brewster's linnet . com – Page 79

WIR 10/26-11/1

Wednesday 10/26: River walk for a change, phoebe, few warblers, nothing but mallards on the water.

Thursday 10/27: Hardy Pond and Cambridge Res in the rain: Ruddies on both, huge raft of coots on the res.

Friday 10/28: BBN at lunch: Bunch of Hermit Thrushes, phoebe, lots of common sparrows and juncos. Ran over to Waltham St after work and found the Lark Sparrow Bob and Karsten discovered earlier. Also Field Sparrow and Palm Warbler. Presuming I saw the American Golden-Plover that was at the Arlington Res a few years ago from the Lexington side, this is #200 in Lexington.

Saturday 10/29: Started with a walk through Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Lots of Hermit Thrushes and 200+ Cedar Waxwings, plus fighting turkeys but not much else. Around the Cambridge Res next: 1 Black Scoter (3rd scoter and 150th bird in Waltham this year!), 1 Greater Scaup, 2 Pied-billed Grebe, a presumed Bald Eagle. Home for lunch and then a quick swing for geese trying to beat the rain. Did more or less beat the rain but it was too dark and the geese were way out so nothing good among them. Also nothing at Flint’s Pond.

Sunday 10/30: Birds in the snow

Monday 10/31: Gore Place for a change, nothing particularly exciting. One sulphur and one darner survived the snow at least.

Tuesday 11/1: BBN had lots of the usual. Huge flock of red-wings down the street in the morning.

Snow Birds

Some highlights from a snow-filled Waltham St. Fields today.

Unhappy Killdeer

Chipping Sparrow posing nicely

‘Yellow’ Palm Warbler

Dickcissel

Lark Sparrow continues

Have a suspicion that there were two birds, although these photos are all of one.

WIR 10/19-10/25

Wednesday 10/19: Hardy Pond had 1 Ring-neck.

Thursday 10/20: Purgatory Cove: 7ish Green-winged Teal, 1 Blue-winged Teal, 1 Gadwall, 2 American Wigeon, 15ish Wood Duck, 4 Coot.

Friday 10/21: BBN was quiet.

Saturday 10/22: In Westport for the day but not birding. Did have a Peregrine, many Tree Swallows and a few other things driving around.

Sunday 10/23: All over. Started at Great Meadows where there were no good sparrows but did have a Sora and a few Rusty Blackbirds plus a snipe overhead. On to the School St fields and prison fields where the Cattle Egrets have moved on (guess I should have rushed over Saturday afternoon). Decided to check Meriam’s Corner for them too (thousands of grackles and not much else) and Nine Acre Corner. Cambridge Res on way home turned up a Surf Scoter, finally getting one for Waltham. Up the Charles after lunch with parents where we had 24 coots and 2 Pied-billed Grebe at Charlesbank and about the same ducks as Thursday at Purgatory Cove (new Gadwall though).

Monday 10/24: Rock Meadow. Was hoping to find a good sparrow but Anna Piccolo beat me and had already found 2 Clay-coloreds. Good views and I think the first time I’ve heard one.

Tuesday 10/25: Back side of Prospect Hill. One busy flock of chickadees and stuff included a Hermit Thrush and some Golden-crowned Kinglets but not much else around.

WIR 10/12-10/18

Wednesday 10/12: Purgatory Cove: 9 Wigeon (5 cove, 4 river), Hooded Merganser, 3 Green-winged Teal

Thursday 10/13: Hardy Pond: First of fall Ruddy.

Friday 10/14: Duck Ponds: lots of grackles, robins, yellow-rumps.

Saturday 10/15: Led MBC walk to Waltham St. Fields and Dunback. Not a whole lot of birds at either. Best with the group was a Bobolink at Dunback, but I had a Dickcissel walking out by myself. Afternoon walk around Arlington Res got the Great Cormorant sharing a rock with the Double-crested plus 2 shoveler, 2 Wood Duck, 3 Green-winged Teal, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 2 Solitary Sandpiper.

Sunday 10/16: Rock Meadow early. Not a whole lot, highlights: 1 bluebird, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 White-crowned Sparrow, 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow, 1 towhee. Eight Ruddies on Hardy Pond in the afternoon.

Monday 10/17: Paine was very quiet. Managed to phone-bin a Shadow Darner but that was about it.

Tuesday 10/18: Prospect Hill: Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2 Hermit Thrush, Red Admiral.

WIR 10/5-10/11

Wednesday 10/5: Purgatory Cove: bunch of Green-winged Teal, first of fall juncos.

Thursday 10/6: Prospect Hill before work: lots of White-throats, Black-and-white, many flyover Yellow-rumps and Blackpolls. Beaver Brook at lunch: Blue-headed Vireo, more Yellow-rumps and a Palm were about it.

Friday 10/7: Prospect Hill again, zip.

Saturday 10/8: More or less stayed in for Yom Kippur. Did walk down to the store for get food for Sunday and found a Red-tail maybe 10 feet off the ground (unfortunately had the phone off and it flew by the time it turned on).

Sunday 10/9 and Monday 10/10: Big Sit and some local stuff

Tuesday 10/11: BBN had a BT Blue, a few Blackpolls, and enough Yellow-rumps that I needed another couple hours to sort through them all.

