WIR 3/16-3/22

Wednesday 3/16: Rained heavily. Hardy Pond still mostly frozen. I saw about 10 gulls and 3 swans.

Thursday 3/17: Poked around BBN. Path to the West Meadow was flooded. Not much of interest but everything around was singing. Couple black ducks in the flooded marsh on Concord Ave, need to keep checking it.

Friday 3/18: Paine. Robins, robins, and robins. Surprised no butterflies. Walked to end of the street at night hoping for woodcock. No luck there but at least 4 peepers were singing.

Saturday 3/19: Started at Rock Meadow. Singing Fox Sparrow and nest-building bluebirds were quite nice. Continued to BBN where 2 Killdeer flew over. West Meadow was pretty quiet (and windy). Walked back down Concord Ave. The marsh had more black ducks but nothing else. Back at Rock Meadow, a Double-crested Cormorant flew over (looked falconlike to the naked eye, took a second with binoculars). Continued on, but that’s posted elsewhere. Also good number of Fish Crows at Shopper’s World.

Bluebird

Killdeer

Double-crested

[audio:http://www.brewsterslinnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/fox.mp3|titles=Fox Sparrow] Fox Sparrow Audio (does the audio player work for anyone?)

Sunday 3/20: Afternoon loop: presumed Green-winged Teal at northern end of Cambridge Res, Bald Eagle over Crosby’s Corner, nothing at the School St fields, 80 Ring-necks, 1 Bufflehead, 2 Wood Duck, 1 Common Merganser, 30ish Tree Swallows, 1 Eastern Phoebe along Water Row. No geese at Waltham St. Very good evening show of woodcocks at Lot 1 with at least 5 calling and several close flights. Do wish the mallard had shut up though.

Monday 3/21: Hardy Pond. Cold and hard to see through the snow but about 12 Common Mergansers and 3 Ring-necks.

Tuesday 3/22: Duck ponds had a swan, which is a patch tick for the Beaver Brook/Rock Meadow reduced patch (141 now that I’ve rechecked things and added the stuff from Concord Ave), but not exactly exciting. Bufflehead on Hardy Pond from the house later.

White-fronts

I took a walk around the Waltham St. Fields for snipe yesterday. Or at least I started to, halfway around I bumped into these guys and couldn’t check the rest of the fields:

White-fronts

White-fronts

Two young Greater White-fronted Geese!

Sun was pretty bad there but note pinkish bills.

I ran home to post them and then returned to show my parents. Scoping from the street they looked more orange-billed (not that the bills show here):

White-fronts

Marj soon showed up and we reentered the fields and were able to get fairly close. Bill color looks a bit pinker again but the right one is still quite orange. Also note how little (if any) white there is on that one, seems rather late to be so limited.

White-fronts

White-fronts

WIR 3/9-3/15

Wednesday 3/9: Started to walk at Prospect Hill but it was windy and nasty so drove around the Cambridge Res instead (frozen, but Turkey Vulture over 128) and then Hardy Pond (also frozen).

Thursday 3/10: Wigeon on the Charles (just after the railroad bridge), nothing else new.

Friday 3/11: Nothing

Saturday 3/12: Started the day with a Hairy at the feeder, then joined the Menotomy walk at Horn Pond. Too crowded but Saw-whet was nice as were first of year Killdeer, Brown-headed Cowbird, and White-crowned Sparrow. Went to look at the big redpoll flock in Concord in the afternoon. Couldn’t find any Hoaries but nice views of lots of Commons. Also had a stonefly.

Red-tail

Sunday 3/13: Tried the redpolls again. Flock was up towards 200 and included at least one siskin. Several good candidates for Hoary but none sat still long enough to go over all the marks (which is exactly what people we were with posted although others reported 1 both days).

Monday 3/14: Purgatory Cove: 1 Gadwall, 40ish Ring-neck, 2 Wood Duck, 12+ Common Merganser, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 1 Great Cormorant (in the same tree!), and the Lesser Black-backed Gull finally reappeared.

