Sunday, October 5, 2014

Newton Conservators & Friends of Nahanton Park Walk with Haynes Miller

It was 48 degrees at 7:00 a.m. with the sky clearing from a rainy Saturday, a really nice day for a walk.

I arrived early and took my time looking around the lower gardens, meeting up with the group around 8:00 at the Nahanton Street entrance. We headed to the dock to view the river and a beaver was spotted swimming across the river. Beaver damage is evident along the trail where several trees have been worked on. Looks like they really want to build a dam.

The pond was quite devoid of herons or sandpipers - just a lone robin looking for worms. Along the trail by the soccer field, we saw either a female or young male American redstart. It was quite beautiful with it's soft gray and yellow coloring.

The lower gardens had many of our regulars and some migrants as well. The robins are starting to flock as there were lots and lots of them. There were cardinals, catbirds, song sparrows, a mockingbird, blue jays, house finches, a female purple finch, chipping sparrows, chickadees, goldfinches, a flicker, one or two lincoln sparrows, a lone junco, savannah sparrow, white-throated sparrow, grackles, red-bellied woodpecker, starlings and a swamp sparrow. We heard titmice calling, a Carolina wren and then saw a house wren. Ring-billed seagulls flew overhead and later Canada goose.

On the way to the upper gardens a common yellowthroat was spotted along the path. Once up there, it was fairly quiet. There was a male downy at the back of the gardens and two indigo buntings in a tree nearby. I saw a brown creeper, but by the time I went to show Ian, it was gone. We stayed for a long time hoping for the yellow-breasted chat, but it didn't appear and we assumed it must be gone. However, later in the day, there was a posting and someone else had seen it. Darn!

Other birds seen included a mourning dove and Eastern phoebe.

Please join us for another walk sponsored by the Brookline Bird Club (BBC) on Saturday, October 18th at 8:00 a.m., led by Linda Ferraresso. For more information, click here.

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