Wednesday 10/22: Too wet, nothing around the res.
Thursday 10/23: Nothing unusual but lots of birds at Lindentree and St. Anne’s. Three PB Grebes and two possibly interesting dabblers at the res.
Friday 10/24: Ton of birds but nothing out of the usual at Weston Station Pond. Five coots on the res.
Saturday 10/25: Did some northern town listing. Started at Pawtucket Farm in Lowell, which was a nice little sanctuary. Lots of finches, sparrows, etc, couple Hermit Thrushes, a few Yellow-rumps, and a bit more, got 11 for Lowell. Hunter Property in Tyngsboro next, not as many sparrows but a Red-shoulder was nice. Seven additions here.
Next up was the actual target, Dunstable. Went to Arched Bridge and made a big loop with not much beyond meadowhawks. Just as I was back on the path out, a Purple Finch came over, town 29 at 100!
Thought about the land trust property or ducking into Nashua but decided on Vietnam Veterans Park instead. Trail was pretty quiet, so went back to the pond. Few teal and some Killdeer, then picked up another shorebird that looked interesting so I went back for the scope. In the scope it looked longer winged than I had thought, and eventually it flew a bit to confirm White-rump.
Run around the res later had 35+ Ring-necks.
Sunday 10/26: Plan today was Wachusett Res then try to get Maynard to 50. Started at gate 40 where a flock of Black Scoters was immediately visible. Eventually picked out a couple Surf with them, but not a ton else. Went around to 36, where there were more scoters and a Long-tailed Duck (plus close to 2000 grackles). Decided to go around to 8. Found a similar scoter flock and another to the south that had 2 Long-tails and looked like it may have had some White-wings. Looped around (FOF Fox Sparrow on the way) and couldn’t find them.
Not enough time to walk much at this point and I wanted to check for further scoters, so abandoned the Maynard idea and went to Nagog, where I had a flock of 17. Flint’s had nothing and the res had just the usual (had they left or was it just too far east?).
Monday 10/27: Thought about Mt. Auburn for the sparrow flock that’s been seen but went for Danehy instead. Not too bad, Merlin, Purple Finch, Field Sparrow or two. Ruddy on Spy Pond on the way home.
Tuesday 10/28: Nice male Purple Finch at Cookson. Lots of birds at the square although nothing exciting.