WIR 6/21-6/27

Monday 6/21: Paine, not too much exciting. Couple interesting darners stayed too high to ID.

Tuesday 6/22: Didn’t get out.

Wednesday 6/23: Charles at lunch. Very few odes (few bluets, 1 baskettail, 1 slaty skimmer) but an Orchard Oriole was a nice surprise. Very early migrant or overlooked here? Also a family of mallards was running around the neighborhood in the afternoon, hope they made it across Trapelo safely.

Thursday 6/24 to Sunday 6/27: At the Dragonfly Society of the Americas annual meeting. Separate post sooner or later but highlights included getting a nemesis bird on the way up, 6 species of Ophiogomphus and 2 Neurocordulia plus various butterflies and a moose.

DSA time

I never got around to posting about the DSA Northeast Meeting from last July, but it’s time for the annual meeting. Here’s a couple videos that somehow star me from last year to give a taste.

 

(there’s 1:15 of not much happening in the second one before I pop up)

Would have been nicer if I wasn’t swinging and missing as much.

Thanks to Meena Haribal for posting these videos.

WIR 6/14-6/20

Monday 6/14: Paine: first Banded Hairstreak of the year plus a Painted Skimmer and Scarlet Tanagers right at the parking lot.

Tuesday 6/15: Duck ponds had a good selection of dragonflies and a kingfisher.

Wednesday 6/16: Prospect Hill was quiet (barely any bugs even).

Thursday 6/17: Charles was pretty quiet. Lots of swallows, a juvenal Wood Duck, fledgling House Wren, couple dancers that got away.

Friday 6/18: BBN had lots of the regular stuff but nothing really of note.

Saturday 6/19: Trail building at Shady Pond all day. Usual forest birds sang a bit but didn’t seem much. One interesting bluet (Skimming?).

Sunday 6/20: Didn’t really get out as had some computer things to deal with. While running up to Nashua, made brief stop in Tyngsboro to see if the Willow Flycatchers were singing. They weren’t but one of the Osprey passed over and both Green and Great Blue Herons flew over Rt. 3.

WsIR 5/31-6/13

Two weeks since I forgot to post the previous one.

Monday 5/31: Main highlight, but an Ebony Jewelwing in the yard wasn’t bad either.

Tuesday 6/1: Prospect Hill was quiet. Didn’t get a good look as they went into the sun but pretty sure a Red-spotted Purple was chasing a White(ish) Admiral.

Wednesday 6/2: Looks like I didn’t do anything.

Thursday 6/3: Paine, quiet.

Friday 6/4: West Meadow. Turkey, meadowhawk, etc.

Saturday 6/5: Allergies bothering me, stayed in.

Sunday 6/6: BBC walk at Great Meadows, pretty quiet. Hooded Merganser, Pied-billed Grebe, not much else. Rained the rest of the day.

Monday 6/7: Prospect Hill, quieter than last week.

Tuesday 6/8: Prospect Hill again (base today). Not much for birds but a Familiar Bluet partway up. Small swarm of saddlebags, green darner, spot-winged glider at the base. Noticed a different looking darner among them and grabbed the net. Turned out to be the state-listed Spatterdock Darner! No camera unfortunately.

Wednesday 6/9: Day off for Minuteman Survey (nothing different, numbers seemed a bit low but tons of traffic noise). Then ran up to Dunstable where I got Bobolink within safe dates and added Savannah Sparrow as well. No luck with any Empids though.

Thursday 6/10: Purgatory Cove/Forest Grove. Cloudy and quiet.

Friday 6/11: BBN had a Wild Turkey with at least 1 robin-sized chick. Also first of year Painted Skimmer.

Saturday 6/12: Probably posting separately but northern NH. Filled in the gaps that were Bicknell’s Thrush and Black-backed Woodpecker plus Rusty Blackbird and other stuff. Also several good butterflies including Arctic Skipper.

Sunday 6/13: Made a late morning trip to Arlington Great Meadows hoping for Alder Flycatcher. No luck with that (or Willow) but the usual stuff was around. Stopped at the Waltham St. Fields on the way home and got very wet.

Long Weekend

Too long to write about, so here’s some photos in reverse order.

Lancet

Lancet Clubtail, Nashua

Cyrano

Cyrano Darner (posed), Dunstable

Cyrano

Cyrano Darner in hand, Dunstable

Frosted Whiteface, Dunstable

Great Crested

Great Crested Flycatcher just after a dustbath, Acton

Calico

Calico Pennant, Assabet River NWR

Harlequin

Harlequin

Harlequin Darner, Assabet River NWR

Racket-tail

Racket-tailed Emerald, Assabet River NWR

Petite?

Petite? Emerald, Assabet River NWR (plus friend)

Veery

Veery, Assabet River NWR

Chalky

Chalk-fronted Corporal, Assabet River NWR

Harlequins

Harlequin Darners, Assabet River NWR

185

Took a few tries (midday heat and checking 20 yards over) but finally found the Yellow-throated Vireo this morning.

Yellow-throat

Parking lot is in Waltham, so standing there until he sang got me #185.

WIR 5/24-5/30

Monday 5/24: West Meadow had an Orchard Oriole and not much else.

Tuesday 5/25: Tried for the nesting Yellow-throated Vireos at Forest Grove. Guessing the midday heat was the issue as I didn’t see them. Yet another Orchard Oriole and a presumed Cyrano Darner were about the only things of interest.

Wednesday 5/26: Prospect Hill before work was very quiet. Paine at lunch wasn’t much better (Indian Skipper was about it).

Thursday 5/27: Duck ponds were very quiet.

