WIR 3/19-3/25

Wednesday 3/19: Forest Grove was mostly quiet. Four Wood Ducks and the firemen practicing water rescues. Quickly checked Newton City Hall but the teal was doing its typical midday disappearing act.

Thursday 3/20: Pintail, eagle, etc at Great Meadows.

Pintail

Friday 3/21: Dunback had a Fox Sparrow, Woodcock, and I finally tracked down the Yellow-rump I thought I had heard a few weeks ago. Nothing at Waltham St.

Yellow-rump

Saturday 3/22: Looped through Lincoln, Concord, and Wayland without much more than a Turkey Vulture to show.

Sunday 3/23: Joined the MBC walk at Horn Pond with Winter Wren and Fox Sparrow as highlights. Waltham St and the duck ponds were quiet on the way home.

Monday 3/24: Roamed around looking for geese without much of anything.

Tuesday 3/25: Same except I walked Great Meadows and had a Pileated fly in front of the car by Decordova.

WIR 3/12-3/18

Wednesday 3/12: First Tree Swallows of the year at Great Meadows, plus a few ducks and another Rusty. Also turkeys by Hanscom.

Tree Swallow

Thursday 3/13: Cold, snowy, and windy.

Friday 3/14: Riverwalk late afternoon had more Greater Scaup (plus 1 Lesser). Pulled in at the field station on the way home and got my first of year Killdeer.

Saturday 3/15: Started at Norumbega where there were lots of ducks, nothing overly exciting. On to Forest Grove. First thing on the river was a Great Cormorant attempting to swallow a giant fish.

Cormorant

Two more cormorants were sitting on the ice and the Red-breasted Merganser was swimming around. Nothing much on the trails. Quick stop at the boat ramp added 2 American Wigeon. Next stop was the Wayland Town Building, nothing much different. Cruised Water Row and Nine Acre Corner without anything. School St had a few larks and a Sharpie buzzed over Rt. 2. Sloshed around Waltham St. a bit and had a couple bluebirds. Back home, the yard was overrun with grackles with a decent number of red-wings and cowbirds mixed in.

Sunday 3/16: Rock Meadow and BBN were quiet.

Monday 3/17: River walk had the scaup continuing and a Hairy (first in about 3 years along here). Tons of Herring Gulls at Moody St but nothing else of note. Quick drive to Purgatory Cove and Norumbega didn’t have anything new (and nothing unusual continuing in a quick scan).

Tuesday 3/18: Wandered Lindentree and Mt. Misery a bit. Reasonably sure I had a northern-type Red-tail but never got a close view. Otherwise blackbirds and bluebirds. Continued to Nine Acre Corner where there were lots of geese, all 3 mergansers, and a few Ring-necks on the river plus a big flock of blackbirds and a Killdeer or two in the fields.

Red-tail

WIR 3/5-3/11

Wednesday 3/5: Horn Pond: Missed the Horned Grebe but a calling Red-shouldered Hawk was nice.

Thursday 3/6: Riverwalk: 3 Greater and 5 Lesser Scaup.

Friday 3/7: Caught up with the Shoveler at Alewife plus Buzz and Ruby and my first singing Red-winged Blackbird of the spring.

Muddy Shoveler

Saturday 3/8: Birder’s meeting all day.

Sunday 3/9: Started at Forest Grove, which was colder than expected. A Red-breasted Merganser was among the ducks (along with 2 Common Mergansers and 3 Ring-necks) and there were a few blackbirds around. Next stop was Newton City Hall where a quick check did not turn up the Eurasian Teal. Back to the river walk which was quiet (another Red-wing, only 34 Ring-necks and 1 Lesser Scaup). Nothing much at Moody St either. Got most of the way around and started thinking about how I had seen no raptors. Looked up and a Peregrine was buzzing over.

Monday 3/10: BBN was quieter than I expected. Ended up seeing more in 15 minutes at the duck ponds than I did in an hour plus there, but nothing of note at either.

Tuesday 3/11: Started in Wayland with the expected stuff along Water Row. Heard Pond area was quiet, Hager Pond had the usual, and a Rusty and some teal were at the Pelham Island Rd bridge. Nice out, so I hiked up Prospect Hill. Ravens at the nest but no vultures or anything else good passing by.

WIR 2/26-3/4

Wednesday 2/26: River walk as usual.

Thursday 2/27: Didn’t go out

Friday 2/28: Didn’t go out

Saturday 3/1: Riverwalk again. Six scaup including my first Greater for here. 

Scaup

Nothing at Moody. Continued to east of Watertown Square where I had 3 more Greater Scaup and finally (on my third pass) got a brief view of the overwintering Brown Thrasher.

Thrasher

Sunday 3/2: Dunback had nothing.

Monday 3/3: Tried Lindentree, absolutely nothing. Drove through Nine Acre Corner on the way out and saw enough mergansers in the river to stop and walk over. A Red-breasted was a very nice surprise.

Tuesday 3/4: Cold.

WIR 2/19-2/25

Wednesday 2/19: Nothing

Thursday 2/20: Cowbirds and little else at Great Meadows.

Friday 2/21: Eh

Saturday 2/22: Winter Wren at Forest Grove. Pair of Wood Duck were the only new arrivals at the riverwalk and nothing new at Moody St.

Sunday 2/23: Started in Wayland, where there were a handful of ducks and about 20 grackles at the town building marsh. The Rt 20 bridge was still covered by a snowbank, so on to Water Row where there were 3 Wood Duck, a bunch of mergansers, and a single Ring-neck. NAC and School St were quiet. More grackles at Dunback, plus a probable harrier and a coyote. Got home and 2 grackles showed up at the feeder.