Columbus Weekend

The long weekend provided lots of birds. Sunday was the Big Sit, so I spent the day at the tower by parking lot 7 on Plum Island with Joshua Rose and Nick Paulson. Felt slower than last year but we ended up with 72 species (plus several things like peep sp) so it couldn’t have been that bad. Highlights included a good afternoon jaeger show, 2 bitterns, and a Merlin hunting at dusk. And this guy:

Whatever it is.

There’s been plenty of good stuff still being reported at the Arlington Res, so that was the first stop today. I quickly picked up some of the White-rumped Sandpipers before attempting to wade through the piles of Yellow-rumps and sparrows at Busa without finding much. Working around the res, I got better looks at the sandpipers and eventually got the Great Cormorant to wake up enough to confirm it.

From here, I headed to Danehy Park in Cambridge, hoping for Blue Grosbeak and sparrows. The hill where they’ve been seen was in use as a race track for screaming kids on scooters, so you can guess how that worked out. Did find a sapsucker, Nashville, and couple Cooper’s.

Quick stop home and then off towards Concord to look for Snow and White-fronted Geese. On the way, I watched a Pileated Woodpecker fly over Rt. 2. At the prison fields, I found more geese than I can remember seeing. A quick scan through found one smaller, darker bird. Jumping out to scope it, it turned out to be a Brant! A somewhat overdue county bird (fairly regular and I’ve either missed or been too lazy to chase several). A very quick scan through the rest of the geese didn’t turn up anything (other stuff was reported later, don’t know if I missed them or they flew in).

So no new birds for the county for about 10 months and then 2 in just over 10 days.

WIR 9/28-10/4

Wednesday 9/28: Prospect Hill was very quiet.

Thursday 9/29: Saw something. Nothing at the Cambridge Res later.

Friday 9/30: Duck ponds were pretty quiet. Finally able to crawl through the fallen trees though and do a full loop.

Saturday 10/1: Joined the Menotomy trip to Dunback: Chat, few other warblers, exotic finch, heard-only Dickcissel. Arlington Res after: 3 Blue-winged Teal, White-crowned Sparrow.

Sunday 10/2: Planned on being lazy but the sun came out so ran to Rock Meadow. Clouded up, but spent over two hours in the gardens, mostly with Karsten and Jeff. Karsten eventually picked up one of the Dickcissels which cooperated for a few photos (somewhat). Also a couple Nashvilles, an Osprey, and a flyover loon (Karsten called it Red-throated, I didn’t actually look carefully and am kicking myself quite a bit). Circled Cambridge Res after and found 9 swans and 5 wigeon.

Monday 10/3: BBN was pretty quiet, few sparrows, few blackpolls. Afternoon elsewhere was better:

Tuesday 10/4: BBN again: Lance-tipped Darner, Buckeye, etc.

About time I found one for the patch.

Colorado Summary

A quick summary page to appear at the top when you click on the CO11 link.

7/2 and 7/3: Travel and Denver area (birds, odes, asilids, butterflies, baseball)

7/4: Denver area (birds, odes, butterflies, mammals)

7/5: Rocky Mountain National Park (mostly birds, almost no photos)

7/6: Pawnee National Grasslands (birds, butterflies, mammals)

7/7: Fort Collins area (birds, butterflies, asilids, odes)

7/8: DSA meeting (bird, ode, salamander)

7/9: Pawnee and DSA meeting (bird, mammal)

7/10: DSA meeting (birds, odes, caterpillar)

7/11 and 7/12: Fort Collins area and Rocky Mountain NP (birds, butterflies, asilids, mammals), Denver area

275

Nice series of events last night and this morning:

1. Laptop keyboard and trackpad stops working.

2. Make Apple store appointment for the morning.

3. Decide that even though it’s raining, might as well stop at Arlington Res on the way and hopefully find the Blue Grosbeak.

4. Arrive at Arlington Res, take quick look at berm.

5. That bird looks rather white.

6. Run back to car for scope.

7. Confirm Sanderling, county bird #275 (and 25th shorebird).

Laptop also appears to have started working on its own, which left time to run home and grab the camera (did manage identifiable phone-scoped shots but no one needs to see those).

WIR 9/21-9/27

Wednesday 9/21: BBN had one good flock of warblers including 3+ Blackpolls, a BT Green, a Parula, and a Nashville.

Thursday 9/22: Cambridge Res at lunch: 5 yellowlegs, both Greater and Lesser. Not a whole lot else, Spotted Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpiper, Killdeer, herons. Blackpoll from the yard.

Friday 9/23: Purgatory Cove: 6 GW Teal, 1 BW Teal, 1 Wigeon, 1 PB Grebe.

Saturday 9/24: Purgatory Cove w/parents (and Bob): 7 GW Teal, 2 BW Teal, 2 Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs. Cambridge Res in the afternoon: 2 Parula, 1 Black-and-white, 1 Blackpoll, 1 Yellow-rump, 5 Solitary Sandpiper.

Sunday 9/25: Led MBC walk in Lincoln. Found mosquitos and eventually a Baltimore Oriole. Nothing at Cambridge Res on way back.

Monday 9/26: Chased Chris Floyd’s Clay-colored Sparrow at Rock Meadow. Took my whole lunch break but did find it eventually. Greenway bird #160.

Missed a Dickcissel though even spending some time looking.

Tuesday 9/27: UMass Field Station looking for a Dickcissel of my own (2 now at Rock Meadow) but not much of anything.