BirdingGirl

I took a walk at the Charles River Sunday and had quite a few exciting spring sightings. The first of which as a yellow-rumped warbler. I spent some time up close to it on the bank of the river. I took a lot of pictures but need to perfect my craft since I only ended up with one good shot: I was also excited because I was able to locate the songbird that I recognize from the beach at the Cape. I spent some time listening to it and attempting to photograph it at the very top of a tree. Here are my best attempts. Based on what I can see in the photo, but mostly thanks to its call I think it's a Savannah Sparrow. Another familiar bird I was able to stop and capture was a Red-winged Blackbird- a regular at the River: I also spent some time photographing a pair of Song Sparrows (?). Sparrows can be tricky though- I spent a lot of time with my guidebook and this was my best guess. I also followed the call of a Northern Flicker and got these pictures from far away: It was such a beautif...

It's been a while since I've been able to do this, but I went for a walk during lunch last Wednesday (April 9th) and was surprised at all of the birds I heard and saw. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera but I'll do my best to report on what I saw. I came across several ducks, and interesting ones that included a Common Goldeneye pair (or so I think- male had a mostly white body and black head), as well as a pair I saw in which the male had white rings around its all-black neck. My Sibley Guide is really helpful since I encountered the ducks as they were taking flight, and it includes illustrations of ducks in flight. The Harlequin Duck has the same white rings I saw, but according to the description it's a coastal bird, so it's unlikely I would have seen it in an inlet of the Charles River. But currently, that's the best guess I can make. I heard many red-winged blackbirds throughout my walk. At this part of the Charles River the banks are very close to o...

Apparently there are three resident red-tailed hawks at Fenway Park. One of them attacked a middle school student from Connecticut while she was there on a tour of the park. She received a scratch on her forehead and was treated and released from Children's Hospital. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff What a terrible thing to happen, but at the same time I'm fascinated by these Fenway Park hawks. Boston.com has full coverage with both a news story and a pictorial giving a high-level account of the story. I recommend taking a look at the pictorial by clicking on the image above because there are some amazing pictures in there. WCVB, TheBostonChannel.com, also covered the story and has a video of the hawk watching visitors in one of the luxury boxes. The video captures both angles- the visitors chattering behind the glass and of the hawk perched in front of the window watching them critically. Click on the image to view the video (taken by reporters touring the park) on their site. It...

I was tagged by fellow Cape Codder Bennet over at Pish to write a 6-word meme about birding. I received this tag March 22nd...it is now April 2nd...can you tell I was a bit intimidated by the task? I did some brainstorming and initially I wanted to talk about birding while jogging, but you already know how much I like that so that's not interesting. Instead I decided to look to my roots: Birding cultivates knowledge and inspires grace I've included a picture of my late grandmother, a woman who embodied both of these qualities and shared her love of birding with me. I think of her every time I see a Baltimore Oriole- one of her favorite birds. Now I'm charged with the task of tagging 5 more bloggers. I'm afraid a lot of the bird bloggers I know have already been tagged, but I'll take my chances! I've tagged: John at Birds Etcetera, Larry at The Brownstone Birding Blog, Rob at The Birdchaser, bootstrap analysis, and Beginning to Bird. Here are the rules: 1. Wri...