Fruits of the cold front

 The Brookline Bird Club walk on Saturday morning netted 42 species at Nahanton Park. Almost immediately we encountered the cryptic bird shown fuzzily at right. I think this is a juvenile male Purple Finch.

A nice surprise in the upper garden was a couple of Indigo Buntings,

and this yellow Palm Warbler, both firsts for me this fall at the park.

Florrie's walk gave up a male Belted Kingfisher, and the upper (Woodcock) meadow produced the bird of the day, Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 

Birding in the rain

A hardy group headed out in variable rain on a Newton Conservators/Friends of Nahanton Park bird walk this morning. Pretty good showing of both birds and birders! Florrie's Path had a nice mixed flock with Red-breasted Nuthatch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and three warbler species including this Blackpoll Warbler.

We found six sparrow species, inclduding a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow in the upper garden and a Field Sparrow in the lower.

Photo quiz

I took these three photos at Nahanton Park within the past week. What are these birds?

Warblers!

After a chill, I was hoping for some new activity at Nahanton Park. I met up with Mary Lou and Ian at 8::00 this morning.

Near the lower garden we found this handsome Scarlet Tanager. There were also two large flights of Common Grackles, maybe 400 birds or more.

There were also a LOT of Blackpoll Warblers -- maybe ten altogether. Lots of Northern Parulas, too.

Ian and I went on after Mary Lou left. At the entrance to Florrie's Path we found a Belted Kingfisher, and this Blackburnian Warbler.

Still warblers

Quick tour through the park on Sunday morning. Quite a few people around! Also, a formation of four Great Blue Herons -- I'd never seen such a line-up! --

-- and this male Common Yellowthroat in the upper garden. There were also several Northern Parulas, Blackpoll Warblers, and Red-eyed Vireos, but they were harder to photograph! Another birder saw and photographed a Cape May Warbler.

Fall on the way

Beautiful Sunday morning at the Park .... with some fall migrants coming through. The mulberry tree a along the path between the gardens held several vireos - a couple of Red-eyed Vireos and this somewhat elusive Philadelphia Vireo ...

and this beautiful male American Redstart. 

 The trees behind the upper garden held a Red-breasted Nuthatch -- my first there since the big invasion year 2012--2013.












Both gardens hosted a bunch of migrant Chipping Sparrows ...

and Savannah Sparrows.

The tree screen along the soccer field held some Ribbon Snakes. How many?

Heating up again (but not birdwise)...

Solitary Sandpiper

It was 74 degrees and cloudy at 7:30 a.m. when I arrived. I wanted to go early since it's been predicted to be a 90+ degree day. I quickly ran into Mary Lou who I haven't seen in ages and Jonathan briefly. Mary Lou and I actually started in the upper gardens.

We saw hummingbirds, song sparrows, gold finches, and house sparrows. Caught a glimpse of the ever-present groundhog, who upon the realization that he was not alone, hi-tailed it out of the garden he was in and disappeared quickly down one of the garden paths. They are very stealthy and can move surprisingly quickly.

As we headed through the woods to the soccer field, a small American toad crossed our path and disappeared into the woods with his amazing camouflage.

It was so quiet today that we didn't think we would see much and were finally surprised when the hotspot of the day was the soccer field area where we saw a lone yellow warbler, a juvenile oriole, a downy, a flicker and what I believe to be its young, a grackle and its young, nuthatches, robins, jays, catbirds and a pair of Eastern phoebes.

The water in the pond has receded quite a bit and that meant it was time for the Solitary sandpiper to move in and so it has! Apologies for the poor picture.