STILL GOING!

I find that Flickr is actually a really good platform for sharing photos, and on the sets I can include a description of what I did, so I update over there now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39445433@N02/

December 22, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Afternoon

This winter has been pretty mild so far; of course last year was the same until the 2nd to last day of the year...I headed over to Mt. Auburn to see what was happening.  This time of year always feels so dormant; I guess that’s the point of Winter.   Still, one never knows what they’re going to see when they come out to bird watching anywhere from late March to mid-June, and then again from mid-August to even mid-October.   Plus the times in between always contain a few surprises.  In the Winter you hope for irruptive species coming down to avoid a harsh northern Canada winter, but that’s usually hit or miss.  I wish I could see more Evening Grosbeaks, Siskins, Crossbills, and other winter exotica.  For today I settled for a House Finch and a Titmouse; the winter species that hang around in New England always remind me of Vikings for some reason, waiting out a barren winter.

This probably concludes my 2011 birding adventures.  I never really stopped watching them; I always saw them around.  I still remember late August of 2008 though when I finally decided to search the internet for places around here that I could actively go out watching them again.  I picked up like I had been doing it daily without a break at all.  I’ve got mountains of pictures from before 2011; most of them with a point & shoot camera though that doesn’t really do them justice.  Getting an SLR & then a 55-250mm lens really helped me immensely.  I still carry my binoculars with me and prefer to use them; but when it comes to identifying/freezing a moment in time, obviously nothing beats the camera.  It’s helped me take my identification skills up a notch.  So now on to 2012.  I’m thinking I’ve outgrown the XTi I’ve been using and will probably snag a T2i or T3i this coming year; we’ll see.  On to 2012!

November 26, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery & some pond in Cambridge.

Late Afternoon

Ended up going to two locations today, the first was Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the other was a pond in Cambridge, the name of which escapes me now. So far this Autumn has been unseasonably warm.  Of course last winter was also unseasonably mild and completely snowless and then from December 29^th through the first week in February we had 8 blizzards or something like that.  So we’ll see.  I remember last year noting seeing some invasive species and wondering if it was an omen of a particularly brutal winter.  Of course til the very end of 2010 it did not appear to be, and then of course they came to full fruition.  This year I’ve noticed several species appear to be wintering over; ones I’ve never seen this late before.  For instance on this trip to Mount Auburn I saw Goldfinches and Redwing blackbirds.

               For some reason seeing Goldfinches in the autumn always reminds me of getting the Audubon Society magazine in the mail as a child.  My mom always bought a subscription for me and I would go through the articles in the magazine when it came, paying attention mostly to the birding ones.  However the big thrill for me was on the back of the magazine there was a calendar for the month and it noted different things that were happening at that time of the month; so there’d be notes about what birds were nesting, what birds were about to migrate, when to look out for deer, etc.   This was how I marked my time passing from the ages of about 5 through 12.  Warblers returning (even though we didn’t have Warblers in my neighborhood), cardinals nesting, young birds fledging,  chipmunk families emerging from dens, hawks beginning to congregate into autumn groups.  The parts about the passage of time always caught my attention the most.  How some birds could still be breeding and others were getting ready to migrate; marking the passage of time in my life by the cycles of the birds, it was always a sort of happy wistful feeling I felt.  I still remember reading that Goldfinches didn’t nest until thistle came out in late August; I recall thinking what a frenetic pace they must raise their young at. As others around them are fattening up for autumn migrations or wintering over, the Goldfinches are just settling down to raise their young.  Anyhow, I cannot recall ever seeing them this late however, and there were flocks of them rustling about in the tops of trees, along with the redwings pictured above.

