July 24, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Warm, sunny, 4:30ish

Decided to go back to Mount Auburn today, it’s getting into late July and I’m not expecting to see anything too exciting.  I notice the board with sightings always has suspect claims this time of year “15 Philadelphia Vireos….5 Canada Warblers…250 Robins”.   I’m sure the person saw a ton of Robins, but the other 2 are highly dubious, if not flat out impossible this time of year, but I digress.  We walked around Willow Pond for a while and noted the turtles.  There were several people on the opposite side of the pond from BF Skinner’s grave; they had easels set up.  I got a picture of a father & son painting together.

After traipsing about by Willow for a while we headed over to Halcyon for a while, I wanted to find the Great Blue Heron.  I’m still irritated that the memory card ate the pictures I had taken of it the day I saw the Black-Crowned Night Heron.    Fortunately when we got there we spotted the Great-Blue after a few minutes of walking along the shore.  Wendy is always perturbed when she encounters one. I think because they’re only slightly shorter than her, and their wingspan is greater than her’s.   

I tried getting closer to it but it was having none of it, it kept creeping/flying away anytime I got within 20’ of it (The heron, not Wendy).   We started wending our way around the lake after the Heron extricated itself from our presence, and as we came around to the side closest to the outside road I spotted a nest up in a tree.  Andy was nearby and set up his equipment; his zoom lens is much better than the one on my camera.  He got some nice pictures of what turned out to be some baby Robin’s.  I got some pictures as well before my camera died, although they did not come out that great.Here’s another one, with one of the parents feeding the young one.  I’ll add it to my collection of pictures of bird rear-ends. 

July 22, 2011 Mount Auburn, Hottest Day of the Year!

Friday, Sunny, 102°

                I love the heat like a fish loves water.  I absolutely had to go out for this.  It was humid, the heat index was about 115 and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I didn’t think I’d see much, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Not so much by the birds, but by the dragon flies.  They were everywhere. I did get to see some birds too, like this house finch, an exceedingly rare sight the last several years after a parasite knocked out most of the population.   I also got to see the Cormorant at Willow Pond again.  I’m sure it was glad to be a pelagic bird on a day like this.  Other birds were laying low, but that thing was just floating around out there like a battleship.  It’s really quite a striking sight. 

               

The dragonflies really stole the show though.  I’m sure someone out there knows all the species, but to me the dozens of them buzzing around the shores were just beautiful.   I can’t add anything in words that would be better than the pictures so I’m just going to post them now.   I feel so lucky to have witnessed this, a reward for braving the heat. 

 

Not the clearest picture but there’s 3 dragonflies buzzing around in this one.

                I decided at this point to go and see if the Phoebe’s were still at their nest, but did not realize that it had been almost two weeks since I visited them, and the nest is now empty, a reminder of an earlier part of summer.  There’s something provoking about an empty bird nest that I’ve never been able to fully describe.  But here’s a picture of the lake where they would catch bugs to bring to their babies:

 

As I wandered about I also got a shot of a sweltering Blue Jay, seen here, as well as a grave-top Cardinal, and that was all for this trip