brewster's linnet . com

Wednesday 12/7: Hardy Pond in the rain, nothing exciting.

Thursday 12/8: Prospect Hill had nothing (and the flooded base was interesting walking). Feeder visitor was back for a good amount of time at night.

Friday 12/9: Didn’t get out.

Saturday 12/10: Drove around looking for things with snow in the name. Didn’t find any. Nice flock of turkeys near Nine Acre Corner and that was about it. Stopped at Waltham St. on the way back and found the Lark Sparrow singing!

Sunday 12/11: Started with Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Couple Hermit Thrushes and some waxwings at Lot 1 and 5 bluebirds and 2 Red-wings at West Meadow. Purgatory Cove was quiet (cormorant and Pied-billed Grebe about it, no owls). Charlesbank had another cormorant and 50ish coots. Hardy Pond had 4 wigeon among the regular stuff.

Monday 12/12: Charles had 2 Hoodies and 1 Common Merganser. Moderate number of gulls in the parking lot for a change, although all Ring-bills.

Tuesday 12/13: Duck ponds were pretty quiet. One hoodie was about it.

Wednesday 11/30: Started for Moody St, looked like the gull numbers were way lower today so hit the regular part of the river walk instead. Saw very little (more turtles than birds beyond the railroad bridge).

Thursday 12/1: Hardy Pond on the way to work: 1 Ruddy, 3 Common Mergansers. BBN (all around the marsh) at lunch didn’t have anything exciting.

Friday 12/2: Lyman Pond: a few hoodies, not much else.

Saturday 12/3: Started with BBN. Lots of activity along the parkway, although nothing overly exciting (3 red-wings the most interesting). Up the hill and then around to the West Meadow seeing nothing new. More red-wings in the meadow and a calling bluebird on the way out. Over to Fernald to count geese (95 Canada), then Cambridge Res (coots down to 175, 37 hoodies, and not much else) and Flint’s Pond (ring-necks, scaup, mergansers, bufflehead, goldeneye). Afternoon walk around Arlington Res had the usual for there (shoveler, gadwall, wigeon, snipe).

Sunday 12/4: Quick walk around Dunback had a Rusty Blackbird. On to Moody St, where I quickly picked up an Iceland Gull. Otherwise very little there. Only a couple Mallard, swan, and Wood Duck on Purgatory Cove and none of the interesting ducks on the river. But while scoping the river, a Common Raven flew over, an unexpected bird for the river (130 for me)! Decided to walk a bit and while near the landfill, the crows went ballistic along the road. Scanned through the pines on the way back, and with the help of a call, found a pair of Great Horned Owls. Quick stop at Charlesbank found 52 coot, 3 Pied-billed Grebe, and a Double-crested Cormorant.

Monday 12/5: Stopped at Gore on my way home from the doctor’s. Late afternoon and the light was awful (sun directly behind the trees), so not much of anything.

Tuesday 12/6: Paine started pretty quiet. Halfway through my usual loop a raven flew over and called. Continued on and didn’t see much (although the raven kept calling). Reached the big field and watched a Peregrine cruise over. Headed back and found 2 ravens sitting in the hemlocks. Pulled out the phone to try for a picture but the garbage truck picked that exact second to drive up and the birds took off. Definitely wasn’t expecting two new birds for the site list today (although looking it up, the last two additions were both on the same day as well).

Wednesday 11/23: Quick scan of Hardy Pond and Cambridge Res didn’t appear to have anything new, although it was too cold and nasty to bother getting the scope out.

Thursday 11/24: Out to New Salem for Thanksgiving. Heard a Pileated but a walk through the center of town didn’t find anything.

Friday 11/25: Stopped at the School St. Fields in Acton on the way home and found a nice harrier. Flint’s Pond had a Double-crested Cormorant and a bunch of Common Mergansers among other ducks.

Saturday 11/26: Cassin’s Kingbird and Sandhill Crane. Also Lady sp and 2 presumed Common Green Darners at Plum.

Sunday 11/27: Tried Waltham St. and Dunback. Fog didn’t clear until I was leaving but did manage a brief view of the Lark Sparrow and spished up something a bit more interesting:

Monday 11/28: BBN along the parkway had nothing exciting.

Tuesday 11/29: Purgatory Cove had 2 Ring-necks and 5 Wood Duck (plus Green-winged Teal that I didn’t see). There were 7 wigeon, 2 coots, and a Pied-billed Grebe on the river.

Wednesday 11/16: Lot 1 had nothing unusual.

