Month: June 2014

Wednesday 6/18: Explored the Old Rifle Range in Concord for the first time in a couple years. Heard a waterthrush, otherwise nothing terribly exciting.

Thursday 6/19: Went northwest. Lots of warblers at Willard Brook plus dragonflies and butterflies all over.

Friday 6/20: Eagle and Broad-wing from the yard.

Saturday 6/21: Walked to Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Finally got a patch Pine Warbler for the year plus 2 Blue-fronted Dancers and a Snapping Turtle.

Sunday 6/22: First Familiar Bluets of the year at Prospect Hill and that was about it.

Monday 6/23: Usual stuff Rock Meadow, Lone Tree Hill, and duck ponds. Nice Leptogaster flavipes at LTH.

Tuesday 6/24: Mary Cummings Park was fairly quiet. Not sure I’ve seen a Bank Swallow away from water or a colony before.

Wednesday 6/11: Thought I heard a raven from the yard but not quite confident. River walk and duck ponds were pretty quiet.

Thursday 6/12: Great Meadows was mostly quiet. Pied-billed Grebe was out in the open and finally caught up with a Least Bittern. Stopped at Meriam’s Corner on the way home and found them mowing, so didn’t walk around.

Friday 6/13: Had some business in Somerville so stopped at the Earhart Dam and picked up Common Tern (plus a few night-herons, swallows, etc). Also had a new yard mammal with a Red Squirrel (and the black one showed up for the first time in a couple months).

Saturday 6/14: Decided to give the allergies a day off.

Sunday 6/15: Dunback late morning had fewer butterflies than I hoped. Slender Spreadwing and a Redstart were about it.

Monday 6/16: Paine for a change. Heard ravens, plus Painted Skimmer and a couple other things. Great Meadows midmorning had a singing Yellow-throated Vireo (across the river though) and a Mink being mobbed by a Red-winged Blackbird.

Tuesday 6/17: Did a pretty thorough walk around BBN was fairly quiet for 40 species. Redstart was probably the highlight for birds but a perched Prince Baskettail was very nice.

Wednesday 6/4: Rock Meadow survey got canceled as we thought it was raining too heavily. Rain promptly stopped, so both Bob and I ended up at Great Meadows, although nothing exciting.

Thursday 6/5: Survey squeezed in between the fog clearing and rain starting. Nothing different and nothing else for the rest of the day.

Friday 6/6: Went to explore a bit in Weston, but the area I thought was on the right side of the line along 117 turned out to be almost all Lincoln land trust land. Nice place though with a River Jewelwing and Marsh Bluets in addition to the regular birds. Cat Rock Park after had more of the same and the parent ravens flying over.

Saturday 6/7: Poked around the duck ponds midday without anything of interest.

Sunday 6/8: Minuteman survey (very) early. Couldn’t get a Veery this year and all the singing redstarts shut up doing the actual survey periods but otherwise fairly good. Scanned for Least Bittern at the tower at Great Meadows for a few minutes after with no luck and then jogged a short distance down the trail for some close Virginia Rails (but no Sora).

Monday 6/9: Busy with other things.

Tuesday 6/10: BBN to Lot 1: 2+ ravens and a Painted Skimmer, not a whole lot else.

Wednesday 5/28: Rock Meadow survey in the rain was lousy. Went to Great Meadows after but only managed 2 Semipalmated Plovers.

Thursday 5/29: Wandered Lincoln a bit, nothing unusual. Crow mobbing a Red-tail and being mobbed by a Bobolink was interesting.

Friday 5/30: Habitat survey was quiet. Bob and I went up to Essex county after. Started with Yellow-throated Vireo, Alder Flycatcher, a few warblers, and 3 cuckoos at Martin Burns. Yellow-bellied and Olive-sided Flycatchers at Plum. 

And this:

Saturday 5/31: Wandered a bit in Bedford and then to the Cranberry Bog for odes. Not much of anything anywhere. Did get a few first of year odes including New England Bluet and Lilypad Forktail.

Sunday 6/1: Led a Great Meadows trip. Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a late coot were highlights.

Monday 6/2: Rock Meadow survey was overrun by young starlings. Walked through BBN with Bob after, 4 Blue-winged Warblers and a cuckoo were nice but a Fisher was a big highlight. Lousy photo but excellent views:

Tuesday 6/3: Habitat survey was fairly quiet. Went up to Dunstable for odes and stuff after. The good stuff (a spiketail and an interesting looking emerald) got away but the usual stuff was around.