Nighthawks Over Newton

Common Nighthawk

 Things have been busy this summer and I haven't had much opportunity to get out for some birding. But so far this summer has been a great one for Common Nighthawks. Last year I don't think I found any, but this year has been a different story as I've often heard their "pent" calls from a open window or while walking. In the last month though I've seen quite a few as they fly over the yard (and numerous other Newton locations) at dusk. I'm not sure why, but these Nighthawks always make me really happy. Maybe its because I'm rarely birding when I find them, so they are just an unexpected bonus.

I took a walk at Mass Audubon's Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary today, much too late for serious birding (but blue jays were the biggest hit with my hiking companion). The weather was perfect and the scenery was fantastic. Back in the woods I caught a loose warbled song that was likely a Pine Warbler, a not so subtle reminder that Fall migration is here and I aught to get out birding more!

Autumn at Hammond Pond

Wood Duck

 I had a little bit of time each day of this weekend in the afternoon to stop by Hammond Pond to see what might be around. Wish I had been able to make it at a better time for birds as it felt slow. I had a small list, but still had a great time enjoying the birds and autumn foliage. The highlights were getting great views of a Pied-billed Grebe and numerous Wood Ducks that cooperated. Additionally a fearless Ruby-crowned Kinglet came right up to investigate me (I wish I had my camera that day, but he was so close I wouldn't have been able to focus anyway). It was enjoyable just to admire him and not worry about taking a picture. I also found a Blackpoll and two Yellow-rumped Wablers.  The Yellow-rumps were back by the vernal pool, or at least what used to be the vernal pool. It has had so little water this year that it's turned into more of a field. I kept hearing more birds hiding in the 5 foot tall brush, but they seemed disinclined to reveal themselves. All the other birds were around the edge of the pond.

Pied-billed Grebe

Full list:

Wood Ducks
Mallards
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Gulls sp.
Blue Jays
Chickadees
Titmice
White-breasted Nuthatch
Buteo sp.
Blackpoll Warbler
Yellow-rumped Wablers
Cardinals
House Sparrows

P.S. Ok, while not at Hammond Pond this news is still cool. This afternoon I was really surprised to find a Clay-colored Sparrow in the yard associating with the neighborhood flock of house sparrows! She was an obvious 'odd duck' in the flock being much smaller and brighter buff colored. Fortunately having seen the one at Nahanton Park recently made me confident with my identification. But it is certainly a reminder to check out those yard birds too!

Spying on the Backyard Birds

Robin

 While I wasn't out and about birding in June, I was trying harder than ever to spy on the birds in the backyard. Instead of sitting on the back steps while eating breakfast, I employed the Audubon BirdCam, which I had received as a gift. It is a motion activated camera that is supposed to be designed for monitoring a feeder or nest box. While I have neither of these, that didn't stop me of strapping it to trees to see what birds and other wildlife I could find.

Catbird

So far it has captured a mourning dove, catbird, chipmunk, rabbits, grackles, a group of starlings, and a family of robins. While the pictures can't compete with my dSLR, the idea of getting regular "reports" on backyard bird life without active participation is quite exciting. I'm still trying to get the hang of it and learn the best settings and I would love
to find a nest to monitor. So hopefully I'll have occasional BirdCam updates too. I'm also hoping that one of the sporadic neighborhood turkeys will cross its path. Speaking of, I had better go put the memory card back in the camera.



P.S. With the cool and pleasant air Friday night, we had lots of windows open and I was lucky enough to hear the hoots of a Great Horned Owl drifting in the open windows!

Warbler Fallout!

Black-and-white Warbler

 This was quite the morning. I ate my breakfast on the back steps and enjoyed the morning bird song chorus. So far this spring, I've only had palm warblers and yellow-rumps, so imagine my surprise when I heard northern parulas and black-and-white warblers singing up a storm in the backyard and neighborhood (The black-and-white picture is here from Newton). All of last spring I only had 3 warbler species total for the yard, so finding 2 in one morning was quite a treat. Both of these were also firsts for the yard. I continued to hear parulas and black-and-whites all the way into Newton Center. Its hard to imagine how many warblers this must have been.

