The Elusive Snowy Owl and the Unexpected Grasshopper Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow

 On Saturday night I saw an email from the Boston Birds group about a sighting of a Snowy Owl at Millennium Park! So I thought it would be fun to try and find it Sunday morning and was able to convince the little one, who kept saying "maybe snowy owl", to join me for the walk. While we were unsuccessful at finding a Snowy Owl (the park is likely too heavily used for a Snowy to stick around. We did however run into Matt Garvey who mentioned that he had just spotted a Grasshopper Sparrow in with the flock of American Tree Sparrows in front of us. We looked and couldn't find it, but on our way back to the car we passed the same spot and this time were able to find the Grasshopper Sparrow!

I was pretty excited to add this to my Massachusetts list! I've heard lots of them out in the midwest before and even caught a very short glimpse of one, but here at Millennium Park this bird was feeding out in the open and giving ample opportunity to observe it. I even snapped a picture, but due to the low light and wiggle child on my back, non of the images came out very crisp, but at least its a record shot.

I hope you all have a great holiday season and a happy New Years!

2013 Recap and Recent Sightings and Thoughts

Mute Swans on the Charles River

 Since 2013 was the first full year of this blog I thought it would make sense to do a 2013 recap. A quick look through my eBird records for Greater Newton, which including immediately adjacent birding area (see here), give year count of 106 species while my Newton life total stands at 130 species.

I'll just list some of my favorites for the year:

Common Redpolls at Nahanton
Redheads at Hammond Pond
Tennessee Warbler at Houghton Gardens
Eurasian Green-winged Teal at Newton City Hall (and Bullough's Pond and Cold Spring Park)
 Yellow-breasted Chat, Philadelphia Vireo, Lincoln's Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow of Nahanton
Common Raven in Newton Center

Oddly I went the whole year without seeing any Ring-necked Ducks. Previously they were easy to find at Hammond Pond in the winter.

Red-tailed Hawk After the Hunt

Okay onto 2014. A few days ago I stopped by Millennium Park (the source of this posts pictures) after making a stop at Nahanton in search
 of the Northern Shrike. Part of my logic for visiting these places is that a Shrike was seen at Millennium back in Dec. They can have fairly large winter territories and prefer open spaces like fields and marshes. Given the sightings at Millennium and Nahanton this winter, it may not be too much of an assumption thinking that its territory may center on the Charles River and the wetlands at Cutler Park and surrounding areas.

But alas I did not find the Shrike. I did however get to watch as a Red-tailed Hawk launched himself off a telephone pole and swoop down into the fields and then return with a small mouse like critter. I then got to watch a lesson in mouse anatomy as the hawk ate lunch. The thing that surprised me the most was that he didn't seem to fall onto his prey that quickly, I almost thought he had decided to gently land and then spend time in the grass. It wasn't until he flew back to the light pole with prey in his talons that I knew for sure what had happened. Other than the excitement of witnessing the hunt from beginning to end, only some of the regular birds were around (full checklist here).

Rainy Day Birds at Millennium Park

Lesser Yellowlegs

 I stopped by Millennium Park this weekend during some of the rain showers that we've been having. There had been recent reports of some good shorebird diversity that I was hoping to check out. But when I got to the boat ramp there was a boat with two fishermen right by the train bridge, and no shorebirds in sight on the mudflats. Before too long a Great Egret came flying in followed by a sandpiper! I knew quickly that it's long yellow legs were a dead giveaway for a Yellowlegs, but it took me a little longer to hone in on the shorter thinner bill to decide it was a Lesser Yellowlegs. Let me know if you think I might be in error (click on the pictures to enlarge). By the time I left the river, two Killdeer had joined the mudflats as well. Also of note were Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, as well as Yellow-rumps and a Palm Warbler (western). I only wish the Palm had chosen a more photogenic location to pause for this shot! 