Thursday 11/17: Hardy Pond: 1 coot, 1 hoodie, 20ish Ruddy, 2 Great Blue Heron. Cambridge Res: nothing on the first scan but eventually saw a large, dark thing way off. That was a Herring Gull, but scoping that general area turned up a small flock. In the flock, I found a spectacular male Long-tailed Duck, a Red-necked Grebe, and 3 Ruddy. While trying for phone-scoped photos, I noticed something else coming into sight, which turned into a flock of 9 Black Scoter. Also present were a few more Hoodies, 3 Bufflehead, and the big flock of coot.

Somebody returned to the feeder at night.

Friday 11/18: Prospect Hill had nothing around the back side.

Saturday 11/19: Walked through Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Two Rusty Blackbirds at the Falzone parking lot and 3 deer in the big field were about it. On to Dunback, where a Winter Wren cooperated but Fox Sparrows didn’t. Cambridge Res and Flint’s Pond in the afternoon didn’t have anything different.

Sunday 11/20: Pelagic was canceled, on the Cape.

Monday 11/21: No booby again. Herring Cove was loaded with birds with thousands of mergansers and scoters and good numbers of Razorbills. Gannets at Race Point would have made for great photos but it was too windy to attempt holding the camera steady. Again no luck with the Ash-throated and not much else at Fort Hill.

Tuesday 11/22: Figured out why my side had been sore for a couple days, a nice tick. Morning at the doctor meant no birding time.

Wednesday 11/2: Prospect Hill: 2 deer, very few birds.

Thursday 11/3: Duck ponds were having tree work so ended at Rock Meadow. Fourteen turkeys at the entrance to the gardens, a sapsucker and hermit thrush in them. Coot, Ruddies, and a Kingfisher on Hardy Pond in the afternoon.

Friday 11/4: Purgatory Cove had the usual ducks (mostly on the river) plus 5 Bufflehead. After work stop at the Cambridge Res got the coots in close. Took one picture with the phone, but Marj got better. More Bufflehead here, 35, which blows away my previous high count for the area.

Saturday 11/5: All day in Fairhaven with the BBC. Full details on the BBC trips blog but here are a couple photos:

Was coming home on Rt. 2 so decided to scan the north end of the Cambridge Res. No shorebirds but first Common Mergansers of the fall, plus 2 turkeys around the corner.

Sunday 11/6: Joined the MBC walk at Dunback. Was up early and it was bright, so headed to Waltham St first. Walked in and the Lark Sparrow was right there, a bit of a surprise after seeing negative reports all week. Also had first American Tree Sparrows of the fall and a couple Rusty Blackbirds. The group came back over and I managed to find the sparrow way up in one of the trees, allowing for decent scope looks. Back at Dunback we had 1 Fox Sparrow, a couple Hermit Thrushes, and my latest ever Blue-headed Vireo. Cambridge Res after had nothing new. Flint’s Pond had a few mergansers.

Monday 11/7: BBN was very quiet. Lots of juncos, a couple darners, 1 meadowhawk.

Tuesday 11/8: Lot 1 was pretty much like BBN yesterday, plus a Tree Sparrow, garter snake, and calling frogs.

Wednesday 10/26: River walk for a change, phoebe, few warblers, nothing but mallards on the water.

Thursday 10/27: Hardy Pond and Cambridge Res in the rain: Ruddies on both, huge raft of coots on the res.

Friday 10/28: BBN at lunch: Bunch of Hermit Thrushes, phoebe, lots of common sparrows and juncos. Ran over to Waltham St after work and found the Lark Sparrow Bob and Karsten discovered earlier. Also Field Sparrow and Palm Warbler. Presuming I saw the American Golden-Plover that was at the Arlington Res a few years ago from the Lexington side, this is #200 in Lexington.

Saturday 10/29: Started with a walk through Lot 1 and the West Meadow. Lots of Hermit Thrushes and 200+ Cedar Waxwings, plus fighting turkeys but not much else. Around the Cambridge Res next: 1 Black Scoter (3rd scoter and 150th bird in Waltham this year!), 1 Greater Scaup, 2 Pied-billed Grebe, a presumed Bald Eagle. Home for lunch and then a quick swing for geese trying to beat the rain. Did more or less beat the rain but it was too dark and the geese were way out so nothing good among them. Also nothing at Flint’s Pond.

Sunday 10/30: Birds in the snow

Monday 10/31: Gore Place for a change, nothing particularly exciting. One sulphur and one darner survived the snow at least.

Tuesday 11/1: BBN had lots of the usual. Huge flock of red-wings down the street in the morning.