Tuesday 3/15: Rock Meadow had 2-3 bluebirds (pair in the trees by Concord Ave and a female checking out the closest nest box to the trail towards the back) but not much else.

WIR 3/2-3/8

Wednesday 3/2: Forest Grove was pretty quiet (2 Ring-necks was about it). Also a couple Hoodies at the boat ramp.

Thursday 3/3: Too cold.

Friday 3/4: Prospect Hill was quiet.

Saturday 3/5: Indoors at the Birder’s Meeting all day. Good stuff although felt like it was too nice to be inside when I left (did cloud right over again).

Sunday 3/6: Moody St area. Wigeon was around and there was a slightly leucistic starling but not much else. Woerd Ave and Charlesbank didn’t have much more.

Wigeon

Starling

Monday 3/7: Checked the field station and Lyman Pond, nothing.

Tuesday 3/8: Nothing new at the duck ponds.

WIR 2/23-3/1

Wednesday 2/23: Hairy putting on a good show at the end of the street. Interesting call down there as well.

Thursday 2/24: Redpoll flew over the street. Grackle as I got out of the car at work. Charles had about the same including the funky goldeneye back with one of the young males.

Friday 2/25: Rainy.

Saturday 2/26: Menotomy trip to Plum and vicinity. Highlights included about 9 Bald Eagles, a Rough-legged Hawk, and a Northern Shrike. Pictures sooner or later.

Sunday 2/27: Too snowy and nothing of note in the yard.

Monday 2/28: Surprisingly not rainy. Charles had 17 Ring-necks, 2 coot, 1 goldeneye (regular-looking female). Thankfully that should be the last date the Ring-necks and coots show up on the eBird gadget.

Tuesday 3/1: Blackbird explosion down the street with 20+ grackles and 5+ Red-wings. Two tree sparrows were nice as well. Beaver Brook Ponds had nothing different at lunch beyond a Turkey Vulture flying up Mill St.

 

WIR 2/16-2/22

Wednesday 2/16: Forest Grove, pretty quiet. Big flock of ducks in one of the little open spots but appeared to be all Mallard. Crows were going slightly crazy directly over where I parked and on return, I heard a Great Horned Owl calling (12:40 in the afternoon, rather odd). Eventually found it in the tree next to the car.

Thursday 2/17: Turkey Vulture over Waverly Oaks Rd and Beaver St. Not much at Beaver Brook (although black duck was apparently new for me there). Two Wood Ducks in front of the YMCA.

Friday 2/18: Charles: Scaup back, 19 Ring-necks, 4 Hoodie, no Common Merg, no Goldeneye, no Fish Crow. At the Newton St overlook, there were 8 Wood Ducks walking on the opposite shore (a good couple feet from the edge). A few feet further on, I watched 6 Wood Ducks flying off to the north and there were only two in that spot when I returned, so looks like they mostly moved on.

Saturday 2/19: Too windy

Sunday 2/20: Drove around the Sudbury River Valley a bit. Bluebird at Nine Acre Corner, 1 Ring-neck and 1 Common Merganser at River Rd, nothing else. Charlesbank had 8 Ring-necks and 4 Hoodies. Nothing at Forest Grove. Four blackbird sp down the street.

Monday 2/21: Stayed in.

Tuesday 2/22: Duck ponds. Very little open but a kingfisher was a nice surprise.

Upcoming Yardbirds

Meant to post something like this at 95 but not long after 96 will do as well.

What will be yard birds #97-100?

Some background: yard is pretty standard suburban-sized lot. Back yard is surrounded b spruces and has lots of feeders and a big raspberry patch. Front yard is grass with some bushes and an apple tree. Side street ends at a marshy spot about 1/4 of a mile away. I can see a sliver of Hardy Pond as well. I count anything seen or heard from, in, or over the yard.