 I also saw this, maybe the first Evening Grosbeak I’ve seen in 25 years?  Those are actually the birds that really got me into birdwatching.  We had a shelf feeder attached to a windowsill, and as a child I’d come down in the mornings to the living room when the shades would still be pulled and I’d watch their silhouettes projected through the shade by the sun.  Then I’d open the shade and the birds would fly off before quickly returning to continue feasting.  I would sit inches away inside the window watching the Grosbeaks.  I didn’t know they were largely an eruptive species, and being young I thought Grosbeaks must always visit.  I never saw them again after I was 6 or so.  Here’s a picture, I’m not sure what it is, but it may be a Grosbeak.  I’ve been lax in writing all this stuff down formally, it’s July 30, 2012 when I’m writing this all down, and was sifting through the folder for this trip.  How odd it would be if this turns out to be a Grosbeak; sitting in a folder on my computer for 8 months, me unaware that I may have seen the very bird that got me started down this path in life.

edit: I think it's a goldfinch

               Most of this trip was spent around Willow Pond; I wasn’t expecting much bird activity but was pleasantly surprised at the flocks of foraging blackgirds and goldfii skimming around the tops of trees. As an added bonus I saw this creature:

I assume it’s a muskrat, or at least it looks like one, so we’re going to go with muskrat.  It was floating around on the edge of the pond swimming about doing whatever it is that muskrats do. It would dip under the water and pop back up; it paid us no mind as it went about its business.  I also wanted to show this picture of one of the Willows at the pond, it looks like hair hanging down; it really was beautiful.  I’ve never been a big fan of winter, or that dead period from late November to late February.  Those 3 months just bring up a feeling of malaise in my mind.  But looking at the willow here it reminds me of those days earlier on in Autumn; the stereotypical New England memories of apple picking, and apple pies, whole mountains bursting into color, and old corn stalks bunched up together.  Good times.

So we moved along at this point to a pond in Cambridge, the name of which escapes me now.  There were dozens of people milling about it.  The circumference of it was pretty close to a mile if I recall.  As we walked along the wooded path that led to the lake we saw several squirrels that appeared to be quite fat, ready for winter.   You could hear them noisily munching on the seeds and nuts they had collected.

edit: It's Fresh Pond

So we got to the lake and were lucky enough to spot this Heron sunning itself on a log by the edge of the water.   A lady there told us of a family of owls, and we walked for about 15 minutes after her only to come to the tree and note that there were no owls there at this time.  She said “Oh, I guess they’re gone.  Bye!” and walked away.  Good times.  Here’s the heron:

November 20, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mild, sunny

Driving by Auburn Lake today at Mount Auburn and I noticed some ducks swimming around in the middle of the lake. I had never seen Hooded Mergansers live before but recognized them by the males distinct crown immediately.   They circled around and around for quite some time just out of range of my 250mm lens; I got some decent shots, but nothing spectacular.  Wendy noted “They didn’t really do much, they just circled around in the middle of the lake”.  I’ll let them know that next time they should start throwing fire-crackers at the people on –shore. 

For a while what I thought was a flicker was bombing around the suet cage, and screaming from the tops of the trees.  Apparently though someone pointed out it was actually a red-bellied woodpecker.  Not sure how I never noticed that before.   Most of the pictures I have taken in the past have been of flickers, but I’m sure some that I’ve spotted have been red-bellies.  You’ll note the red belly on this bird, as well as the lack of the black marking on the cheek, the ‘whisker’ is missing.  It’s quite the boisterous bird, and it kept patrolling around the lake for some time.

Since it was bright enough out, and the mergansers weren’t lighting anything on fire, I decided to see how fast I could get my shutter speed while aimed at the feeder, I wanted to get some bird in flight shots.  I got several, and what follows is among the best; I got the shutter speed up to 1/1250^th of a second. 

The cemetery is really beautiful this time of year, it feels more like a cemetery and less like an arboretum at these times; something about the leaves dying and the ground turning fallow. The silence that hangs in the air, punctuated only by a distant chickadee or the woodpecker returning.  It’s so still; during the summer even if there’s nothing around there’s always a hum in the air, a distant buzz of an insect, the wind rustling through the leaves; a certain expectation of movement and excitement.  Now in the autumn the earth is sleepy, there are no leaves, and the insects have gone away. 

October 16, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Sunny, breezy, mild

Well this was a fun one!   As we drove into the cemetery on a windy day we were driving along a path and Wendy somehow managed to spot this bird sitting on a branch a ways back from the road.  How she spot it I’m not sure.  Haven’t seen an Accipiter in quite some time, and that’s what this was, so I was especially pleased.   This handsome fellow on the following pages is an immature Cooper’s Hawk.  He seemed perfectly fine with letting us get close to him, we got plenty of great shots as he swayed on the branch. 

