I photographed 2 species at Mt. A today:
Which one was more exciting?
WIR 4/21-4/27
Thursday 4/21: Prospect Hill was windy and not very exciting. Two Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Comma were about it.
Friday 4/22: Day off, so started with Lot 1 hoping to confirm Great Horned Owl. Could only find an old pellet. Did have a House Wren and a few Palms and a Pine. Ticks all over. Arlington Res after, Yellow-rumps and Palms all over plus a Yellow and a Pine. Spotted Sandpipers were in and the Pectoral remained. Couldn’t find any snipe though even knowing there were 4 there.
Saturday 4/23: Rained out
Sunday 4/24: Photos cover it.
Monday 4/25: Duck ponds had the usual. Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the yard.
Tuesday 4/26: Decided it was too foggy before work, not sure if that was a good idea or not. Yellow-rumps all over the yard. Beaver Brook at lunch was pretty slow, thrasher and flyover Osprey were about it. Rusty Blackbird at Hardy Pond in the afternoon.
Wednesday 4/27: Rock Meadow before work. Virginia Rail didn’t cooperate but kingbird, kestrel, heard-only Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Black-and-white Warbler, along with a Field Sparrow. BBN at lunch had another Black-and-white along with a Black-throated Green and a Baltimore Oriole, plus a Juvenal’s Duskywing and several Six-spotted Tiger Beetles. Savannah Sparrows apparently in the yard while I was at work, that’s #97 for the yard list.
Sunday Misc
Savannah Sparrow and Eastern Kingbird (note crown patch), Sandy Beach
Continuing Greater White-fronted Goose, Charles River
Fish Crows on snow pile, Shaw’s parking lot, Charles River
Henry’s Elfin, Arlington Great Meadows
Greater White-fronted Geese, Arlington Res
Dull and Bright
WIR 4/13-4/20
Wednesday 4/13: Hardy Pond in the rain was pretty quiet. Nothing at all on the Cambridge Res.
Thursday 4/14: Lots of woodpeckers and Pine Warblers at Paine along with my first Chipping Sparrow of the year.
Friday 4/15: West Meadow was very quiet.
Saturday 4/16: Fells where we didn’t see Louisiana Waterthrush. I continued to Prospect Hill and the Cambridge Res without much.
Sunday 4/17: Led an MBC trip to Rock Meadow and BBN. Highlights: Sapsucker, Fox Sparrow, first of year Swamp Sparrows, Brown Thrasher, and a raccoon. Also first Cabbage White of the year. Arlington Res in the afternoon had a Pectoral Sandpiper among the usual stuff.
Monday 4/18: Went down to Hyannis for Yellow-legged Gull. Very strong winds didn’t help, hard to tell if they kept the gulls away or if they’ve moved on. Lots of Bonaparte’s (and possibly a Black-headed) plus first of year Laughing Gull and Piping Plover.
Tuesday 4/19: Duck ponds had lots of Yellow-rumps, a few Palms, and 4 Wood Ducks.
Wednesday 4/20 (changing the starting day again): Purgatory Cove had lots of swallows including several Rough-winged and a Bank, along with a very noisy pair of kingfishers, tons of Palms and Yellow-rumps, 3 Ring-necks, and 2 Lesser Scaup (at least the male was, presumably the female was too).
WIR 4/6-4/12
Wednesday 4/6: Hit Hardy Pond for a couple minutes on the way to work: 5 Ruddy, few mergansers, bufflehead, etc. Paine at lunch had the expected Pine Warbler along with a Hermit Thrush but not much else (half surprised no butterflies). Frogs were going strong.
Thursday 4/7: Long walk around BBN. Phoebes all over (minimum of 5) and at least one Rusty Blackbird singing from the vernal pool was an overdue patch tick. Turkey ran across the road on the way out.
Friday 4/8: Charles at lunch. WF Goose was still around. Palm and Pine Warblers by the telephone worker training area. Great Meadows after work. Finally caught up with one of the Horned Grebes and also had first of year Barn Swallow.
Saturday 4/9: Mostly in New Salem. Also had first comma of the year and a quick glimpse of the Osprey on nest at the Littleton rookery.
Sunday 4/10: Walked through Lot 1, West Meadow, and BBN. Great Horned at Lot 1, 2 Fox Sparrows and a Field Sparrow at BBN were about it for birds. Two Mourning Cloaks and several commas as well.
Monday 4/11: Forest Grove had a few Palm Warblers. Fairly quiet otherwise, but a Virginia Rail called very distantly as I was heading out.
Tuesday 4/12: Kinglets all over the base of Prospect Hill, not too much up the ski slope. Went back to Forest Grove after work and explored Flowed Meadow a bit. Lots of Palms, along with a few Yellow-rumps and a couple Palms. A rail was very loud below the bench near the landfill. At Purgatory Cove, a couple jays, titmice, and a nuthatch were going bonkers over a couple holes but I couldn’t find anything in them (go in at the gate on the right just beyond the cove, down the path that’s immediately to right are two pines on the left, the tree was next to those, easier to check from climbing up the hill a bit).
