No point in using the week part now but I’ll still post one as I find something worth posting.
Wishful thinking or not?
Like the last one, this is a reused photo so clicking on it gives it away.
Category: nature
Place 9 – Fresh Pond
This is the time of year to visit Fresh Pond in Cambridge. It’s by far the easiest place around to find Canvasback and there are often other interesting ducks as well. On the whole, I don’t like the place but make a trip or two each year.
I normally park along Huron Ave as it’s the closest point for me, but there is (or was, not sure about current access) some public parking at Neville Manor and you can always park at the mall and work your way over. Cambridge residents can park near the waterworks (and can also let their dogs run free unfortunately). Those entrances are much closer to where the birds tend to hang out if you want to drop in and not walk all around. Other than circling the pond, Lusitania Meadow often has good passerines.
Fresh Pond is covered well elsewhere, so start with The Friends and go from there for more information.
Week 12 Answer
So we have a dragonfly. By the apparent large size, striped thorax, spotted abdomen, and vertical hanging, it’s one of the darners. We can eliminate Common Green and Comet by the lack of a solid thorax, Springtime, Harlequin, and Taper-tailed by date. Swamp and Cyrano have a more ringed appearance. Spatterdock has bright blue eyes. That leaves the genus Aeshna, of which there are quite a few in Massachusetts.
We can eliminate Mottled on thoracic pattern right away but several others are close. However, looking at the appendages we can see that they are fairly expanded and paddle-ish. Only Lance-tipped and Shadow match those. Lance-tipped is eliminated by the thoracic pattern, which would be more jagged. Shadow normally shows thin stripes with a slight triangle extending from the rear of the front one, which this one shows.
Shadow Darners are among the most common darners, especially late in the season. In fact, after the first week or two of September, I assume it’s a Shadow unless otherwise. They’re relatively darker than most others and often fly very low to the ground, which makes them much easier to observe. They can fly quite late (I just had my first November record the other day, so they may still be out there now).
Scoters!
Big fallout inland today. There was a very large flock on the Cambridge Reservoir and then a smaller flock on Flint’s Pond in Lincoln. How many can you count in each?
The Res flock:
View it full size to count better
Flint’s (this one was digiscoped, didn’t even realize it was possible with a 100-400 until I tried):
I see about 130 on the Res and about 45 in the other. Both flocks were flying around for a minute or two and I got the same count on the Flint’s flock at that point. The Res flock was too big to count, especially on the water where they were constantly moving in front of each other and very tightly clumped.
White-crowneds
These two immature White-crowned Sparrows were at Great Meadows on 10/13. Gambel’s, Eastern, or integrade? I’m not sure if I have both birds shown singly or if I ended up with 6 of the same one.
259
Thanks to Marj for Middlesex county #259.
Other highlights on the day included a White-eyed Vireo (unfortunately the only photo I snapped was of a blog going behind branches) and some great deals on books. And Pyle Pt. 2 came in the mail, more on that soon.
Place 8 – Quabbin Overlook
The Quabbin Overlook in the center of New Salem isn’t particularly well known (I think I’ve seen exactly 1 post on Massbird mentioning it). It also probably doesn’t have a whole lot of wildlife compared to other parts of the Quabbin and the area, but the view is great.
The trail is also very short, so it’s very easy to run up, check, and run back. I’ve yet to find much along the trail, but most of my trips have been at lousy times of day so that may not mean much.
To reach the overlook, follow the road next to the fire station. It leads down to some playing fields (edges of which are worth checking) and then to a small parking area. The trail starts here and is easy enough to follow. There’s some nice blueberry patches early and then a wooded section before reaching the overlook.
Although I haven’t seen a whole lot from there, several sightings were quite memorable. One of my first good looks at a Scarlet Tanager was a bird that popped up in one of the trees just down the slope (so it was right at eye level). And another time, the loons down in the water were calling loudly enough to be heard from up above. And one day, I’m sure there will be a moose swimming through the water.
Week 12
Taken September 2005 at Prospect Hill. And since I’ve used this photo elsewhere, it’s already tagged, so click for the answer if you’re impatient.
eBird and Avisys
Hey, look at that. About time and about time I upgraded from 4.5. I may be able to hold off on writing my own stuff for awhile now.
Duck Hunt
My field trip to the Waltham St. Fields had a rather interesting experience today. We saw a large, immature Cooper’s Hawk sitting in the trees along the channel. Once we got up to the water, we were getting good looks at the Wood Ducks and Green-winged Teal that were mixed in with the Mallards when the hawk decided it wanted one for lunch. It dropped over the water and hovered above the ducks for several seconds. The ducks flapped but didn’t take off and the hawk had to return to the trees. This repeated several times and by the third or fourth time I remembered I had my camera. Pictures aren’t great, but they do show a bit of the action.
The hawk was clearly concentrating on the smaller ducks but the ducks were smart enough to stay on the water, so it remained empty-taloned.
