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Week In Review 9/21-9/27

Monday 9/21: Lyman Pond at lunch, lots of Wood Ducks, a kingfisher, etc.

Tuesday 9/22: Paine, not a whole lot.

Wednesday 9/23: Hardy Pond on the way to work: 4 wigeon, Green Heron, several Blackpolls. Prospect Hill at lunch, 1 interesting warbler (90% sure it was a Mourning) but not much else other than my first Question Mark in Waltham this year.

Thursday 9/24: Back to Prospect Hill to see if the warbler was hanging around. No luck with that, but Wilson’s, Nashville, several Blackpolls, and a Black-throated Green. Jays also picked up a Sharp-shin going overhead (which didn’t seem to actually be looking down at all).

Friday 9/25: Met State before work. Lot of activity near at the cemetery, including a Tennessee Warbler and first of fall Yellow-rump and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Saturday 9/26: Started at Dunback. Fairly quiet (first Lincoln’s Sparrow of the fall, Blue-headed Vireo, few Blackpolls) but wandered around with a few people. Led Waltham Land Trust walk to Beaver Brook North (Met State) but didn’t really look at birds. Afternoon walk around Arlington Res had a few wigeon and Green-winged Teal.

Sunday 9/27: Rainy, lousy day. Stayed in for the most part. Red-wings were vocal at the end of the street for the first time in a while.

Week In Review 9/14-9/20

Monday 9/14: Prospect Hill in the morning (Big Prospect and Whitney Trail). Good number of migrants including first of fall Blackpoll, Junco, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Blue-headed Vireo. Paine at lunch, singing Pine Warbler and a few more migrants.

Tuesday 9/15: Prospect Hill at lunch (base up to top of the slope). One White-throat was about it, although a Mourning Cloak was nice.

Wednesday 9/16: Met State before work, not much. UMass Field Station at lunch, nothing.

Thursday 9/17: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, nothing really there. Big flock of geese at Fernald.

Friday 9/18: Hardy Pond on the way to work, Spotted Sandpiper was the most interesting thing. Met State at lunch, a Wandering Glider actually landed but otherwise nothing.

Saturday 9/19: Busy with family.

Sunday 9/20: Dunback and Waltham St. in the morning. Not too bad with 7 warblers, a few Broad-wings, and 2 Common Loons overhead. Great Meadows in the afternoon, incredibly quiet.

Week in Review 9/8-9/13

Tuesday 9/8: Met State at lunch, Wood Thrush and nothing else.

Wednesday 9/9: Prospect Hill before work, almost nothing. Paine Estate at lunch, also nothing. Did hear Carolina Wren in the yard for the firs time in a few weeks.

Thursday 9/10: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, nothing really of note. Not much at home but big numbers of robins around the neighborhood at dusk.

Friday 9/11: Wigeon at Hardy Pond at lunch.

Saturday 9/12: Rainy all day, stayed in.

Sunday 9/13: Went to Lincoln in the morning. Two Indigo Buntings, a few Savannah Sparrows, and some hawks. Afternoon trip to Arlington Res, very little, water level way up.

Shoulders

A nice surprise today was a presumed family group of 3 Red-shouldered Hawks (2 juvs and an adult).

That’s juv #1, which was right in front of me.

Juv #2 was further away (and I didn’t know it was a second bird at first). A Sharp-shinned Hawk came in and eventually took a couple swipes at it, moments after this excellent shot:

You’ll probably want to click through to see it bigger. I also added notes to point out the birds (the Sharpie is especially hidden).

Week In Review: 8/31-9/7

Monday 8/31: Prospect Hill at lunch: Pileated! Maybe two as the one I saw didn’t appear to be making the calls I was hearing. Also 3 redstarts and a Black-and-white. Redstart at the end of the street and in the yard as well.

Tuesday 9/1: Met State before work (already miss summer hours). Prairie, BT Green, Nashville, and a Warbling Vireo. Paine at lunch, Least Flycatcher and Hummingbird. Single nighthawk feeding over the house at night.

Wednesday 9/2: Beaver Brook at lunch, nothing. Nothing around the house either.

Thursday 9/3: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, not a whole lot (Solitary, Kingfisher). Very few dragonflies even.

Friday 9/4: Dunback in the morning. Singing Parula, Blue-winged, and Least Flycatcher were about it. Out to New Salem after work where there was a big swarm of Aeshna and Somatochlora but none low enough to catch.

Saturday 9/5: Few warblers in New Salem but none cooperating and then a drive up to Lunenberg, Vermont. Poked around there a bit, White-faced Meadowhawk being the highlight. See some photos from the weekend.

Sunday 9/6: Went to Pondicherry in New Hampshire (early afternoon though). Few warblers and a Gray Comma. Back in Lunenberg, Variable Darner was a highlight as was a Barred Owl calling.

