Wednesday 3/22: Walked north side of Hardy, 6 Ring-necks, eventually picked out the Ruddy. Nothing exciting on land there or at Graverson. Evening check of BBN had the same general ducks as last week and then at least 7 woodcock. Also heard some at Rock Meadow as I drove by on the way home.
Thursday 3/23: Pintail and Lesser Scaup at Arlington Res.
Friday 3/24: Worcester county run, had 3 targets. Bolton Flats was fairly quiet, lots of geese and GW Teal but no sign of shoveler (and beyond a wigeon, no ducks of note). A check across the street added a few sparrows but not much else. Westborough WMA next. Quiet to start, but eventually turned up 3 Fox Sparrows, 1 target down. Continued around and had a group of Yellow-rumps fly by. Lots of Ring-necks at Little Chauncy but nothing else of note. Started back and something odd flushes from the sumacs right in front of me. Fortunately it landed at the top of the pines and was obviously a shrike. A target, although not one I expected. A Horned Lark flying over as I walked off was nice too. Continued to the Sudbury Res, which was pretty quiet. Didn’t see the geese on Fay Road, which turned out to be because they were at the Fay School a mile or two away. Quick check of directions and Snow Geese made the list. Brief stops at Heard Pond and Pelham Island Rd, then the res on the way home had very little. Woodcock walk in the evening at BBN had a pintail and about 4 woodcock.
Saturday 3/25: Decided to squeeze in an on-foot day before it got nasty out. Nothing too exciting at Falzone or the West Meadow (Killdeer the first addition to the nonmotorized year list). The pintail was still in the parkway marsh, #159 on the cumulative non-motorized list. Also 4 GW Teal, 4 Ring-necks, and a bunch of Bufflehead plus 2 Tree Swallows and a Phoebe (and what was probably a Yellow-rump but lousy views and no calls). Weather looked to be getting worse so I skipped Mackerel and went out to Concord Ave without seeing too much more. Flyover Hooded Merganser was about it along Concord Ave and nothing different through the West Meadow return. Falzone was quiet until the pond, which had a goldeneye (#160).
Sunday 3/26: Tried to beat the wind and started at Belle Isle. Gadwall were off Lawn Ave but not too much elsewhere. Finally found the wigeon flock from the cemetery (those and Hooded Mergansers were apparently new for me here). Fought wind and sun for a bit at Revere Beach but eventually had at least one Manx fly through.
Monday 3/27: One of the towhees was out at Dunback. Not much in the woods, phoebes and a Tree Swallow down Bacon, and that was about it.
Tuesday 3/28: Quick stop at Mt. Auburn got the Orange-crowned for March. RB Nuthatch was about the only other thing of interest.