Birding into the Sun

Cutler Park, Needham, MA

"No real birdwatcher would ever travel eastward in the morning," asserts a solution to an Encyclopedia Brown mystery that's always bothered me. Sometimes it can't be helped. As in a Sunday morning trip to Cutler Park in Needham to walk along the train track.

Cat tail fuzz-covered burrs

The sun is what baseball cap visors are for. I'll admit that birding is a bit challenging. But not impossible.

Swamp Sparrow

Surely you know the swamp sparrow in silhouette.

Swamp Sparrow

The bird of the day. Dozens and dozens of them.

Swamp Sparrow

A multitude of browns and grays. A bird that even color-blind me can fully appreciate.

Robin resting before resuming the chase

Amidst robin insanity. Almost constant chasing, three near misses--I was evidently in the way. They were going after blue jays and mourning doves too. And then one zoomed past screaming, diving into the brush. Everything went quiet. Accipiter in the vicinity I suspect.

Tree on fire, with red-winged blackbird

Ruby-crowned kinglets sub-singing. Plovers and sandpipers on the river mudflats. On the way back the sun acted as a blind. Young common yellowthroats inches away.