Wednesday 2/6: River walk: usual plus a Lesser Scaup by Elm St (suspect a young male) and a scaup sp (suspect Greater) by Shaw’s.
Thursday 2/7: Ended up at Rock Meadow (went to the duck ponds but they were working on both ponds) and nothing much of note.
Friday 2/8: Stayed in, nothing exciting in the yard.
Saturday 2/9: 3 redpolls in the yard for a second record. Usual stuff otherwise, but Hooded Mergansers and a couple coots swam into view late in the afternoon.
Sunday 2/10: No redpolls, nothing else different.
Monday 2/11: Not surprisingly, didn’t get outside.
Tuesday 2/12: Made it to the river walk. Snow made for slow going and I only had time to get to the second overlook. Lots of mergansers and a Bufflehead. Adult Cooper’s in the yard.
Wednesday 1/30: BBN had a couple bluebirds and lots of mud.
Thursday 1/31: Nothing different along the riverwalk.
Friday 2/1: Forest Grove: 2 creepers, lots of the usual ducks but too windy to search through them. About 30 coots at Norumbega.
Saturday 2/2: Started with a quick scan of Hardy Pond (nothing of note) and Cambridge Res (coyote towards the Trapelo end but no birds). Flint’s Pond was similar, so on to Farm Meadow. Nothing exciting there but a nice flock of waxwings at Codman was good. At the gardens I found a big flock of starlings and picked out a few cowbirds. Hoping for more, I started scanning but a fire engine left the station right then and everything flushed. I moved on to Lindentree and found nothing, so I continued to School St and had 5 crows. A quick stop at Norumbega (no coots) and Forest Grove (gulls, mallards, and geese) was not productive, but an adult Bald Eagle was flying over as I drove off. Quick trip from Prospect to Moody had a male Bufflehead but not much else.
Sunday 2/3: Walked to Rock Meadow and had absolutely nothing.
Monday 2/4: Prospect Hill: windy and barely any birds.
Tuesday 2/5: Couldn’t find the snipe reported yesterday at Forest Grove (and the river was frozen so I didn’t expect the scaup). A couple Red-bellies, a Hairy, and not much else.
Wednesday 1/23: Too cold to get out at the duck ponds and there was nothing in sight. No fruit trees with any birds either in a quick drive around.
Thursday 1/24: Still too cold but did manage to zip through Norumbega (which was frozen, so 3 gulls, 3 geese, and 6 pigeons).
Friday 1/25: River walk again, about the same except for a young Bald Eagle flying up Newton St.
Saturday 1/26: Quick check of the res (frozen today, was open Thursday) then a short walk around Cat Rock Park (nuthatches, a creeper, and lots of Red-bellied Woodpeckers). Forest Grove: no gulls worth getting the scope out for. Moody St: lots of gulls including the Iceland but not much else.
Sunday 1/27: WLT Duck walk. Big crowd and cold wind. Lots of mergansers and Ring-necks and a second (or even third) goldeneye.
Monday 1/28: Nothing different at the duck ponds.
Tuesday 1/29: Ended up at Beaver Brook and immediately remembered why I stopped going here. Over 20 dogs in front of the parking lot (and no more than 7 owners/handlers). Needless to say, I didn’t see much of note.
Wednesday 1/16: Went to the river walk in crappy weather. About 9 Ring-necks, 1 Hoodie, and 2 coots were about it.
Thursday 1/17: Nothing exciting at the duck ponds.
Friday 1/18: Moody St. again. Two Bufflehead and not much else. Gull was present and was just a Herring.
Saturday 1/19: Pretty slow at Dunback and elsewhere.
Sunday 1/20: Started with a Charles tick, 2 Canvasbacks at Norumbega. Continued to finally try for the chat behind the Kohl’s in Burlington. No luck with that but I finally got a Red Crossbill for the county flying over. Horn Pond next was fairly quiet, one flock of redpolls was about it. On to Silver Lake and hopefully another county bird. No luck with the Glaucous Gull however and not many gulls to scan through. That turned out to be good as I got to the coast just in time for the Mew Gull show, would have missed it if I had lingered at all.
Monday 1/21: Lazy start, eventually heading to Merriam’s Corner (Red-tails everywhere but not much else) and Kaveski Farm (nothing exciting). Great Meadows after that had a few goldeneye, bufflehead, and a Ring-neck plus a very cooperative redpoll and the screech-owl was in the usual hole.
Tuesday 1/22: River walk finally had a goldeneye. Otherwise about the same (2 coots, 9 Ring-necks, 10ish Hoodies, no Common Mergansers).
Wednesday 1/9: 250 Mallards, 100 geese, 35 coots, 25 black duck, a Pied-billed Grebe, and a Golden-crowned Kinglet off Forest Grove and Purgatory Cove.
Thursday 1/10: River walk had nothing different.
Friday 1/11: Only had time for a quick stop at the Woerd Ave boat ramp, a few Ring-necks and Hoodies were it.
Saturday 1/12: No good gulls at Moody St. Purgatory Cove: 3 Ruddy, more of the same. No coots. Forest Grove: Hairy, nothing else of interest. About 11 coots at Norumbega, Charlesbank still frozen. Cambridge Res fogged in (plus I dropped the eyepiece to the scope and wouldn’t have been able to scan anyway).
