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

July 9, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

July 9, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Nice day out, mild, late afternoon

So I headed back to Mount Auburn today to see if I could find the Black-Crowned Night Heron again. The cormorant was still there, however I did not get to see the heron again.  I did get to see something else cool though.  While by Willow Pond someone asked me if I had seen the Phoebe nest, which I had not. He directed me to where it was, at the twin ponds with the bridge over them, by the birdfeeder.  So I headed out there to see what was shaking, and easily found the nest.  Now let me say that this was NOT easy to photograph at all.  I was on a steep bank that goes down into the pond, photographing at an angle, trying to hold myself up, and get a decent shot.  Most of my early shots were not usable as they’re too dark.  I ended up using a flash, which did not seem to bother the parents in the least.  In fact even as I was only about 10’ away they still continued their flights in and out to feed their young hatchlings.

The nest itself was stuck to a stone wall underneath the bridge that covers the narrow span of water that joins to the two ponds.   It appeared to be constructed mainly of moss and dirt.  Nearby there were several stalactites that hung down from the underside of the bridge and were dripping moisture into the channel below.  There were four hatchlings in there when I observed them, and the parents were coming at intervals of about 120 seconds or so.  The babies were largely quiet except for one who frequently stuck his head out when not napping.  I could only get a good look at two of them that were the closest to me, however the all appeared healthy at the time.  The most vocal and active hatchling was getting most of the food, as is typical in these situations. 

                The day was quite nice even if I did not get to see the Heron again.  This is my first time observing a Phoebe nest, and was pretty cool to get to watch this part of their life cycle.  I have had a great stretch the last couple months with birdwatching and this just continues it.  I also have a video of the nest, here. 

               I ended up watching them for about an hour before packing up and heading home.  Here are a few more shots of the Phoebes:

 

Also since every trip I seem to be coming across a multitude of turtles, here’s one for the road:

July 8, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Pleasant weather, warm, no wind, mostly sunny

This ended up being an amazing day.  I went to Halcyon lake to begin with just to see if there was anything around.  I actually chased around a Northern Flicker for quite some time and got some great shots of it, as well as a couple of rabbits.  Apparently Wendy thinks one of the rabbits is a hare, and the other is a rabbit.  I’m not sure what that means but she seems convinced.  The shots of the rabbit/hares came out pretty good, I’ll post some of them here.  Actually I’ll post them on their own page to compare.

OK, so the picture above is a rabbit I think she said, and the one below is apparently a hare…at least according to Wendy.  Something about the ears.   I think she’s out of her mind, but I digress.

    Alright, so after fumbling about with members of the Lepus family I decided to search for the Great-Blue Heron around Willow Pond.   So I get there and I’m by the willow with its branches dipping into the water.  As I walk to the right of this around the pond by where the workers put in a log for turtles to sun themselves on I noticed…a Great-Crested Cormorant!  I think I had seen one here a couple years ago, but this was pretty surprising.  I was shocked.   Here it is cruising along. 

 I’m including this picture on the left here only because it looks absolutely horrified.   For the record I think it might have been; when it saw me come within twenty feet of it, it scooted off into the pond and continued circling near the middle of it without getting anywhere near shore until I left.  I don’t know what brings cormorants this far in land.  I guess in the grand scheme of things we’re only about 5 or 6 miles from the ocean so it’s not that far.  Still I don’t think of Cormorants as venturing very far from the shore lines that they inhabit.  So after watching this bird for a while I decided that it was time to move along and began to walk away.  As I did I glanced back towards the log that the cormorant had been sitting on and ended up doing a double-take.  There was some sort of baby heron or bittern sitting on the log.  I did not have any of my guides with me at the time, ironically this was the first time I had neglected to bring them with me all year.  So I settled on it being a least bittern, but that was a complete guess.   I got some of the best pictures of it that I have ever gotten with this camera; here’s a couple of them, I’m going to take up the next block of space here with just pictures of this bird, it’s absolutely beautiful. 

Sad Heron is Sad

I wanted to include one of the habitat it was hanging out in as well, so there you go.  I want to start including more pictures that include the context of where the birds were as opposed to just shots of the bird itself.  So it turns out this is NOT a Bittern  at all. It’s juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron.  These are not seen at Mount Auburn very often, but if there’s a juvenile here there must be a couple parents around somewhere.  Of course I had already written on the bird-sighting chalk-board that I had seen a Bittern, so I had to go back and make a correction the next day.  In the meantime though I was taking pictures like crazy when the Great-Blue Heron landed nearby and started fishing.  I got some GREAT pictures of it eating a frog, and then flying off to some of the trees and wandering around in the woods.  You don’t see Heron’s wandering around in the shade of trees on dry land very often.  Of course my memory card craps out and I lose all the pictures of the Great-Blue, but fortunately all the Night-Crowned pictures were safe.