Lesser Yellowlegs

 The full list is bellow: 

1 Canada Goose
3 Mallard 
1 Great Blue Heron 
1 Great Egret 
2 Killdeer 
1 Lesser Yellowlegs 
1 Belted Kingfisher 
1 Downy Woodpecker 
2 Blue Jay 
2 Black-capped Chickadee 
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 
1 Gray Catbird 
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 
1 Palm Warbler (Western) 
1 Chipping Sparrow 

Palm Warbler (Western)

1 Song Sparrow 
8 sparrow sp. 
1 Northern Cardinal 
1 American Goldfinch 
6 House Sparrow

Easter at Millenium Park

Female Downy Woodpecker

 I got a late start this morning but wanted to swing by Millenium Park as it has been quite a while since I last visited. I started down by the boat ramp and was instantly assaulted by the sounds of blackbirds, song sparrows, and chickadees. It was quite the welcome. I enjoyed seeing the goldfinches back in their summer plumage and noted a few new spring arrivals, like the brown-headed cowbird and tree swallows.

I was trying to stay away from large groups of dog walkers when this beautiful female downy flew into a tree right in front of me. I had time to raise my camera and get off three shots before she decided that it was time to find another tree. I like to think maybe it was the dogs that scared her, but my proximity probably didn't help. It was great to see her so close, even if for a moment. I had a similar encounter with a pair of white-breasted nuthatches, though that time it was only my presence that they were uncomfortable with.

Male Robins fighting

Down in the Saw Mill Brook, a pair of Mallards were mating and by the bridge over the brook two male robins were having a turf war trying to decide who got the best real estate. It is always nice to remember that Robins aren't native to lawns. Also present were starlings, blue jays, pigeons, a mockingbird, a tufted titmouse, anda singing Carolina wren. I was able to find a few fly over Canada geese, a couple of red-tailed hawks, and what could only have been a calling killdeer.

Walking further along the path, the beaver work becomes quite striking. Most of the trees that once lined the walk have since been felled. The good thing though is that the beaver pond is now a waterfowl favorite with its woody wetlands. This pool today had mallards, black ducks, green-winged teals (American), and my best find of the day, a pair of American Wigeons! Wigeons have remained elusive for me in the Bay State, so it was fun to watch them feed and preen. I had thought that I saw a wigeon at Chestnut Hill Reservoir, but after looking back at pictures it was a hybrid mallard x black duck that had a similar green head patch (the same patch is also evident on green-winged teals).

American Wigeons

The increased birdsong in and of itself was a lot of fun too. I kept my eyes and years on alert for pine warblers and phoebes which should be returning soon as well. By far the most common song (if not most common bird too...) was that of the song sparrow, who has earned its name. It was interesting to observe the plumage variation, some with crisp breast streaks, and a bird had such broad smudgy streaks that I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a fox sparrow. But having so many singing song sparrows made me decide to try to make an actual movie, not just pair an audio recording and pictures. The song sparrow starts with three introductory notes followed by a more variable section that include many other notes and trills. The variety of song from one individual to the next is striking. In this video there is still a fair amount of background noise from the running water of Saw Mill Brook that make it sound a little underwater. While I love birdsong for the pure auditory joy of it, watching a bird sing gives the song some extra gravitas by showing how much effort they pour into their songs.

Breaking News: Barred Owl and Redheads

I was just reading Massbird and several sightings caught my eye that I wanted to share. A barred owl has been seen at Millenium Park over the last few days (I believe it was originally found my Marry Lou) and is reliably located near the foot bridge over the Saw Mill Brook. Click here for a picture. Then at Hammond Pond several individuals have seen redheads (pictures here) Quite exciting finds around Newton.

I would really like to go find both of these, as I have never actually seen a barred owl (I've only heard them) and this would also be my first for MA. And the readheads would be a lifer for me. Maybe I'll have to see if a can't spare a few minutes this weekend to track down one or the other.

This just serves to remind me of all the great birders around Newton and I would like to make it easier for more people to contribute. So I'm creating a new email address that you can use if you want to share your own sightings.  Please use: wildnewtonblog(at)gmail(dot)com

Dec. 15, 2012 Update. I recently got over to Hammond Pond and was able to see and photograph the redheads in this post.

Wildflowers of Millennium Park: Part3

Black-eyed Susans

Wildflowers of Millennium Park: Part 2

Wild Lupine

Wildflowers of Millennium Park: Part 1

So I have to admit that my ability to identify my flowers is just a shadow of my knowledge of avian life, so if you have an idea of what this one is, please let me know!

