Wednesday 3/27: Purple Finches at Lot 1, Rusty over the West Meadow.
Thursday 3/28: Snipe at Kaveski but missed the Gadwall and a meadowlark at Elm Brook.
Friday 3/29: PB Grebe plus first for Framingham Bufflehead at Farm Pond.
Saturday 3/30: Decided to do a Worcester county swing. Got 5/16 targets, which was pretty good considering several were only reported nowhere near where I actually went. First stop was Bolton Flats. Ran into Neil walking out, who had just had a shrike. No luck with that, but we stood there for a good 3 hours. Unfortunately most things were in flight but we had thousands of blackbirds, hundreds of ducks, one of the Sandhill Cranes (which I figured were long gone), a meadowlark (saved me a trip elsewhere), and some snipe. It eventually slowed down, so I moved on to Wachusett Res where the Surf Scoter was obvious. Tick and run to Sterling Peat. Wasn’t a whole lot there but a Pine Warbler was foraging above the car as I was read to leave, so I got 5 warblers in state before April.
Sunday 3/31: FOY Harrier and Virginia Rail at Great Meadows. Early afternoon check of Arlington Res had an early Rough-winged Swallow but little else. That was #99 for the year, so I checked Waltham St., Hardy Pond, and the res without finding #100.
Monday 4/1: #100 was the Ospreys at the nest at Knox Trail. Raven there, nothing at School St. Too windy everywhere.
Tuesday 4/2: Buzzed Elm Brook again and got the Gadwall finally. Gave the Old Rt. 27 bridge a few minutes and saw next to nothing. Drove off and thought I saw an egret on the pond on the other side of the golf course. Doubled back and didn’t see it, but since it was there Wednesday I’m calling it. Nice early date.