Tag: weekinreview

Monday 9/14: Prospect Hill in the morning (Big Prospect and Whitney Trail). Good number of migrants including first of fall Blackpoll, Junco, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Blue-headed Vireo. Paine at lunch, singing Pine Warbler and a few more migrants.

Tuesday 9/15: Prospect Hill at lunch (base up to top of the slope). One White-throat was about it, although a Mourning Cloak was nice.

Wednesday 9/16: Met State before work, not much. UMass Field Station at lunch, nothing.

Thursday 9/17: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, nothing really there. Big flock of geese at Fernald.

Friday 9/18: Hardy Pond on the way to work, Spotted Sandpiper was the most interesting thing. Met State at lunch, a Wandering Glider actually landed but otherwise nothing.

Saturday 9/19: Busy with family.

Sunday 9/20: Dunback and Waltham St. in the morning. Not too bad with 7 warblers, a few Broad-wings, and 2 Common Loons overhead. Great Meadows in the afternoon, incredibly quiet.

Tuesday 9/8: Met State at lunch, Wood Thrush and nothing else.

Wednesday 9/9: Prospect Hill before work, almost nothing. Paine Estate at lunch, also nothing. Did hear Carolina Wren in the yard for the firs time in a few weeks.

Thursday 9/10: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, nothing really of note. Not much at home but big numbers of robins around the neighborhood at dusk.

Friday 9/11: Wigeon at Hardy Pond at lunch.

Saturday 9/12: Rainy all day, stayed in.

Sunday 9/13: Went to Lincoln in the morning. Two Indigo Buntings, a few Savannah Sparrows, and some hawks. Afternoon trip to Arlington Res, very little, water level way up.

Monday 8/31: Prospect Hill at lunch: Pileated! Maybe two as the one I saw didn’t appear to be making the calls I was hearing. Also 3 redstarts and a Black-and-white. Redstart at the end of the street and in the yard as well.

Tuesday 9/1: Met State before work (already miss summer hours). Prairie, BT Green, Nashville, and a Warbling Vireo. Paine at lunch, Least Flycatcher and Hummingbird. Single nighthawk feeding over the house at night.

Wednesday 9/2: Beaver Brook at lunch, nothing. Nothing around the house either.

Thursday 9/3: Beaver Brook Ponds at lunch, not a whole lot (Solitary, Kingfisher). Very few dragonflies even.

Friday 9/4: Dunback in the morning. Singing Parula, Blue-winged, and Least Flycatcher were about it. Out to New Salem after work where there was a big swarm of Aeshna and Somatochlora but none low enough to catch.

Saturday 9/5: Few warblers in New Salem but none cooperating and then a drive up to Lunenberg, Vermont. Poked around there a bit, White-faced Meadowhawk being the highlight. See some photos from the weekend.

Sunday 9/6: Went to Pondicherry in New Hampshire (early afternoon though). Few warblers and a Gray Comma. Back in Lunenberg, Variable Darner was a highlight as was a Barred Owl calling.

Monday 9/7: Sat around in Lunenberg for a couple hours with bluebirds, a few warblers, and sapsuckers flying in and out. Back to New Salem and then home without much of note.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.