Friday 5/28: BBN before work had Willow Flycatcher and many, many mosquitos. Tried Forest Grove again and didn’t find the vireos again (apparently for a reason). Lots of woodpeckers and more Willow Flycatchers along with the same(?) Cyrano Darner.

Saturday 5/29: Probably posting separately for the weekend, but Assabet River NWR. No luck with goshawks but I spent most of my time watching dragonflies. Also checked Fort Pond Brook on the way home for more.

Sunday 5/30: Atlas run to Dunstable. Confirmed Wild Turkey and Prairie Warbler, would have added Bobolink and Willow Flycatcher but not in safe dates yet. Lots of good dragonflies as well.

WIR 5/17-5/23

Monday 5/17: BBN at lunch. No luck with the Hooded Warbler (eventually reported to have been present earlier in the morning) but a first spring Orchard Oriole wasn’t bad. Good number of butterflies, plus a Common Whitetail on the ride over.

Tuesday 5/18: Checked Paine. School group was running around screaming and the birds were slow. Spicebush Swallowtail was the only thing of note.

Wednesday 5/19: Checked Hardy Pond briefly in the rain, 7 cormorants were it.

Thursday 5/20: Prospect Hill before work had a few things (gate wasn’t open for some reason so I had to run up the hill and didn’t really reach the areas I wanted to check) including a Chestnut-sided or two, a Northern Waterthrush, and first of year Peck’s Skipper. The Charles at lunch was quiet but an Ebony Jewelwing flew in front of the car on the way back. After work was better and a nighthawk overhead around 7 was a good conclusion.

Friday 5/21: Beaver Brook: Bluebird, Swainson’s Thrush, Magnolia Warbler, Empid sp, plus a bunch more jewelwings.

Saturday 5/22: Joined the MBC walk at Horn Pond. Fairly slow, first of year Willow Flycatchers being the highlight. Couple of us continued on nearby and got audio of a Mourning Warbler that was hanging out.

Sunday 5/23: MBC Century Run, more coming but we fell a bit short.

184

Finally, a 2010 tick.

Olive-sided

Olive-sided Flycatcher, Metropolitan Parkway South, #184 in Waltham (thanks Paul)

Into the afternoon sun at a good distance so this is the best out of 15 or so shots.

Birdathon 2010

Saturday was Mass Audubon’s annual birdathon. Because I lead the Sunday Mt. Auburn trip, I try to avoid going all out and decided to stick to Waltham as much as possible.

The event actually starts at 6PM Friday, so I stepped outside just after 6 to get the yard birds out of the way. The fourth bird I saw was an Osprey, only the second yard record! It circled a bit and after being slightly confused about how it was moving, I realized there was a second bird following it!

Since my mother’s taking an art class and takes the bus from Waverly, we headed to Beaver Brook early (she can walk over from there). It seemed a bit quieter than it was on Friday, but I got a few warblers including the Magnolia in the same spot. I heard what sounded like another Magnolia nearby but spent a few minutes trying to see it. That proved to be a good idea as a White-crowned Sparrow popped out of the bushes before the Magnolia did.

The next stop was the Beaver Brook Ponds, where I had the only Red-eyed Vireo, Spotted Sandpiper, and Solitary Sandpiper of the day and not much else. From here, I was dropped off at Rock Meadow and began to walk home (so much for taking it easy). The first bird out of the car was an Indigo Bunting, but after that the wind got in the way. I did have a Brown Thrasher, 2 Bobolinks, and a pair of Orchard Orioles but not much else.

Moving on to the shelter of Met State, it was fairly quiet for a few minutes but reaching the hill things got interesting. About halfway up I heard an interesting call note that I assumed was a thrush. Waiting for it to appear, I ended up with an Ovenbird and Canada Warbler (greenway tick #1). No idea if one of those made the call or not. Further on, I got a bit distracted by butterflies including my first Little Wood Satyrs of the year and a bunch of Hobomok Skippers.

Wood Satyr

Bum

The Blue-winged Warblers were quiet here, but Indigo Buntings and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks weren’t. Moving past the water tower, I heard a loud song coming from the side of the hill. It sounded a lot like a Hooded Warbler but I couldn’t find it. I decided to try from below and rushed down and around but couldn’t find it there either. Circling back up, it was still singing so I bushwhacked in a bit until I got stopped by a large raspberry patch. Fortunately that was far enough in.

Hooded

Hooded

After watching him for a few minutes, I moved on. The parkway was fairly quiet beyond a Killdeer, so I crossed to the West Meadow.

The marsh is still pretty battered and there wasn’t a whole lot there, so I moved through quickly. In the short stretch of woods on the other side, I was rather surprised by a singing Bobolink. No luck finding it through all the leaves though.

Moving on to Lot 1, I bushwhacked up. In the woods I found a redstart and down at the meadow, a Blue-winged Warbler finally sang. The pond had a family of Wood Ducks but not much else, so I headed home.

After a quick snack break, we headed out to pick my mother up. A quick circle of the hill at Met State failed to find the Hooded again, so it was home for lunch and then out again for the afternoon.

The first stop was Prospect Hill. Butterflies were fairly good, but other than a Pine Warbler I found very little so we moved on to the Charles. The usual birds were out and a Barn Swallow was a bonus flyover.

At home, I did a quick tally and found I was in the mid 60’s, so with a few minutes left took a quick walk to Hardy Pond for Mute Swan and Double-crested Cormorant. House Finch on the way back was the final new bird of the day.

Of course, upon sending in the list, I entered the data and immediately noticed I left the 3 shorebirds and Savannah Sparrow off, so I actually had 71 on the day. Even better than I thought. Ad with a little more effort another 5-10 species would have been gettable, so well into the 80’s should be possible.