My picks:
1. Common Raven
2. Bald Eagle
3. Blue-headed Vireo
4. American Coot

Anyone else want to guess? (full list plus candidates from nearby after the jump)
Continue reading Upcoming Yardbirds

WIR 2/9-2/15

Wednesday 2/9: Meh

Thursday 2/10: Did Paine for the first time in a while. Will be some time before I bother again as the total list for 20 minutes walking was 1 Mourning Dove and 1 American Crow.

Friday 2/11: Rock Meadow was very quiet.

Saturday 2/12: Extended Charles plus a chipmunk in the yard.

Sunday 2/13: Dunback had lots of chickadees and Blue Jays and pretty much nothing else. Cambridge Res had nothing.

Monday 2/14: Prospect Hill, pretty quiet.

Tuesday 2/15: Too cold.

Extended Charles

I finally got around to checking the Watertown side of the Charles on Saturday. Nothing unexpected but there was a good lesson in there.

At the bridge over the river, I had one Ring-neck, a couple Hoodies, and at least 15 black ducks mixed in with the Mallards. Crossing the bridge, I decided it was probably a good idea to put on the yaktrax-type things (first time I’ve done so and they’re well worth it). Down at the first overlook there was a small flock of Common Mergansers. On a later scan, one of the females looked a bit smaller and thinner-billed and had a dusky chest. Red-breasted! A quick snap or two and off I went.

Merganser Mix?

Further down was a flock of Ring-necks and a young male goldeneye.

Young Goldeneye

Reaching Bridge St, I moved to the other side of the river and headed back. A Cooper’s was feasting (bad light so no photo right now). Back at the Ring-necks, I noticed a second young goldeneye.

Goldeneye

The merganser was here as well (at least it wasn’t back with the others so I assume it was the same).

With the Watertown section completed, I decided I might as well check the Waltham side too. A couple Fish Crows were calling in the parking lot and most of the Mallards and geese were on land. Down at the Newton St overlook were the two coots and a few Ring-necks.

Crossing over, there were about 30 more Ring-necks here (no scaup though) and a couple more goldeneye including an adult male.

Common

I decided to continue walking to Moody and Prospect St. That part’s still totally frozen and there were no interesting gulls on the ice. At the little opening by Prospect St, I found one Common Merganser in with the Mallards and after extended scanning, finally picked up the American Wigeon. On the way back, two Fish Crows were chasing a Red-tail around. At the fruiting trees I heard a waxwing and eventually found a flock of about 16 nearby. Hopefully they’ll take a few days to get through all the food.

Back at Elm St, the yellow-billed goldeneye was back and looked slightly more like a Barrow’s today (comments please).

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

Pretty quiet from here back to the car. However, at the bridge there was a close merganser that I presumed was again the same.

Merg

Back at the car, I spent a few minutes going through the gulls (a Russo’s truck was dumping baked goods and created quite a frenzy). Nothing unusual and I couldn’t refind the tagged one but Fish Crows were up to 5. From here it was back home.

Back at home, I quickly downloaded photos and sent out a quick message. A few hours later I went to enter the day into Avisys and pulled up the photos again. Suddenly the bill on the merganser didn’t look quite so long and thin and the first shot was showing a really strong contrast between the head and neck. Outside of the chest and white loral stripe, it looked pretty normal for a Common. Guessing a bit of retained juvenal plumage (and the small size means it was a late hatch?). Another reminder to go over every feature.

WIR 2/2-2/8

Wednesday 2/2: Snowed in.

Thursday 2/3: Managed a bit of the river walk. Two Fish Crows in the parking lot, coot at the bridge, and a couple ring-necks and mergansers. River was mostly frozen.

Friday 2/4: Duck ponds kinda sorta. One step in and I was knee-deep in snow, so didn’t walk around.

Saturday 2/5: More or less stayed home. Quick run around the Cambridge Res for the coyote show (raven show was over).

Sunday 2/6: Charles

Monday 2/7: Prospect Hill. Lots of robins and not much else. Might have had something by climbing over the snowbanks and checking the base but not on my lunch hour.

Tuesday 2/8: Charles again but it was raining so just stared at gulls (and a Fish Crow) in the parking lot.