We eventually carried on and ran into the Turkeys, which are becoming a frequent sight in the Cemetery, here’s a couple pictures of them.

I also wanted to include a couple pictures of Auburn Lake, since it looks quite nice this time of year:

Overall it was a lovely trip and we had a great time. 

October 2, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mild, overcast

               Took a post-migration season trip to Mount Auburn to see if there were any stragglers.  I didn’t see any, but I did get some nice shots of some flora and a stoic Great-Blue Heron under a bridge.  Cloudy day out; this is really the beginning of the lull in birding.  Still too early for many of the northern Canadian species to come down yet, but too late to see any migrants, unless there are some stragglers. I did enjoy this gravestone; it looked somber, but seasonally appropriate with the pumpkins on it.  On to the pictures!

September 16, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

What to do on a beautiful end-of-summer day, the day after I turn 30?  Go bird watching of course.   The day got started with a non-bird sighting;  I came across a fox just below the tower, and it ran off along a trail; here’s a picture.  I lost it shortly after this picture was taken. He looks like he’s in repose but in actuality he’s waiting to spring into action and lead me on a goose chase.

I didn’t resize it because I thought it made a nice picture.  It’s a bit over-exposed, but you can see him in the middle there.  After this I headed towards Auburn Lake and on the way ran into some Doves, and a camera shy flicker and an equally camera shy phoebe.  They actually were right next to each other, looking away from my camera the whole time.  Next I came across my first ever Wilson’s Warbler.  This thing was a pain to i.d. since it kept flitting around, but I got a couple good looks at it.  Unfortunately it was being rather uncooperative when I got my camera out. Long story short, who wants to look at a blurry Wilson’s Warbler chilling out with a nuthatch?  Hopefully you do, because that’s what the picture below is of.   

               I have to say that this was by far my most prolific year of bird watching. So many new species.  Probably because I have been doing it a lot more this year, and I’ve really gotten better identifying the transient Warblers, Flycatchers, and various sundry species that come through the area.   Growing up we had Audubon sanctuaries that we would drive to, or I could birdwatch on the flood plain on the other side of the dike in Westfield.  But back then I didn’t know how to time my trip requests so that my mom could take me during peak migration times and wot not.  I got to see the occasional Magnolia Warbler or Black & White Warbler in the yard at South Loomis Street, but by and large I never got to see many of the species that I have this year.   It helps too that there are swaths of birders at Mount Auburn.   I also have a DSLR camera and a lens capable of capturing good shots that I can put in this document for later perusal.   I have 1000s more where these shots came from as well.  It’s definitely increased my ability to ID things back at home if I’m stumped, but to also share with others, which increases my happiness.  Anytime I can share birds with someone I’m happier.

So carrying along I came to the opposite side of Auburn Lake (opposite the bird feeder) and there were several people there checking out warblers.  There was a Northern Parula Warbler, and a Redstart in autumn plumage; I had never seen one before, or more likely had never identified one before, so that was neat.  The Parula was an easy identification; it looks basically the same.  I wouldn’t have known the Redstart was a Redstart if someone hadn’t mentioned it.  In retrospect I can see the patterning under the tail.   I like the shots I got of both; they remind me a bit of poses you see in Audobon’s paintings.  First the Parula, and then the Redstart:

               Other sightings include a Red-Eyed Vireo; I believe it has a new name now, but growing up it was always known as the Red-Eyed Vireo, so I’ll stick with that.  The eyes themselves aren’t very red; this may have been a young one, as apparently their eyes take on more color as they grow up.   Here's a couple shots

In the middle of all this I got to watch a Red-Tailed Hawk tear apart a meal as well, and got a nice shot of him sitting atop a grave-stone perch.   There was also the omnipresent Robins, Flickers, Chickadees, and Nuthatches.  I’m assuming that this is probably the tail end of migration that I’m seeing right now.  It’s always somewhat wistful every year when this time comes, but honestly I’ve always enjoyed it.  Seeing the transitions in nature from Summer to Autumn is comforting in some way that I’ve never been able to fully express.  Regardless, I’ll transition into more fall activities; Apple picking, pumpkin carvings, and all that jazz.   Here’s the Red-Tail on a grave:

 Overall it was a great spring & summer of birding; and hopefully a great autumn to follow.