Category: nature

Never hit post on this, but fixing the date now.

Yesterday was a long day. I was out of the house and at Minuteman NHP in place to do my yearly survey at 5AM. The survey involves 7 stations and a 10 minute count at each one. Since the stations are all deep in the woods and it’s barely light out, it’s almost all by ear (although I did actually pick up a Wood Thrush and Scarlet Tanager by sight this year). I forgot that I had broken my timer and couldn’t find a good replacement the night before, but lucked out in that my iPod happened to be on a song that was exactly nine minutes long, so I could check the time without too much difficulty. Next year, I’ll make up a 10 minute long blank file that will work perfectly.

With the survey done, I decided to stop in Concord and do a bit of atlas work. I started with a few of the farm fields near Nine Acre Corner. There weren’t many birds around (I did confirm Tufted Titmouse) but along the edge of one field, I found a bunch of nice dragonflies including several Chalk-fronted Corporals, my first Blue Dashers of the year (not that I won’t be seeing them by the thousands shortly), and one or two Delta-spotted Spiketails. Since I was out primarily for the survey, I left the camera at home, but here’s one from Lincoln a couple years ago:

I moved on and decided to drive down Old Road to Nine Acre Corner (quite the name). I saw a parking lot with signs that looked like a conservation area, so I pulled in. There was a big sign about staying on the trails and keeping dogs out of the fields to protect grassland birds, so I zipped down to the fields. There were at least 5 Bobolinks flying about, although they were all males. The field appears to have potential for some other stuff, but other than confirming Red-wing, the only thing of note I picked up were ticks (3 of which needed tweezers later).

I then headed to the Old Rifle Range to pick up pewee and a couple other birds that hadn’t been within safe dates when I last visited. I got all those and heard a somewhat surprising Veery and Ruby-throated Hummingbird (I’m guessing that’s the first heard only hummingbird I’ve recorded).

I then cruised past the Harrington fields and again didn’t find an entrance, but since I found the grassland stuff elsewhere, I’m less concerned now, so I continued to Knox Trail. There was a yard sale sign pointing down the road, even though the only buildings are part of an office park. That proved annoying as lots of cars were driving up and down. The Osprey was a no show and I’m wondering if the nest was abandoned as I’ve yet to see any activity on it but I did find an oriole nest and a few other things. There were plenty of dragonflies about, including first of year Slaty Skimmers and a Cyrano Darner that was making continuous circles along the water. It would have made for a nice photo but again, no camera so here’s one from last year:

Not the best view there, but it’s a big greenish darner with a huge forehead.

I went home for a long nap at this point.

At 6, we headed out for dinner. Two flat tires later, we ended up just getting pizza at home. But in the meantime, I built up quite a good list sitting on the side of the Pike including several Great Blue Herons, a Green Heron, and a couple huge flocks of blackbirds.

Yesterday (well Friday night and yesterday) was Mass Audubon’s annual birdathon. I’ve never really done it before (a few hours in the rain a couple years ago was it) and since I had Mt. Auburn duty the following morning, I didn’t want to go all out.

We started Friday night by walking up to Lot 1. The hope was for a late peenting woodcock but no luck with that. The resident Blue-winged Warbler was singing when we arrived and we heard several other birds that we wouldn’t get on Saturday. Even better, just as it got dusk, we noticed a big lump on one of the bare trees. A Great Horned Owl had slipped in and was sitting out in the open. It ignored us completely as we walked right by it on the way out.

On Saturday, we didn’t get going until close to 8. We started at the Concord heron rookery. Parking here is even more restricted than it was the last time I visited, but we lucked out and someone started to leave while I was turning around. The woods were quiet, but the herons were all over. We also had a couple Red-bellied Woodpeckers and a singing Brown Creeper. A Black-throated Blue Warbler sang a couple times along the road, which was pretty much the only migrant of the day. Unfortunately, the Pileated didn’t show in the minute or two we waited.

The next stop was the Old Rifle Range. On the way, we picked up two Eastern Bluebirds on the wires. At the Rifle Range, we were a bit distracted by some flowers that turned out to be Starflower. The hawks that I hoped for were not showing but we did have a hummingbird moving among the trees.

After a quick check of Knox Trail, we wandered around the little open area on the other side of the shopping center in Acton. Our first Indigo Bunting of the day and another Blue-winged Warbler were the avian highlights but the bugs were more interesting. There were many dragonflies around, mostly baskettails but also my first Common Whitetail of the year and a couple darners. The baskettails ran the range from no black on the wings to very extensive (Mantled?).

There were also many butterflies around including my first Pearl Crescents and Common Sootywing of the year. Several tiger beetles were in the sandier patches including Big Sand (C. formosa):

and mating Festive (C. scutellaris):

We moved on to Great Meadows, which was surprisingly quiet. There was a turtle walk going on, which made parking a mess. We ended up walking in from the water treatment plant. To make things worse, the trail to the left along the river was closed as it had started to erode at the grate. Most of the hoped for marsh birds were hiding and we didn’t find any sandpipers, but the moorhen was out in the open, with many other Birdathoners watching.

After a lunch break, we headed to Prospect Hill to see if the Hooded Warbler was still around. No luck with that and not much around. I missed a turkey but did get the only Herring Gull of the day. There were a few good insects around including my first Four-spotted Skimmers of the year and this Stream Cruiser:

That was pretty much the end of the day. At 5:30, we walked down to the corner and added Cedar Waxwing. I realized we didn’t have a pigeon and ran over to Graverson to see if any were sitting on the wires there, but no luck. The day ended with 61 species, which wasn’t too bad since we weren’t exactly trying hard.