Monday 2/24: Walked from Rock Meadow to the West Meadow without much of anything. Quick stop at the duck ponds without much after.

Tuesday 2/25: Checked the ravens nest at Prospect Hill. Nothing there today and not much of anything elsewhere on the hill. Chipmunk emerged in the yard.

WIR 2/12-2/18

Wednesday 2/12: Great Meadows was quiet as expected. Twenty minutes at School St had 17 Horned Larks and nothing else.

Thursday 2/13: Snowed.

Friday 2/14: Dug out.

Saturday 2/15: River walk had the same. Watertown section had a couple kinglets and nothing much else.

Sunday 2/16: More snow.

Monday 2/17: Dunback was extremely quiet.

Tuesday 2/18: Forest Grove was quiet. Same ducks on the river walk but a Red-shouldered Hawk was a very nice surprise (#147 on the Charles).

Red-shoulder

Too cloudy, so you get a phone-binned shot instead of something decent.

WIR 2/5-2/11

Wednesday 2/5: Snowstorm.

Thursday 2/6: Eventually got out and checked the res. Just short of frozen but the grebes and RB Mergansers were still there.

Friday 2/7: River walk to Prospect. A fourth scaup but nothing else.

Scaup

Saturday 2/8: Lazy, eventually checked the res (scaup and otherwise frozen) and then looped out 117 and saw next to nothing.

Sunday 2/9: Went to Oak Grove. Nice views of the Clay-colored and Savannah but no odd juncos.

Clay-colored

Monday 2/10: River walk again. Winter Wren was a nice surprise, otherwise about the same.

Tuesday 2/11: Too cold.

WIR 1/29-2/4

Wednesday 1/29: Too cold.

Thursday 1/30: Charles: scaup and Iceland Gull continue plus 2 Bufflehead below the dam and an eagle off Crescent St. Cambridge Res had a Red-necked Grebe, 3+ Red-breasted Mergansers, and some of the more usual stuff.

Friday 1/31: Nothing much at Meriam’s or Kaveski. Few larks at School St.

Saturday 2/1: Started at Dunback, where there was nothing of interest even with help from Marj and Renee. Cambridge Res had everything continuing (and confirmed the scaup as Greater). Went to Moody St with parents after to look for waxwings. Otherwise nothing on the walk but the eagle was flying over Main and Moody as we went home.

Sunday 2/2: Started at Forest Grove, 2+ Winter Wrens about it. Wandered down Rt. 20 as far as Hager Pond without anything terribly interesting. Stopped at the res on the way home and found a 2nd grebe.

GrebesGrebes

Monday 2/3: BBN was quiet.

Tuesday 2/4: Went to Cape Ann (eventually, traffic was interesting getting to the highway). Harlequins and not much else at Andrew’s and Cathedral. 10+ Icelands and a Glaucous at Jodrey. Two guillemots, a Snowy, and 2 Brant at Eastern Point. Looped back to a quiet Andrew’s. Stopped at the res on the way home and about the same except for the eagle chasing the ducks around.

WIR 1/22-1/28

Wednesday 1/22: Nothing

Thursday 1/23: 3 Lesser Scaup on the Charles, nothing else new.

Scaup 3

Friday 1/24: Nothing

Saturday 1/25: Wandered up to Lowell to look for Glaucous Gulls. No luck with those but at least 4 Icelands included an adult. Decided to check Moody St on the way home and since I was already on the highway, started at Norumbega. That was frozen, but heading down River Rd I noticed a bunch of Ring-necks at the little pond on the other side of the road. Doubled back after checking the frozen Charlesbank to count them and had a male pintail in among them! Finally reaching Moody St, a Merlin flew over as I walked out to Cronin’s but nothing of interest from there.

Iceland 4

Pintail

Sunday 1/26: Too cold and windy. Checked the res quickly and was quite surprised by 5 Greater Scaup. Also surprised by a Great Horned calling around 11:30 PM.

Monday 1/27: Watertown Charles fairly early: 3 Bufflehead, 1 Lesser Scaup. Then got rained on. Rain cleared early afternoon so went back to Lowell. Only the adult Iceland at the boat club when I arrived and not too many other gulls. Moved on to Sheehy and finally picked out a Glaucous (hopefully now that I’ve got a county one, I’ll be tripping over them locally). Tried down by the ballpark again but didn’t want to walk so went back to the boat club. Two Glaucous and three more Iceland at least.

Tuesday 1/28: Cold.

WIR 1/15-1/21

Wednesday 1/15: Nothing new at the river. Fresh Pond was pretty quiet, no owls or odd gulls.

Thursday 1/16: Long walk around Great Meadows had 3 Marsh Wrens and a chipmunk.

Friday 1/17: Went to Mary Cummings Park for a reported Snowy Owl. Owl turned out to be from the mall but I had a catbird, Red-winged Blackbird, raven, and a tick. Horn Pond after had another raven and a Red-breasted Merganser.

RBMerg

Saturday 1/18: Started at Norumbega (a few mergansers), then Purgatory Cove. Pretty sure the first bird I saw scanning from the car was another Red-breasted Merganser but I never found it again. Did have a Bufflehead and a couple Ring-necks plus more mergansers and the usual landbirds.

Sunday 1/19: Dunback and Waltham St were pretty quiet. GH Owl and a Winter Wren were it.

Monday 1/20: Walked around Lone Tree Hill, Habitat, and Rock Meadow. Another GH Owl but not much else. Afternoon walk on the Charles was quiet, no mergansers at all.

Tuesday 1/21: Iceland Gull was back near Moody St but not much else.

Iceland