American Redstart

Then I very briefly stopped at Riverway, off of the T in Boston, and was immediately assaulted by warbler song. Black-throated green and black-and-white warblers popped up first and I just enjoyed them as I left my camera at home. But as I started finding more and more warblers, yellows and common yellowthroats, I started wanting to take pictures so I pulled out my phone to line them up through my binoculars (at least you can tell which warbler is which). I kept hearing songs that sounded like parulas and black-throated blues (I love the color of the BT-Blue) so i thought I was just confused until I realized

Black-throated Blue Warbler

that they were both present. As I kept scanning the trees I also turned up a veery, an American redstart and an ovenbird! I regularly hear ovenbirds in the spring, but this was only my second time seeing one. The trees were full of our little gems of wood warblers and there were even some yellow-rumps chasing each other around to round out the morning with 9 warbler species! There were a few warbler-like songs that I didn't hear well or recognize, so maybe there were a few more that I missed, but it was still one of my best warbler days so far. That doesn't even include the joy of seeing the veery and finding a singing Baltimore oriole. Of course there were many more of the usual suspects too.

Veery

Then I later read a Massbird email from Marshall Iliff indicating that there was a major coastal fallout of migrants today, making it probably one of the best birding days of the spring. I hope some of these will stick around for the weekend!

Feeder report

A 20 minute feeder watch on Dec 22, here in Newton Center, yielded 15 species:

Mourning Dove  5
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     m
Downy Woodpecker  2
Blue Jay  2
Black-capped Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  4
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  3
Carolina Wren  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)  4
Northern Cardinal  1     m
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  4
House Sparrow  9

This brings together the crew that's been around for about a month. 

Another Barred Owl

After the last post about the Millinium Park Barred Owl and the Hammond Pond Redheads, I kept thinking about all of the barred owl sightings that have been reported on massbird. With all the barred owls showing up all over Boston, I was thinking that I should remind everyone to keep their eyes and ears out for barred owls as there is a good chance we might find some in Newton.

Typically our most common owls are the eastern screech and great horned owls, while barred owls tend to like larger forested spaces and so are less common in urban or suburban environments. (There are a total of 11 owl species that can be found in MA, with 7 species that breed in the state). in fact, the recent barred owl at Millenium is the first record for that park, even though many great birders frequent that spot. Barred owls still show up regularly in Newton with sightings at Nahanton park (check out Suzette's picture) and I might have caught a brief glimpse of the Cold Spring Park owl that was seen this spring.

This morning was a different story though. I did not get enough sleep last night and one of my pre-sunrise walks around the house resulted in my hearing the strangest sound through a window. I only needed to hear the one utterance to nail down the "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" distinctive song of the barred owl. This was an exciting find, especially as an accidental yard bird. When I am able to muster up the energy I may head out to see if it isn't roosting nearby. This also now makes 4 owl species for me this year including great horned, eastern screech, snowy, and now the barred. And only the snowy owl from Duxbury was from outside Newton. I still have a ways to go if I want to find all the MA owls, and I hear that the long eared owl is notorious difficult to find. But its been a pretty good year considering I started it at Nahanton Park looking for owls.


P.S. As I was writing this post, a Cooper's hawk crash landed with a somersault over some bushes in the yard. I know birds are amazing fliers, but my amazement at their abilities is at its absolute peak when watching an accipiter in break-neck pursuit of some poor bird.  Her prey escaped and they both headed off down the street before I could even grab binoculars.

Changing of the guard

At Matt's invitation, I'm posting  a Newton bird sighting list. This is what was around my feeder this morning. No photos, sorry! I was admiring the differences in flight style between the two nuthatches, when a Red-bellied Woodpecker appeared on the tree. After a while it flew off, and was immediately replaced with a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! I haven't see one of these birds in quite a while. 

Mourning Dove  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     m
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1     m
Downy Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  2
Black-capped Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  4
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  2
Song Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  4
Northern Cardinal  2
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  6
House Sparrow  9

The Post-Sandy Yard Birds

As hurricane Sandy approached, many birders were thinking about searching for sea birds blown north by the storm. I on the other hand was just busy battening down the hatches. I spent most the day inside and peeked out a few times. Early on, before the winds got too strong, there was an intrepid mockingbird guarding the locust tree and chasing off the few sparrows that ventured out. Later on, I was looking out of the windows and startled a few robins, who were hunkering down in the bushes under the window.