Eventually I decided to leave the water fowl alone and continue walking around the pond, getting a shot of some ducks mucking around in some mud, a clear shot of a chipmunk (harder than it sounds), and a robin stereotypically eating a worm.  As I finished my lap around the pond I noticed a frog in the muck and got a good shot of that one too.  It was a pretty big frog, I think it might’ve been a bullfrog.   Also present, some bizarre looking dragon flies that looked like someone had spray painted white.

Muck Duck

All in all it was a great day, got to see a bunch of diverse life, and my first ever black-crowned night heron!  

June 25, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

Was at Mount Auburn with Wendy on a cloudy overcast day to see what was around; I figured Warblers would be out of the question but who knows what else would be there.   We stayed around the Dell and by where the owls had been nesting; they have since fledged.   I did finally manage to get a few decent pictures of a Blue Jay; somehow I had gone the entire time of having this SLR and not getting a single good picture of one, so that’s always good.  It didn’t seem to mind our presence too much.   As we skulked around the dell we got a chance to see a turtle swimming around in the scum.  It’s always amazing how many frogs I heard splashing into the water as I approach as well.  I rarely see more than one or two, but judging by the racket they make when jumping back into the pond there must be close to 25 at any time on whatever side of the dell I happen to be on.  I guess that’s how the heron stays well fed. 

                Wendy noticed something that she seems to think is wild strawberries.  I have no idea what they are, but if she wanted to eat one I wouldn’t stop her. She passed.  I’ll put a picture in here, maybe someone can identify them.  Not sure what they are honestly, they look like small round strawberries.  I’ll see if they last the summer and ripen up more, then maybe I’ll try one.   It looks kind of like one of those red physio balls people use at the gym, but with spikes on it.  Actually the more I look at the picture that looks nothing like a strawberry. I’m definitely not eating one of them at any point.  I’ll let Wendy try one and see if she gets violently ill.  If not I guess I’ll have a bite of one.  

                We were also tailed at length by a male cardinal who was singing quite boisterously.  Cardinals will return to singing between broods of young, before they lay their next clutch of eggs.  I have seen some cardinal families trawling around the Cemetery the last time I came up here, I’m sure there are others that I have not seen yet as well.   This particular male was quite exuberant; I got some ‘action-shots’ of him flying away from us that came out kind of well.  I cannot wait until they start filling up the feeder again this autumn by the lakes; I was just learning how to use the camera this past winter; this time around I’ll be able to get some great midflight shots I hope.  Here’s the Cardinal: 

While I’m at it, here’s a picture of the turtle we saw in the dell as well.  You can see the scum that has started to coat the surface of the pond.  I’m sure someone out there is interested in turtles and can tell the difference between the species.  I could probably look up what kind this one is as well; I’ll take a guess and say painted until I look later.   Turtles are by far the easiest thing I photograph outside of plants; not too many lightning fast movements from these guys.  

Towards the end of the trip I got a ton of great pictures of a catbird that was hanging around the dell as well; perched on the Dell Path sign.  These are probably some of the clearest shots I’ve gotten with the camera.  I won’t be able to post them full-size in this document, but when I post them to the blog (birdinginboston.blogspot.com) clicking on them will bring up a full-sized picture.

Front View

 

Rounding out the trip we went around to where the owls used to have a nest; they’re gone but I wanted to see the area since Orioles frequent it, and Towhees on occasion.  As we stood there the sun came out and I noticed some birds flitting around that looked odd.  I scoped them with my binoculars and realized they were Purple Finches.   They used to be so common when I was a small child, but over the years they have come to Massachusetts with increasing irregularity.  Apparently at this point they’re considered an irruptive species.  When things up in Canada get particularly hairy for a winter there are species that will move further south and ‘erupt’ into more southern areas than you would usually see them.  What is interesting though is that this is the middle of June, so clearly these ones live here.  I only managed to get one picture before my camera battery died, but Wendy got several apparently.  Here’s my one Purple Finch photo; I had seen one last autumn and I recall saying that I was worried the winter was going to be hellacious.  Then we had the worst January ever for snow.  Fortunately it’s a bit warm for that now. So here’s the 2^nd Purple Finch I’ve seen in the last decade.  Wish I had gotten a better picture, but like I said I only had one before the camera died.

edit: On further inspection, this is a house finch.  Oh well, still a nice bird

June 2, 2011 Mount Auburn Cemetery

So Warbler season is pretty much over at this point, but I took a trip to Mount Auburn anyway to see what was shaking. As soon as I drove in the side gate I immediately ran into the turkey,  it actually charged my car sort of, and then wandered off to a grassy area to eat.  I got a bunch of nice pictures, before leaving to check out the dell, which was pretty much absent warblers.   Down by Willow Pond I spotted a turtle chilling on a log, so I got some pictures of that, as well as some of the flowers that are blooming.   On the way out I stopped again to get some more pictures of the Turkey, one of which you can see at the right here.

