Oh Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow, Cutler Park, Needham, MA

I hear your buzzy song all summer long but I don't really see you until the fall, when you arrive in huge numbers all at once.

Close up you are a singularly gorgeous bird. How many shades of brown?




But the all the buzzy quarreling, is it really necessary?

They mowed Millennium Park

Frost on the newly mowed Millennium Park, West Roxbury, MA

I arrived at Millennium Park bright and early, eager to see sparrows. The fallout at the CRP yesterday was pretty heavy--I expected a real bounty at Millennium Park.

Oh no! They mowed!

There are still sparrows around, but all the action is at the edges.


I was ready to write a resentful post about the puzzling things the DCR has been doing lately. Honestly, couldn't you folks wait a couple more weeks?

But then I found the yellow-rumped warblers.


Down near the nature trail, they were everywhere you looked. Dozens of them.



And with rumpies, other goodies. My first ruby-crowned kinglet of the season, a red-eyed vireo, a redstart and this curious one below, which was getting hated on by rumpies and song sparrows. Nashville, I think, though I'm seeing too much white on the belly...


Astonishingly, as I stood amongst the warblers, I heard a familiar yet alien sound. A raven? I looked up. Sure enough, a long black raven, wedge shaped tail and all, flying overhead.

Glorious October morning

Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

A misty October morning at the CRP. Good Halloween preview below.


A massive fallout of sparrows of all shapes and sizes: song (our representative below), swamp, chipping, white-throated, white-crowned.


Bluebirds are still there in great numbers. Also palm and the first influx of yellow-rumped warblers.


Plus an increasingly familiar character--the sharp-shinned hawk.

This one was being mobbed by blue jays, a dangerous game, as the sharpie would frequently go on the counter-attack, making a ferocious sound (a combination of a red-tailed hawk scream and a yowling cat?)

Finally, the morning's highlight, done video style (please watch in HD):

Yes, I'm also bugged by the smudge right in the middle of the lens... The sapsucker is the first I've ever seen at the CRP.

Walking to the Charles River Peninsula

Charles River Peninsula, Needham, MA

A beautiful day after a week of rain. The car in the shop. I decided to walk to the Charles River Peninsula.

By car it takes about seven minutes from my house. Walking would take somewhat longer. I planned out my trip: I'd enter the Needham Town Forest along its southern border and follow trails until I got close. Then I'd switch to the train tracks.


I usually avoid the Town Forest. Unleashed dog city most days. But the southern section is less traveled and delightfully rocky. And birdy.

First sighting of note: a palm warbler preening itself in the shade. I love the puffed-up tiny-head version of this bird.


And hello there, little garter snake. Don't you look all fierce.


This time of year the chickadees and titmice usually let you know where the migrating birds are. I stumbled upon a mixed flock that included a peeping brown creeper (why can't I ever get these birds in clean focus?)


and what I initially took for a Nashville warbler, but now think was a fall northern parula. What do you think?


Then it was onto the old abandoned railroad tracks.

I had followed the tracks earlier in the year between Fisher St. and Haven St. in Dover. This section was harder, more overgrown and a little more intrusive in respect to adjacent properties. At one point I was followed by a couple of snarling terriers (I put on my best mean face and charged after them--that sent them running home... I didn't want them to get lost following me...)

At long last I arrived at the Charles River Peninsula. Greeted, as usual this time of year, by the charming bluebird family hanging out on the shag-bark hickory at the top of the hill.



Flocks of palm warblers today, not just individuals.


And this curious bird (one of two of the same type) that was hanging out in the riverside foliage. This is the dreaded fall dendroica warbler puzzle. Two clear wing bars. Either pine or blackpoll. Unless they are our friends the yellow-throated vireos, though I don't see spectacles and the beak shape seems wrong.



While I was standing watching the curious birds, an acorn dropped from an oak tree overhead. I heard it as it crashed through the foliage. Would it hit me in the head? No, it landed right in my hand, which was just hanging by my side. Fell right in it without me moving at all. It is now my lucky acorn.


Lucky indeed. On the way back, I saw my first yellow-rumped warbler of the season.

A quiet day turns exciting.

I arrived at Marblehead Neck bright and early ready to find migrating warblers. It quickly appeared I was going to be disappointed. Thirty minutes in and I had spotted a catbird and a couple of robins. And about thirty gray squirrels. I walked out to the most reliable fall warbler spot I knew (end of the boardwalk near the back pond) and waited. Ten minutes and one white-breasted nuthatch later I was about to call it a day when I caught sight of a red-eyed vireo. OK. Better than nothing.

Then all of a sudden, a commotion. Streaming through the woods, scolding constantly, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, downies. I lift the binoculars--the golden crown of a kinglet. Yes! And then more red-eyed vireos, and blue-headed vireos, and what was that? A blackpoll warbler, a non-breeding black-throated blue? A mixed flock of mobbers all gathered around the same tree, scolding and scolding. I've embedded the video below. You don't get good looks at many birds (even if you watch full-screen and in HD) but hopefully it conveys a sense of the scene.



After the commotion died down and the birds moved on, a hermit thrush popped onto the scene, as if to ask what all the fuss was about. My question exactly.

While I didn't see the target, I did end up seeing something I hadn't noticed. A nesting box, the right size for a screech owl, in the very tree the birds had surrounded.

Great Blue Heron, Millennium Park, West Roxbury, MA

A beautiful morning at Millennium Park. I got there in time to watch wood ducks taking off against the dawn sky. And to catch a blue heron standing tall and still in the trail-side brook.

The theme of the day: SPARROWS EVERYWHERE!

When I took this photo, I was assuming song/savannah. I'm not sure now...

The song and savannah populations at Millennium Park are usually pretty robust, but today there must have been the addition of migrating flocks. Some nicely posing savannahs below.



Also, a very kind palm warbler, working a small trail-side bush.


Taking advantage of the massive sparrow (and goldfinch/house finch) populations--a pair of Cooper's hawks.


Special video version of the morning below.



1. Great Blue Heron (not happy to see me). 2. Three white-tail deer across the river. 3. Cooper's Hawk (just sitting there). 4. Palm Warbler flipping its tail.

"Summer in the Valley" Photo Contest

Thanks to the folks at the Charles River Valley branch of the Trustees of Reservations for a delightful reception tonight. Will definitely get Lily involved for next year's contest.


Horse Nettle at the Charles River Peninsula, winner in the 18+ category for plantlife.


Eastern Bluebird Children at the Charles River Peninsula, honorable mention (but included in the 2011 calendar)

On exhibit in the Medfield Library in October.