New Salem Saturday
Some highlights from a day in New Salem:
Wood Frog
3 sapsuckers in a row
Evening Grosbeak
Patch Pages
Just made a little update to the Charles page, where there’s now a link to a spreadsheet that breaks the birds down by location.
Also have one for the Western Greenway, will link that to the Paine and Beaver Brook pages eventually. Still need to add Bentley, Forest St fields, and Shady’s Pond. Key to the locations on there:
- Habitat
- McLean: trails on the McLean property (opposite Rock Meadow driveway to start)
- Rock Meadow
- Met State: Beaver Brook North from Rock Meadow to the Avalon apartments (including the area around the McLaughlin building)
- BBDP: Beaver Brook ponds
- BB: Beaver Brook reservation (Trapelo/Waverly Oaks Rd)
- Lot 1: Falzone field and vicinity (including some of the development along Walnut/Woburn St)
- West Meadow: trail west of Avalon, the meadow itself out to Walnut/Woburn St and the edges of the development there
- Concord Ave: along Concord Ave from the Avalon entrance or so down to Rock Meadow, including the transfer station, edge of the golf course, and the big marsh with the radio towers
- Fernald: all the Fernald land
- Cedar Hill: girl scout camp
- Lawrence Meadow: corner of Waverly Oaks Rd and Beaver St (not sure about access)
- Waverly Oaks Marsh: marsh behind the office park next to Beaver Brook
- Lyman Pond: behind Gardencrest
- Lyman Estate
- Paine Estate: Storer conservation land
- UMass: UMass Field station on Beaver St
- Chesterbrook: Waltham High School, Kennedy Middle School, the trail running from the high school to the YMCA, the YMCA, Northeast School, etc.
X is my sighting, O is someone else’s when I don’t have one. Obviously there are a lot of O’s missing. I’ve gone through most emails from the last few years (the sharing is new, not the spreadsheets) and eBird for the hotspots but there’s plenty more out there.
WIR 3/30-4/5
Wednesday 3/30: Purgatory Cove: 1 Common Merganser, 2 Wood Duck, 5 Ring-neck, 1 Rusty Blackbird (river tick!), 1 turtle.
Thursday 3/31: Paine: Red-breasted Nuthatch was about it.
Friday 4/1: Common Loon at the Cambridge Res but no sign of the Long-tailed Ducks and Horned Grebe that had been seen yesterday.
Saturday 4/2: Nothing much on the Cambridge Res, Flint’s Pond, or Nine Acre Corner. Pied-billed Grebe at the res was the best.
Sunday 4/3: MBC Walk at Arlington Res was highlighted by a calling snipe. Cowbirds in the yard.
Monday 4/4: Purgatory Cove: 16 Ring-necks, 2 Wood Duck. Charlesbank: 10 more Ring-neck, coot.
Tuesday 4/5: Back end of Prospect Hill: lots of trilling. Think at least one was a Pine Warbler but between the wind and Sharpie that buzzed through I couldn’t confirm. Also a phoebe way in the back.
WIR 3/23-3/29
Wednesday 3/23: John Crookes reported a Greater White-fronted Goose along the Charles yesterday, guess where I went. First bird as I pulled in was the Lesser Black-backed Gull, nice to finally get some good views. The goose was present as well (I’m not so sure it’s a wild one but #192 in Waltham for now). Bob Stymeist pulled in at the same time and we watched both for a few minutes (and Bob got some shots of them together). Merlin was nice as well as were the 2 tagged Ring-billed Gulls (one was a returning bird).
You can (barely) hear the goose squawking at the gulls in this recording, it’s the lower, faster clucking.
Update: Still waiting on Bob, but Christopher got some photos.
Thursday 3/24: Prospect Hill had nothing and halfway up I realized I should have gone to the back side.
Friday 3/25: BBN was pretty quiet. Thought I was hearing Wood Frogs but didn’t get close enough to be sure.
Saturday 3/26: Started at Great Meadows hoping for Horned Grebe. No luck with that, but Bald Eagle, 45 goldeneye, 75 Ring-necks, and a Tree Swallow weren’t too bad. Prison fields and School St fields didn’t have much so on to Nine Acre Corner for another Horned Grebe. No luck with that one either but first Pied-billed of the year was there. Also picked out the Eurasian Teal and at least one of the intergrades among the Green-wings and had a Northern Harrier drop in and sit for a few minutes. Cambridge Res was quiet. Arlington Res in the afternoon was pretty quiet, few Killdeer and wigeon was about it. Groundhog ran through the neighbor’s yard.
Sunday 3/27: Started at Dunback with 2 Fox Sparrows. Crossed to Waltham St Fields (3 American Tree Sparrows at the corner of Brookside) where there were at least 6 Wilson’s Snipe flying around. Walked through Hayden Woods as well, hearing a Rusty Blackbird and then had a Red-breasted Nuthatch in one of the spruces on Valleyfield St.
Monday 3/28: Duck ponds: Fox Sparrow and 3 Wood Duck.
Tuesday 3/29: Lot 1: Hermit Thrush in almost the same location as the one on the CBC. Flushed a woodcock as well. Wood Frogs were out in force and some early bees were out (Colletes or Andrena).