Savannah Sparrows of Millennium Park

Savannah Sparrow

   A few days ago I got in an early morning at Millennium Park and beat our recent heat wave. The first thing I heard were red-wing blackbirds, robins, song sparrows, and savannah sparrows. The introductory notes and two buzzy phrases of their songs compelled me to start up the hillside in search of these grass loving sparrows. While the first group of birds I came across were house sparrows, I quickly found plenty of savannahs, with the males all jockeying for good perches from which to sing. I was actually slightly surprised by the amount of savannah song, I would have thought they would be in chick raising mode, not defending territory and finding mates. During the summer months they primarily eat insects (including spittle bugs), while in the winter they switch to seeds. One male hopped up on a sign post right in front of me (it was the tallest perch around) and started to sing. This allowed me to grab a good recording of a song that is often too faint. I also had some great views of his yellow eyebrow that is his most striking feature. The savannah sparrows song is roughly similar to our more common song sparrows. Both have several introductory notes and end in trills. But while the song sparrow has a highly variable middle portion, the savannah has another trill that is a higher pitch than the trill he ends with.

Red-winged Blackbird

After spending some time amongst the savannah sparrows, I headed back down the hill towards the boat ramp. In the marshy area right by the parking lot red-winged blackbirds were calling and even found a female or juvenile with a good amount of orange on the head the throat. When the water is low, mudflats along the Charles are revealed and provide shorebird habitat. But today, with higher water, only two mallards were working the weeds. Warbling vireos, Baltimore orioles, downys, cardinals and a female red-breasted grosbeak were all found along the path near the river.

Female Yellow Warbler with Caterpiller

Yellow warblers seemed to be everywhere I turned, with males singing brightly and numerous females foraging as well. Tree swallows were likewise ubiquitous, sweeping low over the river or above the grassy hillsides. I kept checking the brook hoping for herons or rails (I once found a sora here). Just as I was thinking it was odd that I hadn't seen a single heron, two great blues flew over head, one after the other.

Cedar Waxwing

On the side of the park opposite the river, I encountered a gregarious flock of cedar waxwings with one individual who almost seemed to pose for me. She was lacking the waxy red tips of her wing feathers which are so endearing to this species. Does this mean she was a younger bird? But the silken smoothness of the rest of her feathers was quite evident. All the while watching the waxwings, a common yellowthroat's song came floating up from the marsh. Even though I spent a fair amount of time looking, yellow warblers were the closest thing I found.

Beyond the birds, there was a small mouse or vole that ran across the trail, but it was so fast I didn't get a chance to check it out. I was able to get three good pictures of the wildflowers being grown on the hillsides that make Millennium Park such a great habitat. I didn't have enough space to share them here, so I'll post a new flower picture every few days so you can see them.

Earth Day at Millenium Park

I headed over to Millenium Park on this drizzly Earth Day, hoping the weather might mean the birds would be out longer and there might a be slightly few dogs. As soon as I opened my car door I was assaulted by the commotion of blackbirds. Grackles, Red-wings, and Cowbirds. Then I hear a buzzy song coming from the grassy slopes, a two-parted insect like song with one buzzy trill proceeded by a slightly lower pitched buzzy trill. I knew it had to be a sparrow, so I quickly pulled out my phone and on low volume (so as not to let the real birds hear) I went through the sparrows and quickly found it was a Savannah Sparrow! While I had seen many of them before, this was the first I was able to identify the song.

At the boat ramp I was hoping to find blue-winged teals, snipe, or even a pectoral sandpiper (all recently reported on Massbird) but they were not to be seen. I there were a pair of Killdeer running around the mudflats and a pair of green-winged teals. The teals were feeding next to a mallard and their small size was quite evident. A rapid knocking behind me proved to be a downy and I heard a faint warbley song but I couldn't quite get a handle on it before it stopped. I then follow the path down by the river and when it curved along the Saw Mill Brook, a "sweet-sweet-sweet-little-more-sweet" song came from high up in the trees. I eventually managed to track down the singer to confirm this Yellow Warbler. I hadn't walked two more steps when the saplings in the marsh had more songsters, another Yellow Warbler and a Warbling Vireo!

Mallard Drake

Lots of Mallards filled Saw Mill Brook and the beaver pond and the tree swallows flew low over the marsh. I also was able to get great views of a Swamp Sparrow with his whitish throat, rufous cap and wings. Then he sang a faster song, more like a Chipping Sparrow than the typical Swamp Sparrow song. The lighting was pretty poor for my little camera, but the audio is great as he was just a few meters away and not very shy! Just after the trilled song a Red-winged Blackbird gives his "conkla-ree" call.