         Below here you can see a picture of one of the flowers, I think it's an iris, as well as the turtle sunning itself on the log. I also ran across a song sparrow at some point, calling from some foliage.  It was a nice trip, the Turkey has been an added surprise the last couple of trips.   I also need to check on the owls again at some point, although they very well might have fledged by now. I'll have to look for them around the dell, which is where the parents like to hang out.

May 29th, 2011: Sunday

Sunny, hot; about 86. 

For a change of pace today Wendy and I went to Arnold Arboretum.  I had not been there for a month, so I decided to see what was happening.  The Yellow Warblers I saw there were actually what inspired me to get the 55-250mm lens on my camera, as the 18-50 I had was not cutting it for capturing pictures of such a tiny bird.

                The path, I think it was called Willow Path that we usually go down to head across the marsh was supposedly closed due to a wall collapse.  We went down it anyway, like bosses.  Right away we saw a bunch of birds bathing in the stream; Catbirds, doves, house sparrows, and there were also goldfinches everywhere.  The catbird at right is not actually having a violent seizure, it’s enjoying the cold water.  Not a bad idea considering how humid and hazy it was out.  It was pretty disgusting in retrospect.  Wearing a thick polo shirt with jeans probably wasn’t the best call I’ve ever made, but I survived. 

                We made our way out to the path that cuts across the marsh and holy cow had that thing grown over since the last time we went.  Wendy commented that it looked like we were cutting a swath through a jungle as we went through.  There were brambles all across the path, so in that regard wearing jeans was a good decision.  We were serenaded as we went through by a Song Sparrow and a Red-Winged Blackbird that was making lazy circles around us and singing from the cat tails.  Wendy likes Red-Wings quite a bit, the red on their shoulders impresses her.  As we cut across the marsh we were accosted by a few bees, but other than that we escaped unscathed.  As we reached the other side I heard the Yellow Warbler calling and decided to see if I could get a few decent pictures.  I literally took 100 pictures of it, and sorted them when I got home.  A large amount of them were crystal clear, which is nice considering the last few times I’ve gone out I have not been able to get the type of photograph I’m used to taking.  Here’s a few of them, but first another shot of the Red-Wing:

I like this shot because I got the tail flaring out.

 And now for some Yellow-Warbler

Here are a bunch more shots of the Warbler. I’m very happy with how they turned out.

 

Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my beak?

As we wended on down the road after rejoining civilization and continued on deeper into the Arboretum we actually came across a couple of Brown-Headed Cowbirds. I have not seen any cowbirds since I came to Boston, in fact I had remarked about this about 15 minutes prior to running into this pair. 

These ones appeared to be particularly tame.  They let us approach quite closely, although they did appear perturbed, they let us get quite close.  These shots are probably the clearest I have taken with this lens and camera.  They tottered about for a while in the grass before eventually flying off, and Wendy and I carried on. 

                We kept going, and eventually button-hooked down this other path, apparently a vine garden was towards the end of the path.  I have never seen so many lilacs in one place before, off to the side of the path that leads down to the vine garden.  At the base of one of the bushes was a male Yellow-Shafted Flicker that I got several good pictures of.  Wendy got some pictures too; it was the first Flicker she had seen.  So that’s always positive. Below is a picture of the Flicker.  

              

  We carried on through the vine-garden and at this point I had a brief but awful allergy attack, not sure why.  I saw a Northern Mockingbird as we entered the vine garden.   It’s worth noting because I have not seen a ton of them this year.  Not sure where they’re all going or if it’s something ecological happening.  Now here are some pictures of flowers:

As we left here’s another picture of a Red-Wing that I snapped off,  it looks like it was about to making a bombing run on someone.  All in all it was a great day of bird watching, the pictures came out great, and Wendy liked the vine garden quite a bit. I think she wants a vine garden in her yard someday.  Not a bad thing to have I must say.  I will be returning here again at some point to walk the other trails and see what nature has in store for me then.