Wednesday 12/29: Trying to squeeze a couple more ‘commute’ birds in, off to Great Meadows. The Cackling Geese were present and obvious. Lots of Canadas and a few that left me puzzled. One of the White-fronts flew out, but otherwise pretty quiet.
Thursday 12/30: Raven, 2 RC Kinglets, a Yellow-rump, 2-3 Hermit Thrushes at Dunback.
Friday 12/31: Waited for the fog to somewhat clear, then went out to Landham Rd for the Rough-leg. Took half an hour to find it, not sure if it was off or if it was just so far down in a corner that I had missed it at first. Cleared enough by then so I headed to Farm Pond in Sherborn. Barrow’s was the first bird I saw in the scope and added a decent number of other birds for the town (mostly ducks). Drove back through Norfolk county but no turkey still. Stopped at Norumbega for a minute on the way home and had 4 Lesser Scaup.
Saturday 1/1: Had planned on a Scituate/Cohasset area trip but it was foggy again so didn’t really have time. After starting with a cardinal in the yard (unless that was an owl hooting at 4:30), went to Earhart figuring I could head to Belle Isle or similar although ended up not having time for that either. Long-tailed Duck was distant but visible in front of the casino, a raven was my first corvid of the year, and the Black-and-white was still at Gateway Park. Decided Sylvester Baxter next. Chat wasn’t around and it started raining pretty heavily but the Pine Warbler was chipping away and occasionally in the open. Pulled in at the south end of the Mystic Lakes and had a few more passerines but nothing much. Spy Pond was fogged over. Forty species on the day wasn’t bad, and got my new for the month out of the way already.
Sunday 1/2: Concord CBC. Started well in the mist with 20 turkeys, 2 Savannah Sparrows (another January Middlesex bird), and 3 cowbirds at Ricci. Nothing much walking down Hanscom Dr, 45 waxwings at the boardwalk at Hartwell/Brooks, and not much at Tanner’s Brook. With a lack of coverage, I added College Pond this year. Mallard was the only addition to the day list and other than a Winter Wren there was very little else. Swung through Nine Acre on the way home (WF Goose is the fourth month addition).
Monday 1/3: Finally got around to chasing down Norm’s chat. Unfortunately it had been a no-show yesterday but it flew out and then back into its favored hedge pretty quickly. Sapsucker and Winter Wren on the way out too. Res was quiet and nothing different at Hardy either.
Tuesday 1/4: Had to go into Boston so checked Fenway a bit, nothing particularly interesting. Ring-necks at the war memorial were the best.