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Wednesday 10/3: Purgatory Cove started with the typical teal and Wood Ducks. Checked the river and found 6 wigeon and first of fall coot. Back at the car, there was a flock moving through so I gave it a couple minutes. First of fall Golden-crowned Kinglet was followed by a Charles River tick Black-throated Green Warbler, a Parula, and a Blackpoll among the many Yellow-rumps. Then the jays squawked a bit. I looked up and something slim and fairly large flew over. Took a second to go from gull to falcon, which turned into an even better surprise when I got bins on it and saw white wing patches. Nighthawk! Way late, new for the Charles, and my 180th lunch hour bird (or not, forgot to mark down Semipalmated Plover and Pectoral Sandpiper at least)!

Thursday 10/4: Shoveler at Hardy Pond in the morning. North end of the Cambridge Res had a Spotted, 2 Pectoral, and 4 Least Sandpipers, plus an egret, bunches of Yellow-rumps, and at least 7 pipits.

Friday 10/5: Add a Dickcissel to the grosbeak. West Meadow at lunch had 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and a Scarlet Tanager. Probably a siskin but a little too far to feel confident of the call. Something in the afternoon too.

Saturday 10/6: Joined the MBC trip to Waltham St, which was on the quiet side beyond Purple Finches and a snipe. We continued to the Cambridge Res, where a White-crowned Sparrow was my first of the year and a siskin flew over. Pipits, egret, and Least Sandpipers continued. Then back to Dunback for more Purple Finches. I stopped at BBN and the West Meadow again on the way home. Birds were pretty minimal but butterflies included a Wild Indigo Duskywing and a Buckeye.

Sunday 10/7: Morning walk around Rock Meadow: Sapsucker, White-crowned Sparrow, many Pine Siskins (which were a patch tick, not sure how after the invasion a few years ago). Stopped at Waltham St. for a few minutes and flushed the snipe from the exact same spot and then (re)found a Clay-colored Sparrow. Chased the pintails John Hines had found at Purgatory Cove a little later, with success (3rd Charles tick in a week!). Also up to 23 Green-winged Teal and 6 coot, plus more of the same.

Monday 10/8: Attempted to take advantage of the holiday by twitching the Purple Gallinule found in Norfolk yesterday. Decided to stop at Millenium Park in West Roxbury on the way. After a bit of a construction/gps detour, I had a pretty good time at Millenium with 2 Great Egret, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Rusty Blackbird, 2 Nashville Warblers, and a bunch of siskins among the common stuff. Unfortunately then reached Stony Brook a couple hours too late for the gallinule. Two hours looking did turn up a bunch of both teal, some Tree Swallows, and other regular stuff. Finished the day with 10 Suffolk county and 19 Norfolk county ticks.

Tuesday 10/9: Prospect Hill was pretty birdy. Started with a flock of siskins as I rounded the curve by the tanks. They had moved on by the time I ate and got back down there (and scoped the res), but a flock of warblers was moving through including a Parula, Nashville, Blackpoll, a bunch of Yellow-rumps, and a Blue-headed Vireo. Three Hermit Thrushes further on and then down to the end of Whitney. Palm and BT Blue on the way. Heading back, I found probably the same flock, which also included a couple Pines and a BT Green.

Wednesday 9/26: Nothing doing.

Thursday 9/27: BBN and West Meadow before work, nothing too interesting. Same teal and not much else at Purgatory Cove later. BBC/MBC trip to Great Meadows in the evening had a nice duck flight plus good numbers of herons and shorebirds.

Friday 9/28: Hardy Pond: 2 Ring-necks, 6 Ruddy. Very surprising Horned Grebe at the Cambridge Res. Not up for searching Bird Observer records, but only one other inland September record in eBird (from the Quabbin earlier this year). Lovely phone-scoped photo in the rain:

Saturday 9/29: No Horned Grebe, but 2 Pied-billeds on the res, another at Hardy Pond, and a Common Loon at Flint’s. Great Cormorant at Arlington Res. Also some sparrows.

Sunday 9/30: Original plan was to check School St fields in Acton and then Meriam’s Corner and nearby areas. It started raining on the way, so after seeing nothing at the fields, I went to Great Meadows instead. Wasn’t too much unusual there, but a swift and swallow flock flew in and there was a BT Green down near the river (which was new for me at Great Meadows). Started raining heavily again, so I went home instead of over to the fields.

Monday 10/1: Duck ponds were quiet in the wind. Lots of Wood Ducks and robins but little else. Yellow-rumps and stuff around the neighborhood.

Tuesday 10/2: Joined the MBC trip to Rock Meadow for a few minutes in the morning. Pipits were very nice but I couldn’t stay long enough for the sapsucker. Turkeys, a Gray Hairstreak, and first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the fall at Prospect Hill made for an ok trip but then a spectacular Connecticut Warbler popped up.

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.

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.