Sunday 1/13: Walked to Lot 1, West Meadow, and down the parkway. Two bluebirds, 3 deer, not much else.
Monday 1/14: Nothing out of the ordinary at Rock Meadow (although I thought I heard one peep of a peeper).
Tuesday 1/15: Quick run around Moody St had a Bufflehead and an interesting 1st year gull that I need to see again.
Wednesday 1/2: River walk: coot, Bufflehead, few mergansers. Flock of finches was very interesting but got away.
Thursday 1/3: Woerd Ave: 100+ Ring-billed Gulls, mallards, geese. Moody St: same plus a few Herring Gulls.
Friday 1/4: Planned on Cambridge Res but decided it was best to avoid that, so went to Prospect Hill instead. The helicopters at the res were rather loud and I didn’t find much.
Saturday 1/5: Hit the Charles pretty hard. Started at Forest Grove where a Swamp Sparrow popped up by the pump house. Little bit of open water had lots of coots, a Ring-neck, and a Ruddy. Probably more that I couldn’t see. Creeper along the edge of Purgatory Cove was an overdue tick on the Charles (wish the thing that sounded like a pipit going over circled or something). Iceland Gull at Moody St along with a distant falcon. Mergansers and 15 Ring-necks behind Shaw’s and not much at Watertown Square rounded out the morning with 40 species.
Cambridge Res in the afternoon, hoping for an eagle or raven on a carcass. No carcass but an eagle flew over 128 as we arrived and there was a bit of open water with some scaup, Ring-necks, Ruddy, mergansers, and a Bufflehead.
Sunday 1/6: Fresh Pond had continuing everything except Redhead plus a Peregrine on the ice. The loon looked to be in bad shape, although I see later reports of it swimming so it might be ok. Spy Pond quickly had nothing and then the Mystic Lakes. Sandy Beach was quiet. I then walked from the few parking spots on the parkway down by the rotary up to the boat club. Two Pied-billed Grebes, a Red-breasted Mergansers, Great Cormorant, and 2 Greater Scaup were highlights. And a quick stop at Dunback on the way home turned up another Rusty Blackbird.
Wednesday 12/26: BBN was pretty quiet. Eventually dug up a creeper but not much else.
Thursday 12/27: Almost too nasty to check Hardy and the res and nothing of note at either.
Friday 12/28: Still one cormorant at Prospect St but not much else.
Saturday 12/29: Had to take my father to pick up his car, so started at Purgatory Cove. River was starting to freeze, but tons of Mallards flying around in addition to a big flock of Ring-necks (75 plus a Lesser Scaup), coots (40+), and a couple Ruddy and other things. Big surprise was found while trying to get a better angle on the Ring-necks: a cormorant on the far shore. First impression was that it was the Double-crested we had on the CBC on the cove, but it started to look a bit white on the belly from the side. Kept moving until I got a full view and, sure enough, it was a Great.
Then headed up to Silver Lake in Wilmington where a Glaucous Gull had been. Spent about 40 minutes scanning and didn’t find any good gulls (other than a presumed Lesser Black-back that disappeared before I got more than the back). Made a quick trip to the industrial park where Pine Grosbeaks had been seen regularly, I must have been there in between feedings and didn’t care to stay. Quick stop at the Mystic Lakes had nothing much, then more coots and Common Mergansers at Spy Pond.
Decided to check the res before heading home. Coots were in the corner again. Huge flock of Hoodies with a few wigeon way out in the middle. Further down was a small flock in close. Expected it to be the Ring-necks and a couple of the scaup, it turned out to 32 scaup and 4 Ring-necks. The rest of the wigeon flock was way off. Trapelo end was mostly frozen.
Sunday 12/30: Stayed in with the storm.
Monday 12/31: Started at Dunback: Fox Sparrow, 3 Rusty Blackbirds, nice Sharp-shinned, flyover Redpolls. On to Rock Meadow (4 Waxwings) and BBN (Raven). Cardinal ended the year.
Tuesday 1/1: Cardinal also started the year. Annual BBC walk around Newburyport. Started with a White-winged Crossbill in the parking lot, then Red Crossbills in Salisbury. Wind got in the way after that, but a few good things. Details will be on the BBC blog eventually.
Plus continuing Lark Sparrow, Cassin’s Kingbird, Barnacle Goose, etc.
February:
March:
FOY for the country I think.
April:
With 4 Horned Grebes too
May:
June:
July:
and
August:
September:
October:
And a second Connecticut
And a bunch of New Mexico stuff.
December:
For the year, 18 lifers (9 FL, 1 SC, 1 ME, 1 RI, 1 MA, 5 NM), 3 state birds, 2 county birds, 6 new for Waltham, and 4 for the yard. For the bugs, 24 new dragonflies (11 FL, 13 SC) and 1 for the state, 11 new butterflies (maybe more, still sorting through a few FL ones I think but 7 FL, 3 SC, 1 MA) and 2 for the state.
Birds of the year: Wood Sandpiper nationally, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck for MA, Least Tern locally.
Bug of the year: Phantom and Swamp Darners, Giant Swallowtail.
