunday 12/15: Watched feeders.
Monday 12/16: River walk had the same.
Tuesday 12/17: Watched feeders.
WIR 12/4-12/10
Wednesday 12/4: Dunback and Waltham St were fairly quiet beyond the continuing catbird.
Thursday 12/5: Started at BBN and the West Meadow. Loads of robins, starlings, and turkeys but not much else. Continued to the res, where the usual ducks were still around (but since it’s December 6 of the 15 entries on the eBird checklist were caught by the filters for high counts). School St was quiet. Decided to scan through geese at Nine Acre Corner on the way home. Got out of the car at Willow Guzzle and the first bird I saw was another late catbird. Also another 40 or so turkeys but nothing in the 150ish geese.
Friday 12/6: Did some scouting at the field station with nothing much to show for it. Quick stop at Hardy Pond had the usual, Bufflehead and Kingfisher the most interesting.
Saturday 12/7: Nothing much at Purgatory Cove. Winter Wren at Forest Grove. Nothing along Moody St. Then chased a flycatcher.
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Sunday 12/8: Savannah Sparrows at Waltham St, Barred and Great Horned Owls plus 2 Winter Wrens at Dunback.
Monday 12/9: Nothing.
Tuesday 12/10: Started at the river walk. Fairly quiet other than a creeper which was new for the spot. Nothing in a quick check of the gulls at Moody St and nothing by Purgatory Cove. Swung by the res on the way home, tons of ducks (225+ Ring-necks, 10+ Greater Scaup, 60+ Ruddy, 75+ Hoodie) and a Common Loon.