White-throated Sparrow

 The morning after Sandy, I slept in a little before venturing out to check out the damage. We were fortunate enough (this time anyway) not to have a single branch down or shingle out of place. But I was mostly amazed at the tremendous amount of bird activity. They all must have been blown off course or were starving after riding out the storm. I could hear song fragments of white-throated and song sparrows, so I wonder if these were males born this spring practicing their craft. I even caught a glimpse of a beautiful white-throated sparrow specimen with very clean white, crisp black, and a bright yellow lore spot (unfortunately not the one I got a picture of). A family of chickadees and a white-breasted nuthatch worked the cedar trees, while the white pines sported some starlings, and to my surprise, two male red-winged blackbirds, a first in the yard. I was at first skeptical, as they were so high up, but I caught glimpses of colored patches on the wing, so who else could it have been? In the shrubs I found a cardinal, blue jay, and house sparrows, while down in the grass there were a few robins and juncos. Just as I was heading off to work, a mockingbird flew overhead, so I knew that she at least made it safely through the storm.

American Robin: A Close Encounter

The nice weather recently has led me to open windows at night, which means that the dawn chorus  will occasionally wake me up earlier than I would rather. One morning I snapped awake, instead of the slow return to awareness that the bird song usually brings. The song of what I thought could have been a scarlet tanager (similar to a robin but more burry) cut through my brain bringing me to full alertness. By the time I got dressed and headed outside I no longer heard anything like a tanager, but I decided to grab my binoculars and camera and sit on the back steps.

Brown-headed Cowbird

I heard lots of robins, chickadees, crows, and grackles while sitting in the calm before the human residents were yet awake. A brown-headed cow bird perched at the top of the a nearby cedar tree singing his high-pitched song. After only a couple of minutes a pair of great blue herons flew low over head, which was quite a surprise to me! Soon there after, an American robin caught my attention at the far end of the yard. This was a female robin as her head was gray (not black) and her breast was not the deep burnt orange of a male, but more interestingly she had a worm in her mouth. Now I think the following encounter can be told in pictures alone.

After watching the female robin make several trip to this bush and getting lots of pictures I decided it was time for breakfast. All the while eating, I kept thinking about what was in the bushes that was so interesting to her. I was hoping there might be a robin nest (though the in retrospect I realize that robins like to have their nests a little higher), so I swapped the telephoto lens for the normal kit lens on the camera and head back outside to see what I could find.

Juvenile Robin

I was quite lucky that this young robin was so photogenic and didn't mind my presence. Typically I would largely ignore robins when birding our local parks, but sitting in my own back yard they became great subjects of study. I think robins, with a funny turn of fate, seem much more benign than the otherwise might. American Robins are named by our early European settlers after the European robin, which shares an orange breast, though they are not related. Our American robin is actually a thrush (notice the speckled breast of the juvenile in the picture above) related to the wood thrush, hermit thrush, veery, and bluebird. I've even seen some refer to them as black-headed thrushes, which sounds quite a bit more exciting that the robin of grassy lawns that we think of today. In the spring and summer robins forage grassy areas for worms and insects, which makes them sensitive to pesticide use on lawns. While in the fall and winter robins are voracious fruit eaters, greatly enjoying small berries. Even though robins are frequently overlooked, their song is one of the most recognized (and enjoyed) by birders and non-birders alike.

Accidental Birding

I very much enjoy accidental birding (finding a fund bird when you aren't birding). Finding a fun bird when you aren't looking for it makes the find that much sweeter. Seeing Wild Turkeys or Wood Ducks from the T or the Red-tailed Hawk from your window at work are always quite a treat.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Just this weekend, I was in the yard and heard a soft musical warble similar to a Pine Warbler, except that the warble sometimes changed pitch half way through. I knew it had to be a warbler as I had just heard this song on my bird song CDs.  So I hunted for the singer to find a beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler. I was even lucky enough to grab a couple of pictures. Keeping the binoculars on the back steps while in the yard certainly paid off. With spring migration in full swing now, you never know when there will be a great bird in the backyard or just outside work. And I think a warbler in the backyard is particularly good, even for accidental birding.

For the start of warbler season I wanted to share links for YouTube videos from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on tips for finding warblers and a warbler ID quiz. They are worth watching just to see great video of these birds and to hear their calls.