BirdingGirl

My boyfriend and I made a trip to Blue Hills last weekend and I was thrilled when he wanted to go to Fowl Meadow. We hadn't been there since our first trip in January 2007 when I tried out my new camera. This time of year there's much more activity there, as many of you locals know. Steve got some really great pictures of a Female Yellow Warbler: We were tipped off about a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and about halfway through out hike we encountered a male that was very active and tended to stay high in the canopy, hence the crummy pictures: We also encountered a Mallard family as we went through a swampy area. I heard them first and then saw the mother and babies making their way away from the path to the other side of the swamp. The male was actually in the trees above us and did a lot of squawking and flying around in distress. This died down of course as we got further away from the family. Here are some non-bird pictures I got while in the Fowl Meadow. This is an iris that I...

I made a return trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery Sunday to see if I could spot the Summer Tanager and identify the small gray bird I saw in the apple tree up by the tower. I got a late start and arrived around 1:30pm. I went up Indian Ridge first and saw the following birds: Female Parula Black and White Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Then I cut back along the path below Indian Ridge and then went over by the sphinx and the chapel. There I saw a: Female American Redstart Then I took a walk up Laurel Ave and the circle at the top turned out to be a great spot! Since there were so many many people birding and walking around I wanted to go somewhere quieter in the hopes of seeing some interesting birds. Sure enough, there was no one else up there and I was able to observe a variety of warblers and several Chipping Sparrows. Here are some that I captured: Chipping Sparrow American Redstart (including birds found in other locations) Black-throated Blue Warbler As I got closer to the ed...

I truly enjoyed my day out with members of Gordon's Gaggle during the 2008 MassAudubon Bird-a-thon. I learned so much about ID-ing birds, got out to a great birding spot, and even got a few pictures for my blog. I planned to meet the team at Mt. Auburn Cemetery at 9:00am. They were running a little late (good birding in Medford) so I spent the first hour by myself, which was good since it gave me some time to explore on my own. It was an exciting place to be during the Bird-a-thon. There were birders everywhere with their Swarovskis, huge scopes and tripods. I went down to a quiet shaded area where I spotted some Chipping Sparrows and also some black and white warblers w/yellow. At this point I was just practicing using my binoculars and didn't get any pictures so I quickly forgot what they looked like. At 10:00 I met the two members of the group assigned to Mt. Auburn Cemetery and they took me up Indian Ridge right away. There was unbelievable activity up there. There were so ...

This afternoon I bit the bullet and finally got a pair of binoculars. Since I'm a novice user I figured I would go for a lower end and now that I'm home and have done a little research I'm pretty pleased with my purchase. I ended up with a pair of Nikon Action 8x40s. I paid $74 so at least that's not too far off Amazon's price. Larry at The Brownstone Birding Blog gave me some helpful advice on purchasing binoculars, but I regret to say I didn't have much of a chance to shop around. I went to Hunt's Photo after work thinking they'd have a great selection based on what I had seen on the website. Unfortunately they did not. I learned that the Harvard Square location I went to was actually a satellite store and they don't carry a full inventory. Just mostly point-and-shoot and SLR cameras. Oh, and just 2 pairs of binoculars! I had the option of driving to their main store in Melrose or checking out the Nikons. I knew they were a strong brand and honest...

My friend Casey at Volunteer Boston wrote an informative post about the joys of biking to work, and included lots of helpful information about participating in Mayor Menino's Bay State Bike Week . For inspiration click on the image for the background story on how he got started. I recommend reading Casey's entire post, Biking to Work in Boston - My first time . Here are some highlights: "The ride to work was a breeze. I concentrated on shifting, signaling, and avoiding potholes (my car could take them, but I don't know that my rear end could). I think it helped that most of the trip was downhill. I felt the breeze in my hair, sweat just a little at some tiny uphills, and thought, "wow, this isn't bad."When a Prius passed me, I laughed. "You think you're green? Ha!"I got to work safely. Believe it or not, the ride took just about the same amount of time as driving - I'd say about 10 minutes with traffic lights, etc. Maybe even quicker. A...

I just signed up to participate in the MassAudubon Bird-a- thon 2008 this weekend- May 16 th - May 17 th . I'm pretty excited about it since this is my first time birding with a group, and we'll be going to Mt. Auburn Cemetery —one of the most desirable birding spots this time of year. Mt. Auburn is identified as an IBA (Important Bird Area) by MassAudubon . The primary reason is that it's an important stopover for migratory land birds. Another reason is that it supports long-term research and monitoring projects. I've lived close-by for almost two years, and yet I've never been to Mt. Auburn Cemetery . I've always known that it has beautiful gardens, but it wasn't until I started my birding hobby that I learned how well it supports migratory birds, and that it is known as a prime birding spot. Is anyone else signed up to participate in the Bird-a- thon ? It's my first time and I was pretty clueless about donating money and trying to join a team, but...

It took a little bit of motivation but I went for a walk tonight around 6:30pm since it was so nice out and I wanted to see what birds were down at the River. As soon as I got out of my I heard an interesting song and followed it to a Baltimore Oriole. I was excited to see something right away and quickly opened my lens. I kept pressing the shutter button but nothing was happening. Then I noticed the red '0' in the bottom right-hand corner of my screen. The memory card was full- D'Oh! I quickly deleted a few pictures and managed to get a few good ones: I also saw several yellow-rumped warblers during my walk: A cute little Savannah Warbler: I also saw a Yellow Warbler... ...and an adorable Ruby-crowned Kinglet. It took quite a long time to identify it using my guide. Kinglets are such a small group that they don't come to mind right away. (Despite the fact that I saw a Golden-crowned Kinglet at the river last January.) I spent a long time going through the wood warbl...

I was at my parents' house on the Cape this past weekend and despite the rainy weather there was quite a lot of activity at the front and back yard feeders. I saw a lone Chipping Sparrow, which went back and forth between the front and back yards, a Goldfinch pair, a female Cardinal, several chickadees and nuthatches, and a titmouse. I was also happy to observe that both of my parents' birdhouses are currently being moved into—the nuthatches are moving into the front yard birdhouse and the titmice are moving into the back yard birdhouse. Two years ago my parents had a great crested flycatcher family attempt to live in the back yard feeder, but House Sparrows kicked them out. They cleaned out the birdhouses after that and repainted them, but didn't get any inhabitants last year. My dad hypothesized that maybe they didn't like the fresh paint smell and now that the houses have had a year to 'season' they're attractive again. Nonetheless, I'll be anxious to...