Wednesday 10/30: Plan was to join the Danehy trip and then check out the new Alewife trails until I found an Orange-crowned. It started raining though. Nothing exciting at Danehy, except for some interesting waterbirds flying over. Decided to skip Alewife with the rain and stop at Fresh Pond in hope that they landed there. No luck, but the usual ducks and stuff and a flyover pipit. Continued to Cambridge Res where the grebes were still around and coot, Ring-neck, and scaup numbers were up. Common Mergansers and goldeneye at Flint’s.
Thursday 10/31: Midafternoon Cambridge Res loop had very little.
Friday 11/1: Buzzed Cambridge Res early, lots of Ring-necks and coots, not much else. Flint’s had little, Hobbs Brook end of Cambridge Res had nothing. Hardy Pond had more of the same.
Saturday 11/2: Started at Danehy. Orange-crowned Warbler (finally) and a late Red-eyed Vireo in the first couple minutes plus a Hermit Thrush. Looped around twice and had nothing much after that. Continued to School St where there were lots of geese and crows. Started to check Nine Acre Corner but 117 was being paved, so skipped back to Flint’s (nothing different) and then the Cambridge Res (the four grebes were still around as were most of yesterday’s stuff). Waltham St. was dead.
Sunday 11/3: Pretty nasty in the morning, but after seeing the early Quabbin report, I headed for the Cambridge Res. Four grebes, 18 Black Scoters, and 3 Surf Scoters. Didn’t stop to check the Ring-neck flock as I moved on to Flint’s, which looked dead. Decided to try Lake Nagog, but ended up not seeing anything obvious and not seeing any easy access. On the way back, counted the geese at School St and then went to Heard Pond, which had a few more Black Scoter. Purgatory Cove had wigeon and geese (including an interesting one or two but not interesting enough to sit through the wind) and the usual stuff was on Hardy.
Monday 11/4: BBN for the first time in a little while. Chipping Sparrows at the top of the hill and the usual stuff otherwise. West Meadow briefly had my first American Tree Sparrow of the fall and not much else. Quick buzz around the Cambridge Res didn’t have anything good.
Tuesday 11/5: Refound the gallinule and Snow Buntings at Great Meadows but not much else. Wandered a bit after without anything worth mentioning.