Monday 9/7: Sat around in Lunenberg for a couple hours with bluebirds, a few warblers, and sapsuckers flying in and out. Back to New Salem and then home without much of note.

Northern Bugs

Some highlights from a weekend in northern Vermont with a quick trip to Pondicherry in New Hampshire.

Autumn Meadowhawk

White-faced Meadowhawk

Gray Comma

White Admiral

Variable Darner

Black-tipped Darner

And one other thing:

Spring Peeper?

BPW

For no real reason, a winter flock of Dunlin from Plymouth Beach. And looking closer, there’s some Sanderling mixed in.

Week in Review 8/24-8/30

Monday 8/24: Paine at lunch, nothing beyond a ton of chipping sparrows. Two nighthawks and 6 Great Blues over the yard at night.

Tuesday 8/25: Met State in the morning, Chestnut-sided was about it. Beaver Brook ponds at lunch, Solitary Sandpiper and 2 Kingfishers. Nighthawk count was 7 tonight and 2 pigeons flying by were yard bird #50 on the year.

Wednesday 8/26: Purgatory Cove at lunch. No shorebirds but looked like some good numbers of Lilypad Forktails icluding a couple of the ghostly pruinose females (need to get back with a camera one of the days).

Thursday 8/27: Prospect Hill in the morning, 2 BT Greens, 2 Redstarts, Black-and-white. Two nighthawks at night.

Friday 8/28: Dunback in the morning, 1 Black-and-white and a big flock of Cormorants was it. Paine at lunch, another Black-and-white.

Saturday 8/29: Rained all day.

Sunday 8/30: Joined the Menotomy walk at Great Meadows, which was one of the best walks I’ve been on in a long time. Started with Black-bellied and American Golden-Plover, then added Short-billed Dowitcher and Baird’s Sandpiper. Also had a Peregrine and an American Bittern that wandered around right in the open for a couple minutes. Went back after lunch to try to get another look at the Baird’s without anything different. Great Egret over the yard at night was #89 for the yard list.

Great Meadows 8/23

A late afternoon trip to Great Meadows, hoping to refind and add to the things from Thursday. Almost did exactly that.

The Little Blue Heron was in pretty much the same spot. Stopping to get a good look at that, we found a whole bunch of sandpipers up close. Scanning through, I quickly picked out one that looked a bit different. I was about to say dowitcher but the bill looked a bit short and the posture was a little off. It took some time (and another birder) to be convinced, but it was a juvenile Stilt Sandpiper, only the 2nd time I’ve had one in the county (3 were here in September 2004).

A few distant shots:

On the right

On the left

And on the left

Satisfied, we moved on. At the grates, Jonathan (the other birder) quickly called out an interesting plover, which turned out to be a molting American Golden-Plover, also a fairly rare bird in the county.

We continued to the last opening, where there was far less than there had been. It was starting to look a bit stormy, so we turned around and started to work our way out. Partway back, we found a Common Green Darner finishing off a Blue Dasher (not quite another darner). It was quite windy, but with a bit of effort I got a few shots:

Further on, the Little Blue was right out in the open:

And almost back to the car, a darner flew by and then stopped to hover. It was patrolling a very small area and would pause at each end, so I actually managed a few shots:

Being able to freeze the motion was great as I could check the pattern and confirm it as a Lance-tipped Darner. I guess flight photography is mostly finding a cooperative subject.

Not a bad afternoon at all.

Week in Review: 8/17-8/22

Monday 8/17: Met State in the morning, Black-and-white Warbler or two and the Blue-winged continues but not much else. Beaver Brook ponds at lunch, nothing much there but the pond may start drying up enough for some shorebirds soon. Many Band-winged Meadowhawks around the neighborhood and a Prince Baskettail actually landed in the yard (first one I’ve ever seen land). Also found a frog in the yard while dumping some water and had a clearly migrating Eastern Kingbird buzz by a little after 6.

Tuesday 8/18: Hardy Pond at lunch, 1 kingfisher, 3 cormorants, 1 cygnet, the usual odes. Sat outside from about 5-6:45 tonight watching mostly Chimney Swifts. Most were very obviously molting, which means they were adults. One Red-tail and a Widow Skimmer were the only other things of note.

Wednesday 8/19: Phoebe at end of street, not much at Paine.

Thursday 8/20: Dunback in the morning, absolutely nothing. Walked the new trail from the high school to YMCA at lunch, 1 redstart. Great Meadows after work: Sora, Little Blue Heron, White-rumped Sandpiper, 8 other shorebirds. Nighthawk walking to Papa Gino’s.

Friday 8/21: Charles at Watertown: Harvester, Kingfisher, Spotted Sandpiper.

Saturday 8/22: Trail building at Beaver Brook but nothing really seen.