Searching for Newton's Eurasian Green-winged Teal

As I mentioned in the last post, there was an eBird report from Ryan M. from this past Monday indicating that a drake Eurasian Teal was found at Newton City Hall. Because Green-winged Teal (American) and Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) are clunky names for the purpose of writing, I'll just refer to the later as the Eurasian Teal (known as the Common Teal to the rest of the english speaking world). See the post from last year about the recurring Eurasian Teal for background, pictures, and discussion on identifying the different Green-winged Teals.

Hooded Merganser Pair at Newton City Hall

Ok enough with semantics. A Eurasian Teal was seen and I wanted to find it. So in between cooking yesterday, I went to Newton City Hall to go searching. I got excited when I saw a pair of Mallards and a pair of Hooded Mergansers (phone and binocular pic), but my spirits dropped as I slowly began to realize that there were no teals, nor did Bullough's Pond have any birds on the water in my quick glance. Fortunately, a pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets was quite entertaining to watch (full checklist here). I was starting to get really worried that the recent dredging had turned the marshy, weedy, birdy City Hall ponds into the poor habitat reflecting pools they were intended to be by Fredrick Olmsted (who also designed the Emerald Necklace). Green-winged Teals love marshy habitat that is now absent from City Hall and I was worried that we had improved away the Teals.

Hermit Thrush in Cold Spring Park

On my way home I even drove through Newton Cemetery to scan the ponds, but again just turned up Canada Geese, Mallards, and Hooded Mergansers.

I couldn't give up yet. So this morning I headed to Cold Spring Park and at 8:45 this morning it was quite cold. And so most of the ponds were frozen. I did manage to track down a flock of 12 Mallards in one of the streams, but no teals were to be found. I did hear a Brown Creeper and saw a Hermit Thrush, but interestingly, there was another thrush, that didn't have as much red on the tail as I was expecting. But given the time of year, that is the most likely option still (let me know if you have any ID thoughts and full checklist here)

After Cold Spring Park I just couldn't give up on the Eurasian Teal yet. With ice on the ponds, I thought that the ponds at Newton City Hall might just have enough current to keep them open. So I headed back there and was so disappointed when the grounds crew had leaf blowers cleaning up the park. No way any duck in their right mind would still be around. I walked up to one of the foot bridges and heard lots of junco call notes while movement on the water caught my eye. Ducks - teals - horizontal white stripe - Eurasian Teal! I couldn't tell if his lady friend was an American or Eurasian type, it might be possible to tell females apart, but it is still very challenging. I kept my eyes on the pair before a native Green-winged Teal drake joined them. They all headed to the farthest North pool nearer the leaf blowers before they disappeared. I don't think they flew off, so I wonder if they were hiding in the outflow culvert that leads to Bullough's Pond.

Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) at Newton City Hall

I was relieved to think that the pond dredging hadn't completely put off the Eurasian Teal, though I wonder if he will stick around the same amount without the marsh. And I am calling this The Eurasian Teal, because I'm increasingly convinced that all of the sightings within the area are probably the same individual. His primary haunt is Newton, and has been seen every Winter (Nov-March) since he was first sighted in Cold Spring Park in 2009. So this is the 5th consecutive year that there has been a Eurasian teal seen between Concord and Newton with only one year where he wasn't seen in Newton. But at no point in time have there been two Eurasian teal sightings on the same day at different locations. In fact there are times when he disappears from his usual Newton location for a few days and has a brief sighting elsewhere. Here is a quick list of eBird sightings for Eurasian Teals within at 15 mile radius.

2009 January. A Eurasian Teal sighted at Cold Spring Park.
2009 March 13. A sighting in Sudbury
2009 March 16 - April 4. Repeated sighting at Cold Spring Park. (There were also 5 days were he was absent in March which corresponds with a single sighting at Great Meadows NWR on March 25.) There was also an article in the Newton Tab about the bird.

2010 Jan-Feb: Repeated sightings at Newton City Hall
2010 March. Several sightings at Nine Acre Corner in Concord.

2011 March: Several sightings at Nine Acre Corner in Concord. If I remember this was a particularly harsh winter and all the local water was frozen, so its not too surprising that he wasn't seen in Newton or earlier in the year.

2012 Nov-Dec. Repeated sightings at Newton City Hall. (Again there was a stretch of time the bird was absent while a few sightings turned up on the Charles River by Norumbega Park which, if my memory serves, corresponded to a cold snap and ice on local ponds.)

2013 (so far) Nov. Two Newton City Hall sightings.

Green-winged Teals (European Drake and unknown female)
Newton City Hall

Now that I feel good saying that this is indeed the same individual, The Newton Eurasian Teal. I just looked up Green-winged Teal lifespan and see that 20 years is the average lifespan, so it is certainly possible that the Newton Teal could keep returning to us for a while. We will just have to keep looking for him. If he has any breeding success then we should also think about the possibility of hybrid Teals. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go see him again this winter and we'll be able to find him in the coming years.

A Halloween Raven

Common Ravens

 This morning I was waiting for the T in Newton Centre when a strange croak made me look up from my reading. I think my brain had already figured out who was producing the low raspy throaty "kraa kraa kraa" but I almost couldn't believe it. Flying low, down the middle of the tracks came the large black corvid, thinking fast I tried to remember what else I could look for to confirm the ID and remembered the tail. American Crows tail feathers are all similar lengths, so the tail appears rounded when fanned out. But this bird's outer tail feathers were distinctly shorter than the center tail feathers, clinching the ID of Common Raven. And then he was past, heading down the line into Boston, still calling. (Audio recording can be found at All About Birds along with downloadable ID guide for Crows and Ravens). I've had a few birds at Millennium Park that I thought could be Ravens, but was just never sure enough. I later realized that today was Halloween, a fitting time to find my first Massachusetts Raven. Poe would be proud.

This picture is obviously not Newton, I took it on a mountain peak in Virginia several years ago, but thought its always nice to have picture if possible. Also, as demonstrated in the picture, Ravens will soar and glide on thermals more like hawks, which crows don't do, so observing flight patterns can help with the identification.

On a side note, I took a walk in the very light drizzle in Cold Spring Park this afternoon before the trick-or-treaters were out. The highlights were a large loose flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, 2 Hermit Thrushes, and 2 Brown Creepers. I'll have to come back during a better season so see what the park has to offer.

Barred Owl at Cold Spring Park!

I was just reading the Massbird list archives and saw that our own Pete Gilmore found a Barred Owl at Cold Spring Park this past Saturday! He found the owl right where the Cochituate Aqueduct crosses Plymouth Road. The Owl was then re-found on Tuesday by the vertical jump station of the life course trail (just north of the aqueduct and off-leash area for dogs).

So I decided to make my first visit to Cold Spring Park to see what I could find. Yesterday at 7pm I started from Plymouth Rd. and the park was very quiet with only a few Canada geese calling in the background. I made my way along the life course trail and was just about to give up when a rabbit made a bee-line across the trail and towards the houses to the west and a squirrel was making some unusual calls. In the gathering dusk I could just make out a large set of brown/grey wings swoop down towards the rabbit and then wing off into the woods. I lost sight of it as my eyes struggled to make out shapes or movement. Could this have been the owl? What ever bird of prey I saw was certainly a silent flier as the only thing I could hear was the wing-whir of a woodcock displaying high above. I will have to come back to see if I can't get a better sighting of this owl.