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.
week in review 8/10-8/16
Monday 8/10: Met State in the morning, fairly quiet. Did have a brief look at an interesting Somatochlora but no net or camera, so it got away. Lunch at Lyman Pond: Spotted Sandpipers and the usual odes. Great Meadows after work, Virginia Rail, many Bobolink, no YH Blackbird.
Tuesday 8/11: Great Meadows in the morning, got the blackbird. Great Egrets overhead on the way over. Vulture down the street at lunch.
Wednesday 8/12: Paine at lunch. Big flock of stuff but couldn’t pick out anything beyond Warbling Vireo.
Thursday 8/13: Back to Paine to see if the flock was around, didn’t seem to be. First Red-winged Blackbirds actually in the yard in a few weeks.
Friday 8/14: Dunback in the morning, 1 Prairie Warbler and the usual summer birds. Prospect Hill at lunch, very quiet. Bunch of darners and emeralds over the yard at night, but the interesting ones were too high to ID.
Saturday 8/15: Went to the Charles and walked along the Watertown stretch without seeing anything really. Good swarm again at night, with a Wandering Glider and Black Saddlebags added among the others. Also watched a kingbird chase off a Cooper’s. Bat over the yard while attempting to mow the lawn at 8:15 at night.
Sunday 8/16: Great Meadows, Virginia Rail young, several shorebirds including Pectoral Sandpiper, and a Blue-winged Teal. Then up to Lowell for Yellow-crowned Night-Heron but we ended up searching the wrong stretch of canal. Hope it sticks around another week.
265
Heavily processed as it was totally backlit, but Middlesex county #265, Yellow-headed Blackbird.
BPW50
Here’s to fall starting:
Blackpoll Warbler, feeding on the ground for some reason, Lincoln, MA, September 2007. Hopefully many of these and others to come in the next couple months.
weeks in review 7/27-8/9
Starting a weekly feature the week before I head off for a couple days and then have to deal with a death in the family may not have been the best idea. Post coming sooner or later on the DSA meeting from 7/30-8/2 and I had no time to get out last week (other than a quick trip to Great Meadows where I had a nice swallow show and a very surprise American Bittern flushing off the side of the main trail).
Out in Otis over the weekend visiting family. I took a quick walk along the nature trail in their complex, which was fairly quiet other than a couple BT Blues. The yard had a hummingbird, a Scarlet Tanager, and a BT Green, which got my Berkshire county list over a whole 20 species.
BPW Swamp
From the archives, some Swamp Sparrows. A fall one followed by a summer one.
Week in Review 7/19-26
It occurred to me that I’m out enough that even when I don’t post things, there’s probably something of marginal interest, so I’m going to start a Week In Review. Hopefully on Fridays with an actual post of weekend stuff later, but we’ll see.
Starting with:
7/20: Lunchtime walk at Prospect Hill, very few birds but a Somatochlora overhead and the first Northern Broken-Dash and Common Wood-Nymphs of the year were good.
7/21: It rained.
7/22: Car in for oil change and inspection, so no birding but a fledgling cardinal at the feeders was clearly a new brood.
7/23: Big numbers of House Finches in the yard all of a sudden. Paine Estate at lunch had the first Great Crested Flycatcher in a couple weeks and a House Sparrow (only about my 10th record from there in weekly visits for a couple years now). A Red Admiral was a belated first of year.
7/24: Met State at lunch was quiet other than a family of at least 5 House Wrens. A pondhawk caught and ate a forktail in the yard.
7/25: Finished my atlas work for the season (maybe), highlighted by finally getting a Carolina Wren (or five), a Broad-winged Hawk calling, Green Heron, and a pair of Indigo Bunting. Several good bugs including Lance-tipped and Canada Darners, a Blue-fronted Dancer and a good number of butterflies. A Widow Skimmer in the yard was only the second record.
7/26: Met State in the morning, Indigo Buntings and rain. Went to check out the new boardwalk but was flooded out before getting there. Great Meadows in the afternoon, 3 Osprey, Hoodie, Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Racket-tailed Emerald, Appalachian Brown.