Migration in Full Swing!

Catbird

Inspired by a fantastic Mother's Day Birdwalk at Cold Spring Park, sponsored by the Newton Conservators, I couldn't wait to get to Nahanton Park and see what was happening there.

It was cool - 45 degrees at 7:00 a.m., but nice and sunny. This puffed up catbird was the first to catch my eye, along with blue jays, robins and starlings. A red-tailed hawk flew overhead. There were several orioles. The first I saw was a beautiful male on a crabapple tree. It's so nice to have them back. Meanwhile, the female was busy building her nest in the same tree that they have been using for the last few years. She isn't wasting any time! There was a house wren singing and flitting about, cardinals, grackles, song sparrows, and yellow warblers.

Oriole

In the upper gardens I was happy to see that madame bluebird has somehow maintained possession of her nest box for a whole week. Maybe the addition of so many bird houses has satisfied the greedy tree swallows and she will be ok. In addition to the female, the male was hanging out across the path looking very handsome! There were several tree swallows. I may be mistaken, but it doesn't seem like as many as in the past or maybe they are already settled in to their various homes and are rather quiet. Several yellow rumps were about as well as chickadees, more house wrens, male and female red-winged blackbirds.

Female Nestbuilding

The soccer field had a half dozen white throated sparrows, robins, red-winged blackbirds, nesting chickadees, song sparrows, orioles,  yellow rumps, carolina wren, a nuthatch and a blue gray gnatcatcher near the parking circle.

Female in nest box

The pond had a huge, blue heron perched in a tree, but it flew off as I watched. It was gorgeous. I also saw an odd looking thrush walking along the path. I had trouble identifying it because it wasn't a wood thrush or a Louisiana Water thrush or a hermit thrush. Its back was mostly gray with a slight tinge of olive in it and though it had spots on its chest, they faded out near its belly. The tail was not rufous, so that eliminated the hermit. Thankfully, I ran into Mary Lou who told me it was most likely a Swainsons, which would be a first for me, so that was exciting.

Bluebird

I was expecting to see a lot of warblers on Florries path by the river, but it was very, very quiet.

Woodcock meadow was very quiet save for a singing house wren and one grackle.

Bluegray Gnatcatcher

Checked out the woods near the parking lot for lady slipper foliage and found 5 plants - one with a bud on it already. 

Nahanton is such a beautiful park!