Tag: weekinreview

Tuesday 10/6: Met State before work, one good flock but nothing too interesting. Two sharpies weren’t bad. Paine at lunch, quiet.

Wednesday 10/7: Didn’t do anything

Thursday 10/8: UMass Field Station at lunch, 2 Cooper’s Hawks kept everything else down.

Friday 10/9: Hardy Pond at lunch: 3 Shovelers, 1 Ruddy.

Saturday 10/10: Besides the Lark Sparrow, Danehy highlights included an adult White-crowned Sparrow and an Orange-crowned Warbler. Arlington Res in the afternoon, lots of wigeon, a Pied-billed Grebe, and 1 Green-winged Teal. Nothing beyond Yellow-rumps in the trees.

Sunday 10/11: Started by joining the Menotomy walk to Rock Meadow. Fairly late Eastern Wood-Pewee was the main highlight, lots of the regular stuff but nothing overly exciting. Quick run around the Lindentree Farm fields in Lincoln after. Pileated called a couple times and not much else. On to the Wayland community gardens. Ran into the BBC trip, who informed me that there had been a Nelson’s Sparrow up above early in the morning. No luck with that, but a Merlin buzzed over. Ended up with a decent number of butterflies (for this year at least) including a Painted and two American Ladies, a Monarch, and an Eastern Tailed-Blue but no Bronze Copper. Around the neighborhood late in the afternoon, there were a boatload of yellow-rumps.

Monday 10/12: Beaver Brook North report tomorrow. Great Meadows in the afternoon, very quiet outside a harrier, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, and 7 pintail. No Brown-chested Martins.

Monday 9/28: Stayed home, Red-tail over the yard and Turkey Vulture down there street. Jays were excited by something at the corner but couldn’t find anything.

Tuesday 9/29: UMass field station and gardens at lunch. Palm Warbler, House Wren, Black Swallowtail.

Wednesday 9/30: Purgatory Cove: 40 Wood Ducks, 4 Rough-winged Swallows.

Thursday 10/1: Prospect Hill in the morning: Cape May Warbler (new for Waltham) and quite a bit else that I didn’t have time to cover carefully. Checked out the Met State boardwalk at lunch, 3 turkeys and my first Marsh Wren for Lexington.

Friday 10/2: Hardy Pond, same as last week pretty much. Beaver Brook ponds at lunch, good flock of things that I didn’t have time to go through but Red-eyed Vireo and BT Green Warbler among them.

Saturday 10/3: Rainy.

Sunday 10/4: Rock Meadow: Kestrel, few warblers, Lincoln’s Sparrow or two, 5 phoebes. Nine Acre Corner (or nearby): Black-tipped Darner, lots of geese. Waltham St. Fields: not much.

Monday 10/5: Prospect Hill at lunch: Swainson’s Thrush, Savannah Sparrow (#98 and #99 for the park). Great Meadows after work, finally got the Glossy Ibis and then huge (450+) numbers of Wood Duck and 4(!) American Bitterns as it got dark.

Monday 9/21: Lyman Pond at lunch, lots of Wood Ducks, a kingfisher, etc.

Tuesday 9/22: Paine, not a whole lot.

Wednesday 9/23: Hardy Pond on the way to work: 4 wigeon, Green Heron, several Blackpolls. Prospect Hill at lunch, 1 interesting warbler (90% sure it was a Mourning) but not much else other than my first Question Mark in Waltham this year.

Thursday 9/24: Back to Prospect Hill to see if the warbler was hanging around. No luck with that, but Wilson’s, Nashville, several Blackpolls, and a Black-throated Green. Jays also picked up a Sharp-shin going overhead (which didn’t seem to actually be looking down at all).

Friday 9/25: Met State before work. Lot of activity near at the cemetery, including a Tennessee Warbler and first of fall Yellow-rump and Golden-crowned Kinglet.

Saturday 9/26: Started at Dunback. Fairly quiet (first Lincoln’s Sparrow of the fall, Blue-headed Vireo, few Blackpolls) but wandered around with a few people. Led Waltham Land Trust walk to Beaver Brook North (Met State) but didn’t really look at birds. Afternoon walk around Arlington Res had a few wigeon and Green-winged Teal.

Sunday 9/27: Rainy, lousy day. Stayed in for the most part. Red-wings were vocal at the end of the street for the first time in a while.

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.