Fall Bird Walk

Today, Alison led a bird walk at Nahanton Park starting at 8:00 a.m. Luckily, the rain held off and it was in the low 60's, so not too cold.

We started near the river where we heard the purr of the red bellied woodpecker and finally saw it high up in a tree. Walked down Florrie's path and stopped by the pond where some of our group saw some wood ducks and of course the mallards were there. Saw an eastern phoebe perched on a branch overhanging the pond as well.

Spent some time near the soccer field where we saw song sparrows and white throated sparrows. On the way up to the gardens we saw tufted titmice, a catbird, pine warblers, a black throated green warbler and a downy woodpecker.

Toured the lower and upper gardens. It actually was pretty quiet. We saw mockingbirds, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, goldfinches and house wrens. I had arrived before the walk and did a quick tour of the lower gardens and had seen the red eyed vireo that's been hanging out there and a male yellowthroat.

We then walked over to Woodcock meadow where we saw what we determined to be a pine warbler and a  black poll warbler in a tree together. They looked almost identical, but one had dark legs and the other had yellowy-orange legs. That was the end of the walk for some of us, but others continued on across the street and down by the Charles. Can't wait to find out what they saw....

I always get excited on these walks and feel compelled to return to the park to see what else can be found. After lunch, I went back and went looking for the wood ducks that I had missed. Didn't see them but as I was leaving I heard a lot of squawking and a huge hawk flew from that direction and landed on a tree right in front of me. It was awesome! Was in the upper gardens when I saw something small moving in the grass. It was a baby turtle - not more than three inches long. Now tell me, what was that doing there? Does anybody know? I thought it would need to be near water. You just never know what you're going to find.