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: