Sparrows and kinglets

Nice walk this morning through the park. This winter the place is crawling with American Tree Sparrows. The notables today were a Flicker and a pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets in the woods. I managed a single more or less in focus shot, but the second picture is more representative. Something else was calling there too - maybe a Towhee.

Fox Sparrows! And renewed interest in Woodcock meadow restoration.

Fox Sparrow

Got to the park today around 8:00. It was 50 degrees and overcast.

The lower gardens were pretty quiet. I could hear blue jays when I first arrived and saw some sea gulls flying overheads. There were large flocks of goldfinches and house finches busy finding seeds on some of the tall weeds. A mockingbird perched on a branch and surveyed the area. A few song sparrows were hanging out in the old crabapple in the middle of the gardens. A small group of Canada geese honked as they flew by. A couple of American tree sparrows foraged on the path.

White-throated sparrow

The upper gardens were extremely quiet. I don't think I saw or heard one bird up there, so I decided to head down to the pond area where Haynes and I had seen a lot of different little birds looking for goodies in the now waterless vernal pool. Not very much there either. Where were they all?

As I headed down the path to the river, I came upon today's hangout. There were titmice flitting about, cardinals, chickadees, lots of white-throated sparrows and a couple of fox sparrows (shown top left) as well as many juncos, a few grackles and blue jays.

New Eagle Weathervane

There are some important updates to let you know about. One is that the City has repainted the nature center and it looks fantastic! Also, Judy Dore has replaced the aging weathervane atop the center with a new, beautiful eagle weathervane that is elegant and striking. I'm proud to say that The Friends of Nahanton Park donated the funds to reimburse Judy for the purchase.

Of great interest: Jon Regosin, Chief of Conservation Science for the National Heritage and Endangered Species Program of Massachusetts, is spearheading a renewed effort to restore Woodcock Meadow back to it's meadow state. Yesterday, over 10 people gathered together to assess the situation and come up with a new preliminary plan to revisit this issue and re-approach the City. We had members of the Newton Conservators, Friends of Nahanton Park, Charles River Canoe & Kayak and other experts and knowledgeable citizens to take a look at the meadow and prioritize the most immediate needs, which is essentially removing the large and invasive white pines and a few other large trees to control the succession to forest. A plan will be created to deal with the order or priorities, fundraising and overall management in general. We hope you will join us in this important endeavor.

Winter Respite

Cedar Waxwing

I arrived at the park around 7:30 a.m. Who could resist a day that promised to be in the 60's when it's almost the end of November? And so happy to have the day after Thanksgiving off from work. It was 50 degrees and a little overcast, but you could tell the sun was going to come out!

In the lower gardens was an enormous flock of Cedar waxwings. They'd hang out in a couple of trees together chattering amongst themselves and then wooosh - all of a sudden they'd fly to a different area en masse. The yellow edge of their tail feathers so dramatically yellow in the overcast light. A seagull flew overhead.

Goldfinches feeding

There were several blue jays, zillions of robins, a lone mockingbird and some titmice. The number of juncos has increased dramatically. A cardinal couple perched on a branch nearby and a few white-throated sparrows were singing. Large families of goldfinches were feasting on the artemesia weed seeds that abound in the meadow. I caught a glimpse of a red-bellied woodpecker on the trunk of a tree near the golf course and finally saw some American tree sparrows with their rufous head and dark breast spot. There were families of house finches too. Several of the birds were having fun bathing and drinking from the puddles along the path.

Red-tail Hawk

In the upper gardens, a flock of Canada geese flew over head and several juncos were busy looking for food along the ground. A few American tree sparrows were here as well and also more house finches. I turned my back to check out the path near the bee-hives and see if by some miracle and owl might appear and when I turned back around, I saw a large hawk fly in. It perched for a while and surveyed the situation. I'm not sure if it was looking for small birds or rodents, but either way, it didn't seem to find what it wanted and moved on.

Do be careful of ticks! This is the second week in a row that I've ended up with one on me. They seem to be rampant right now.

Very quiet at Nahanton...

Impromptu Gathering

I arrived at the park at about 7:30 this morning. It was about 44 degrees. Just as I pulled up, Haynes arrived and we started around together. Ian, Mary Lou and Judy ended up joining us in the upper gardens.

