Happy Gull Day

And say hello to recent arrivals: snowy egret and greater yellowlegs.

Handfeeding Chickadees

At Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary in Topsfield.

Presenting the Dawn Chorus, now with robins!

This morning's sunrise recording visit to the CRP features a new singer, the American Robin. They were singing tentatively last week, but no longer. In fact, if you poke your head outside today you will surely hear one (here's a nice clear robin, right outside my kitchen door). Also witnessed: more counter-singing chickadees--this time with a little aggression (in fact, this one provoked a chase).

Song Sparrows, and now, Tree Swallows (and now with song samples)

The song sparrows have center stage right now. If you go down to sparrow central (Millennium Park in West Roxbury) at mid-day, you can hear a rich variety of songs as you walk along the edge. Add the migrating groups and you have song sparrows everywhere you look--running mouse-like through the brush, feeding pathside, singing from the outer limbs of what seems like every available tree.

Here's a sampling. #1: Conventional song. #2 Nice trill at end. #3 I honestly don't know what this is. I recorded it because it sounded like a bad chickadee (you can hear the similarity when the chickadee starts singing later in the recording). I'd like to think it's a song sparrow trying out a chickadee song...

There are flying insects again. I was walking through a swarm of gnats by the bridge and I was wondering when the flycatchers would be back when I heard a familiar bubbly call--a couple of tree swallow checking out what I hope are potential homes.

Discover Fowl Meadow

I spent a couple of hours on Saturday on a tour of Fowl Meadows in Milton (part of the Blue Hills Reservation). I've walked the area many times before, but it was nice to get an interpretive frame to put over things. Ultimately, the issue of invasive species trumped everything else--particularly purple loosestrife, phragmites, and the latest scourge, "mile-a-minute."

Following the tour was a training session for those who wanted to raise beetles as part of the purple loosestrife management project. The white poles below help to mark out different areas.


But there were interesting notes about the past (Paul's Bridge and the abortive attempt to run a Rte. 95 connector to Boston--which would have decimated the area) and the future (the creation of new trails, including one connecting to Westwood Station as part of the add-a-lane construction project). Also, I knew that Ponkapoag Bog was an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) but I didn't know Fowl Meadow was part of the area designated. A special place.

Slightly warmer Sunday morning dawn chorus

Lots of activity down at the Charles River Peninsula early in the morning (including someone camping in a tent by the riverbank and loose, misbehaving, lab puppies).

On the way of the house, I caught one of my favorite spring sounds--counter-singing chickadees. My understanding is that "high quality" black-cap songs start at the proper frequency (around a B on the piano) and then move down around an A for the last two notes (this is the song lady chickadees like best). But during this counter-singing, there seems to be a lot of play in the starting note and I can't ever tell whether it is intentional or just a young fellow who can't quite get the pitch right. Note: robins can be heard singing in the background but they seem quite tentative still.

The fox sparrow is still singing down at the CRP. I have two excerpts. One song sounds like "hey kitty kitty." And near the end you can hear hawkish sounds--I don't know if this was a bluejay or the love coos of the red-tails (who were making out).


The second fox sparrow excerpt, punctuated at the end by a flicker (who was singing from atop a bluebird house), features a different song (competing with song sparrow and red-winged blackbird songs).

Finally, the early spring chorus wouldn't be complete without a sample of blackbird cacophony. Huge flocks are still passing through (I saw one Cooper's Hawk in direct pursuit).

Frosty Saturday morning dawn chorus

I'm trying to get out there early, at least on weekends, to document some of the dawn music we don't otherwise get to hear. Here's a minute of bliss: song sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, goldfinches, cardinals,chickadees, Canada geese and what sounds like juncos trilling. Later caught a bit of fox sparrow (It sounds like a song sparrow with the melodicism of an oriole, repeats twice--I would have had more but my batteries went dead).

It was very cold but you have to get out there early if you want to see the ice dragons (below).