Wednesday 10/26: Parula and a possibly interesting thrush at Cookson, not much in the fog on the river (too much traffic to get east of the square where I actually wanted to go).
Thursday 10/27: Nothing on the res. Finally checked out the Umbrello Hay Field, intersting-ish White-crown among the usual stuff. Nothing on Flint’s either.
Friday 10/28: Started at the Ricci Fields. Pretty quiet, coyote the most interesting thing, surprisingly few sparrows. Was planning on Flint’s anyway, but saw a post about Black Scoters on the NH list and rushed over a bit faster. Today was the fallout day, with 40 there. Had just enough time to check the res too. Only 4 but a White-winged too and 3 Bufflehead.
Saturday 10/29: Bit lazy, started at Mary Cummings, which had a towhee, a few Purple Finches, a sharpie, and not too much else. Sandy Beach had Ring-necks and a Blackpoll, the south end of the lakes had a Sapsucker. Meadowbrook had another Purple, nothing at Spy Pond. McClennen was too crowded by then, Waltham St. had the usual.
Sunday 10/30: Originally planned on Belle Isle but decided I didn’t want to deal with hoards looking for the solitaire, so I got up early and went back out to Wachusett Res. Didn’t need to be quite so early, the LeConte’s appeared to sleep in until 7:40. And I’m pretty sure sleep in is correct, I heard and saw nothing from 7:15 until then and picked it up by a little rustle in the vegetation. Great looks at 10 feet or less away.
Once I had my fill of the sparrow, I gave the water a quick scope. Long-tailed Duck was another county bird but not much else (Snow Bunting earlier was good too). I then went to gate 8 and hiked down to the water there. Very little around and the heat shimmer made deciphering the few (dabbling) ducks all but impossible.
Next was a quick scan of the Tufts fields but the kingbird wasn’t obvious, so I headed to Sudbury Res. Stopped at Big Chauncy on the way but saw no birds. At the res, I found my other target easily (coot), a bunch of Ring-necks, and a few passerines. Then home via Heard Pond (nothing) and Cambridge Res (wigeon).
Monday 10/31: Looked for the shoveler at Alewife without luck. Three hundred plus grackles and a Blackpoll were about it. Did fill in a couple gaps on the audio list, so just need one more for my goal of 100 species prework (unfortunately the swan stopped calling by the time I thought to try for that).
Tuesday 11/1: Quick res check had a Ruddy and another duck fly off before I got a look. Arlington Res started slow, only a snipe on my first couple scans. The farm didn’t have anything at the back except a Red-tail was calling to hit #100 recorded. Around the berm, I picked up the Solitary (November bird #1). Looped the rest of the way without anything, gave it one last check on the way out and had the Pecs, Yellowlegs, and Least (November #2).