Category: nature

WIR 2/4-2/10

Wednesday 2/4: Tree Sparrow in the yard finally.

Thursday 2/5: Eh

Friday 2/6: Got out of work early so made the quick stop at the Wayland Town Building that I’ve been skipping because of traffic. Couple hoodies, lots of blacks/mallards, and a few geese were it.

Saturday 2/7: Went looking for Redhead along the river. No luck with that but Lesser Scaup and Green-winged Teal were nice. Continued to Moody St, which was frozen but decided to walk anyway (redpoll or Bohemian in mind). Creeper was a nice surprise halfway down, but something was better at the other end. Nothing new on the way back and a very quick check of the Watertown end was totally frozen.

Sunday 2/8: Eh

Monday 2/9: Eh

Tuesday 2/10: Sigh

WIR 1/28-2/3

Wednesday 1/28: Flicker across the street and Cooper’s were about it for additions to yesterday’s list.

Thursday 1/29: Nothing.

Friday 1/30: Nothing.

Saturday 1/31: Too windy.

Sunday 2/1: River walk about the same. Watertown end mostly frozen but about the same. Great Cormorants at Mystic Lakes. Hermit Thrush but little else at Dunback. Hairy in the yard.

Monday 2/2: More snow, nothing good at the feeders.

Tuesday 2/3: Cold/snow.

WIR 1/21-1/27

Wednesday 1/21: Flyover redpoll and distant calling Fish Crow at Dunback.

Thursday 1/22: Nothing new along the riverwalk.

Friday 1/23: Sharpie at Lindentree, which probably kept everything else down.

Saturday 1/24: Too snowy but Carolina Wren in the yard for the first time in several months.

Sunday 1/25: Redpolls, bluebirds, and Purple Finches at Dunback. Nothing exciting at Lot 1.

Monday 1/26: Few Ring-necks on the river on Pelham Island Rd plus an eagle further up 27.

Tuesday 1/27: Tons of the usual but nothing good at the feeders.

WIR 1/14-1/20

Wednesday 1/14: Did the river a bit. Eagle, same ducks, probable flock of redpolls.

Thursday 1/15: Only had time for a 2 minute scan of Pelham Island Rd, where a bluebird was the only thing of any interest.

Friday 1/16: Red-wings and bluebirds at Heard Farm.

Saturday 1/17: Too cold for me.

Sunday 1/18: Long walk around BBN and Rock Meadow. Sapsucker at RM, 2 Winter Wrens at BBN were most of it. Except for one of those 5 minutes of magic: 1-3 Yellow-rumps, 2 Ravens, and a Pintail all at Mackerel Hill.

Pintail

Monday 1/19: Two eagles (1 banded!) at Forest Grove, nothing else exciting.

Tuesday 1/20: Absolutely nothing at College Pond.

WIR 1/7-1/13

Wednesday 1/7: Still too cold.

Thursday 1/8: Even colder but took the car out to let it run a bit. Geese, Mallards, Black Ducks, Ring-necks, and swans on the res.

Friday 1/9: Woodpecker

Saturday 1/10: River: 1-2 pintails (Newton and Prospect St), Iceland Gull, most of the expected wintering ducks. Twelve coots at the res.

Sunday 1/11: Dunback: no redpolls still but the Barred Owl was around again and a Purple Finch and Swamp Sparrow were new for the year.

Monday 1/12: Rather nasty out, wasn’t it?

Tuesday 1/13: Looped School St to Nine Acre without much (good number of larks, too windy to scope anything good among them). Coots and an eagle at the res.

WIR 12/31-1/6

Wednesday 12/31: Looking for one last year bird in Waltham. Winter Wren at BBN, Savannah Sparrow at the field station, lots of ducks on the res but nothing new.

Thursday 1/1: Surprisingly little on the BBC trip, but one bird was enough.

Friday 1/2: Dunback had a Barred Owl, sapsucker, 2 ravens, a towhee, and 19 Red-wings. Cackling Geese were still at Clay Pit. Nothing exciting along the river.

Saturday 1/3: 55+ Tree Sparrows at BBN, 20 more at the field station.

Sunday 1/4: Quick check of the res was pretty much the same as the 1st: 1 eagle, 25 wigeon, 10 scaup, 90 Ring-necks, 100 Hoodies, etc.

Monday 1/5: Too windy to do much, but cruised a few of the ponds. Shovelers at Arlington Res and an eagle at Mystic Lakes were about it.

Tuesday 1/6: Too cold and snow started before I got energy to go out.

2014

January:

County Glaucous

February:

Red-shoulder

March:

Scaup

April:

Caspian Tern 5 Horned Grebes and a Long-tailed Duck Glaucous

May:

Black-necked Stilt Ruff Fork-tailed

June:

Spatterdock

July:

Sora Rufous Hummingbird Wood Turtle Brush-tipped Golden-winged!

August:

Whimbrel Mating Red-bellies Silver-bordered Fritillary

September:

Kingbird

October:

Leach's Storm-Petrel Long-billed White-winged Scoters

November:

Longspur Cackling Goose

No travel, which needs to change. Only 1 lifer (Ruff), but 8 county birds (Glaucous Gull, Caspian Tern, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Rufous Hummingbird, Whimbrel, Long-billed Dowitcher, Leach’s Storm-Petrel, Lapland Longspur), and the tern and hummer were state birds as well (plus the Ruff obviously). Only 1 new bird for the Beaver Brook/Rock Meadow patch (Lesser Yellowlegs), but 7 for the Charles (Red-shouldered Hawk, Fox Sparrow, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ovenbird, Yellow-breasted Chat, Scarlet Tanager, and Tennessee Warbler). Caspian Tern was the only Waltham addition. Five for the yard (GH Owl, YB Cuckoo, Raven, Peregrine, BG Gnatcatcher).

Insectwise, White Corporal, Golden-winged Skimmer, and Brush-tipped Emerald were new odes in the county. Bog Copper and Silver-bordered Fritillary were state and county butterflies.

As for my county tick project, I broke 100 in 16 cities and am pushing towards 3000 town ticks.

Goals for next year: county ode list to 100 (9 away), county list to 295 (4 away), life list to 600 (40+ away), catch up with a few of the overdue state birds. And get the rest of the 2-town area over 100 (Burlington and Weston easy, Winchester, Arlington, and Bedford maybe).