Skip to main content

Female Parula, Magnolia Warbler and other Mt. Auburn Sightings

Image
By
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 edge I realized the circle was right above the Dell. That explained why it was such a hot spot.

From there I moved on to the hill where the observation tower is. I waited a while and sure enough the small gray bird with yellow on its bad returned. I studied it for a while but didn't get any good photos. The most distinguishing characteristics were the yellow/greenish mantle, faint wing bars (at least one) and that it was mostly gray, had an all-gray head, and slight yellow underneath.

After eventually giving up I started making my way back to my car. On my walk back I saw:

Magnolia Warbler


And a Yellow-rumped Warbler

Labels:

Comments

Amila Salgado said…
The Warbler diversity in your country is mind boggling. They must be filling the air with their beautiful songs in the Spring.
May 26, 2008 at 12:04:00 AM PDT
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Well, Here We Are — Back to Birding Girl After 11 Years

By
Well, here we are—after an epic 11-year hiatus, I’m sitting back at my Adirondack chair, overlooking the picturesque cranberry bogs we live on now. I've swapped my super strong coffee for a hoppy, locally-brewed IPA to celebrate the end of the work day, and starting work again on my personal project- BirdingGirl. Honestly, it feels a little surreal. If you’re popping in and thinking, “Wait, she’s posting again?”—yep, it’s me! The binoculars are still close by, the dog is snoozing nearby, and yes, the birds have kept me company all along. Life Lately: Birding (Mostly) at Home Let’s get this out of the way—I never stopped birding. Not for a minute! Sure, life looks a bit different now. Marriage and kids will do that to you, right? These days, “getting out in the field” means looking up at the trees lining the trails leading to the cranberry bogs I walk my dog on, listening for great-horned owls and wood thrushes, or watching a flash of yellow as the warblers return each spring. I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Difference Between Grackles and Starlings

By
I saw a sad sight today during my lunchtime jog—a dead grackle. Or was it a starling? I'll get to that in a minute. I was making my way down to the trail along the Charles River when I saw what I thought was an injured bird in the middle of the road. It was just sitting there and I figured it was just stunned or maybe had an injured wing. The bird probably didn't have much of a chance, but the least I could move it out of the road. As I got closer to the bird I saw it had its mouth open and then I realized the gruesome truth—it was dead and was frozen in that position. I just got shivers thinking about it. The poor thing. Anyway, so it got me to thinking 'What is the difference between grackles and starlings?' I use the two interchangeably and haven't really made an effort to sort it out. Until now. I like to use All About Birds from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as an online resource. The site is comprehensive and easy to use. (I also really like the 'Cool ...
26 comments
Read more

Large-billed Crow pictures from Japan

By
These large-billed crow pictures come courtesy of my work colleague Phil who lives in Japan. He told me he had some great Japanese crow pictures, and the first thing I noticed about the bird was the large bill. I started doing some research to come up with the correct crow name. First I thought it was a carrion crow since those are a common type of Japanese crow, but the bill wasn't big enough. Then I found pictures of the large-billed crow and those were a match! Duh- "large bill"- it couldn't have been any simpler. These crows are also called jungle crows, but most of the birding sites call them large-billed crows. Phil said they can get really big, which I believe since American crows are huge sometimes. I have vivid memories of standing my in my parents Cape Cod kitchen doing dishes and getting spooked by something huge in my periphery on the deck. All it ever was was a giant crow, but really they can be scary when they get so big! Here are some interesting thing...
Post a Comment
Read more