As in the title, it was pretty quiet today. It  was such a lovely morning, that I actually thought it might be a little busier and the others must have thought so too since so many turned out today by coincidence.

In the lower gardens, we saw several titmice, robins, goldfinches, blue jays, chickadees, song sparrows and house finches. Flocks of grackles and then crows flew overhead. Some juncos are back, but not in the large flocks we will see later on.

In the upper gardens, were a pair of white-throated sparrows, song sparrows, more juncos, and two
very vocal and active red-bellied woodpeckers.

The soccer field, pond and river were extremely quiet and devoid of birds, although I suppose it didn't help that two fishermen on the dock were playing their radio extremely loudly.

We walked through the meadow, and though the picture of a birch tree to right doesn't do it justice, the yellow-orange leaves were quivering and dancing in the wind and looked so striking against the crisp, blue sky.

Lincoln Sparrow!

Lincoln Sparrow

I arrived at the park at 8:00. It was 49  degrees and sunny. A perfect October day!

I ran into Haynes and some other folks and we walked around together. In the lower gardens were robins and song sparrows, goldfinches, and some swamp sparrows. This lincoln sparrow was perched nearby and surprisingly got a halfway decent picture of him in his Harris tweed coat as Haynes likes to say. It was a good view of his buffy coloration near the breast. A flock of grackles flew overhead as well as some herring gulls. One of the first juncos to arrive was present joining our overwintering cardinals, blue jays and house finches.

As we headed to the upper gardens, we could hear a towhee calling "wheeeeet", although we never got to see him. I like to hope that we will have another overwintering towhee this year like we did a few years ago, but it's probably a long shot. There were some mourning doves, titmice and song sparrows. I caught a brief glimpse of a largish yellow bird which, thankfully, someone else witnessed too. After much discussion about it's yellow coloring and darkish gray wings, we finally settled on a female or young tanager. Cormorants in their "V" shape flew overhead. We saw a flicker and someone saw some black polls. Chippers foraged near the waste pile, chickadees hung upside down on sunflower heads trying to get the last of the seeds and a red-tailed hawk flew up above.

We revised the lower garden again and saw cowbirds, an eastern phoebe, yellow-rumps and a Merlin that flew quickly by, but all who saw it agreed that's what it was.

Down by the soccer field and pond area, was a red-bellied woodpecker, some nuthatches, robins, a hermit thrush (which only some saw), a female yellow-rump and a ruby-crowned kinglet!

Haynes' Fall Bird Walk sponsored by the Newton Conservators and the Friends of Nahanton Park

At 7:30 a.m., it was cloudy and 51 degrees - a good temperature to explore the park.

In the lower gardens, a few members of the group saw a blue-headed vireo which is always exciting. Unfortunately, I missed it. As we walked down the rows between the gardens, which are more floriferous than vegetable oriented at this point in the season, we saw some cowbirds, a savannah sparrow, swamp sparrows and chippers. Finally, I saw my first clay-colored sparrow which was absolutely beautiful! We saw a few yellow-rumps flitting here and there amongst the grasses and a ruby-crowned kinglet in the large, overgrown crabapple to the left of most of the plots. A red-tailed hawk was seen as well as some cedar waxwings. White-throated sparrows were present as well as some catbirds, song sparrows, chippers, blue jays, catbirds and goldfinches. A small flock of Canada geese flew overhead.

In the upper gardens. Hayes told us of a Saffron finch he had seen the previous weekend. It's not a bird anyone would ordinarily see here, as it is native to South America. What a spectacular bird! I hope it finds its way somewhere safe.

So, we didn't see the Saffron, but we did see some nuthatches, a phoebe, cardinals, chickadees, song sparrows, goodies, downies, jays and a flicker  - our normal fare - especially for this time of year.

Fun Fall Feathers

The fall sparrows are finally coming in. Yesterday in the lower garden there was a White-crowned Sparrow, several White-throated Sparrows and Swamp Sparrows, and this morning I found a nice  Clay-colored Sparrow --

Yesterday there was also a beautiful Blackpoll Warbler,

and this bird in the upper garden --

This is a Saffron Finch. I saw a lot of them in Brazil in August, but this one is much bigger and brighter than what I remember. It's from a different subspecies, probably from Peru. This is a popular cage bird, in the news

https://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/21/finches_are_latest_victim_of_animal_based_gambling/

because they are made to fight each other.