Walking back to my car I reflected on how this 12 year old park used to be a landfill and now it is full of people jogging, walking dogs, and watching birds. The grassy slopes are a favorite sparrow habitat and the beavers are working hard to fell the trees for their damns and lodge. The idea of this park as reclaimed wild space made me think it was an extra special place to visit on Earth Day.

8 Miles Continued....

Please visit the Nahanton Park Blog for the beginning of this trek.

Even though I was bundled up I was loosing feeling in my fingers so I stopped to break out a hand warmer set to stick between my gloves and over-mitts. Then I managed to look upstream on the Charles into the heart of the largest stretch of fresh water marsh on the Charles. Some distant dark smudges promised some water foul and I kept my hopes up for mergansers as I continued down the street into Needham and Cutler Park.

As soon as Kendrick Pond (aka Culter Pond) came into view I found some common mergansers working the edges of the pond along with some gulls sleepily floating in near the center. But what really caught my eye was the swan. Now I am used to Mute Swans having an orange bill, but this swan definitely did NOT have an orange bill and almost looked black. Could this be a Tundra Swan? I circled the pond, and circled back, trying to track close enough to the swan to get a really good, definitive view with my binoculars.

Mute Swan

I was almost dismissing the song sparrows and robins out of hand. Our paths finally managed to converge enough that my binoculars could resolve the details and this bird had a pale ivory bill, a young mute swan. While not what I was hoping for, still some good birds for the pond. I headed further south in the woods of Cutler and the path narrowed between I95 and the wetlands. With the proximity to I95, I feel even luckier that this great marsh wasn't covered over when the highway was built. While the noise of the traffic is a distraction, the park is still quite large and offers great habitat. I continued to follow as the path dipped and raised, while chickadees and juncos called marking my passage.

Cutler Park wetlands

Just as I reached the boardwalk across the marsh to Powell's Island- there I heard it! That high pitched thin trembling whistle of the brown creeper! I searched and searched the woods and yet all I could see was a passing glimpse of a bird in flight. Eventually I realized that I had completely lost the creeper (I have yet to see one in MA) only when the bird I was tracking resolved into a American Tree Sparrow. I carried on to the canoe landing at Powell's Island always feeling as though there was a bird hiding behind the next tree. I was hoping for some more mergansers and ducks at the canoe landing, but as I approached, I heard a different high thin whistle "see see see" of the Golden-crowned Kinglet. And indeed a small group of them were in the shrubs occasionally stopping to flash their yellow crowns at me. I carried on and was finally rewarded with hooded mergansers on the Charles. When I reached the train tracks I turned onto the trail that parallel to the tracks hoping to use the bridge to cross into Millennium Park. On this path only birds were a flyby crow and a close encounter with a Downy.

Upon reaching the bridge I looked both ways for trains before heading across. Unfortunately I thought that there was going to be a pedestrian partition, but there was none, so this is not a recommended route. Millennium Park was remarkably un-birdy this day, or maybe I was just starting to move quicker as I realized that my allotted hiking time was dwindling.  Millennium is an old dump, now capped off and offering great views of downtown and lots of grassland habitat. This park is probably one of the best birding spots in Boston, particularly as one of eBird's team members, Marshall Iliff, lives close by and frequents the park and reports his sightings. Now out on the open paths around the park the sun was working its fullest, so I paused to stick my coat and over-mitts into my backpack. I did manage to score a new bird for the day with a white-throated sparrow before taking the foot bridge across Sawmill Brook and into Brook's Farm and heading up the Helen Heyn Riverway back into Newton. By now I was mostly hiking, but still managed a Hairy Woodpecker and  next to one of the parking lots that the H.H. Riverway crosses I found a muskrat. I was half hoping to see a heron or bittern, particularly after a recent report of a Least Bittern in this section of Newton. But it was not to be. This was my first visit to the Helen Heyn Riverway, and was hoping for a little less parking lot, but I will have to return when I have time to explore a little more.

To hear the very end of this adventure head back over to the Nahanton Park Blog. Stay tuned to future posts about Hammond Pond, Houghton Gardens, and a tentatively named idea for a post "A tale of two owls."