Exploring Oakdale Woods

One of my big goals for the year is to explore as many of the parks and conservation land in Newton as possible, whether its birding, hiking, paddling, or biking. For my most recent trip I decided to explore one of Newton's smaller parks, Oakdale Woods. A small 2.5 acre wooded plot just off Rt. 9, Oakdale Woods was lucky to escape development, though the steep grade and large boulders probably helped.

While it was quite enjoyable to find these woods tucked away behind houses, there didn't seem to be too much bird activity compared to our larger parks. Or perhaps I was visiting off hours. Grackles mostly flew over the woods while robins foraged and I occasionally heard song sparrows and house sparrows. Two weeks ago I did manage to find a Hairy Woodpecker at Oakdale Woods. The large trees were quite refreshing and in one section the vines were thicker than my arm. But by far my best find of the day was this quite demanding Carolina Wren. His loud repeated "tea-kettle tea-kettle tea-kettle" song easily dominated the sound-scape and made for a great recording! (At 14s a robin give his whinny call) I look forward to returning later in migration to see if these woods will act as a migrant trap or if most birds will head to the larger parks.