BirdingGirl

I hope everyone had a great holiday. It was so nice to have a white Christmas in the New England area. On Cape Cod more often than not snow turns to rain and have a very wet Christmas, but this year the snow from Dec. 19th's storm (SE Massachusetts got 2 feet) was still on the ground. Here are some pictures taken by my cousin's cousin Megan (but I consider my cousin too) in Sandwich. Look at those waves! Tufted Titmouse: Purple Finch:

Back in late November I did some birding while staying at Steve's friend's farm in Baltic, CT. Naturally I wanted to put my sparrow identification skills to the test. We had done a walk at dusk Saturday night but my camera batteries died. But I couldn't disappoint my BirdingGirl readers and come back empty-handed! Even after staying up pretty late Saturday night (there was a party with a bonfire) I dragged myself out of bed at 7am when I heard the birdies calling to me! Still had some poor battery life to deal with, but got these shots and accompanying audio. Song Sparrow(?) White-throated Sparrow: White-throated Sparrow Song:

Back in early October we went for a hike to Blue Hills and I snuck in a little bit of birding. I'm not sure I've mentioned this before, but Steve and I set a goal a few years back to hike every trail at Blue Hills. When we go, Steve is very serious, carefully planning a route that will cover the most ground. We don't stop until we get to the summit marked for that day (remember, this is Blue Hills- so the summits are quick to get up, but there's always a nice view of Boston). There's little time for birding, so I have to choose my birds carefully. I recognized a unique call and stopped to take pictures of this female yellow-rumped warbler. Of course I identified her afterward, but at least I knew enough to stop and take notice of the call! :) Also in October I got Steve to go with me to check out Borderland State Park . We used the entrance off Bay Rd. in Easton, I believe. Since moving to Bridgewater I had wanted to go birding there, and although we didn't see ...

Have you signed up for Project FeederWatch yet? I mailed in my renewal a few weeks ago. Better stock up on black-oil sunflower seed and nijer seed /thistle! Here's the press release from Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Help Project FeederWatch Track Backyard Birds —Bird watchers needed to help scientists discover changes in bird populations Ithaca, NY—What happens in the backyard should not stay in the backyard—at least when it comes to bird feeders. By sharing information about which birds visit their feeders between November and April, backyard bird watchers can help scientists track changes in bird numbers and movements from year to year, through Project FeederWatch, a citizen-science program from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. Project FeederWatch begins on November 14 and runs through early April. Taking part is easy. Anyone can count the numbers and kinds of birds at their feeders and enter their information on the FeederWatch website. Participants submitt...

I squeezed in some birding while I was in New York last weekend. I was there for a "Girls Weekend" with two of my best friends from college- Kristin and Lori. Lori just moved there in January, which is very exciting. I forgot my binoculars, and we were on a tight schedule, but I still made a few interesting sightings. Female Common Yellowthroat Mystery Thrush (it's Friday and I don't have the energy to try and ID it from this poor picture): We stuck to Strawberry Fields, but it was really cool being there on a nice Saturday with lots of other birders. We encountered: - A dad and his 4 year-old son who each had their own binoculars. The dad told us about the ruby-throated hummingbirds and then the little boy piped in and told us exactly where to go and added "I hope they're still there for you. I hope you get to see them." SO cute. - A scary homeless man over by the ruby-throated hummingbird site (looked like a patch of honeysuckle surrounded by a fence,...

Here is some interesting news I just came across—the first traces of color in a bird feather were discovered in a 47 million year-old fossil. Image Source: ScientificComputing.com Here is an excerpt from the New York Times article: To find well-preserved feathers, the scientists traveled this May to a famed fossil site in Germany near the village of Messel, where exquisitely preserved 47-million-year-old bird fossils are regularly dug up in an old quarry pit. The scientists inspected several fossils and removed small pieces from 12 fossilized feathers. They returned home to put the material under a scanning electron microscope. “You can see a surface of beautifully packed together melanosomes,” said Richard Prum, a Yale expert on feather colors. “This looks exactly like a grackle or a starling, where you have a dark glossy bird with a metallic sheen.” To read the entire New York Times article visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/science/01feath.html I personally think Grackle fea...

I was excited to see a laughing gull for the first time on Cape Cod. When my friend Kristin got married on the Jersey Shore last year I saw plenty of them, but for some reason never in Massachusetts. I was waiting for my mom to meet me at the beach when I heard it- it really sounds like it's laughing. It was definitely not a regular herring gull, which made me take notice. I caught her before she left the house and asked her to bring my camera. For most birders, a laughing gull is not too exciting, but for me it was. He was a little itchy: Looking for food- of course:

Here are some pictures I took of juvenile robins on my back lawn after it rained. I really like how different they look, with the spotting on their breasts.

Today is the last day of August and even if it kills me I'm going to catch up on my August birding! I started commuting into the city using the Commuter Rail 4 weeks ago and I haven't yet figured out how blogging is going to fit into all of this. But I'll at least catch up on my pictures from August. That's a start! The first weekend in August we went to Carver Pond , right here in Bridgewater . Steve had driven by it a bunch and wanted to check it out, and it's a really nice spot. Most of the other people we saw that day were fishing, including a father and his young sons- they had to be around 4 or 5 and were so cute. I didn't see many birds, but wanted to share these pictures of Wood Duck boxes . I'm always interested in seeing where they're mounted and of course I'm curious to learn of their success rate. Incidentally, we were hiking in New Hampshire yesterday (Mountain Lake trail in Intervale , NH) and saw one that had been knocked down in a sto...

A couple weeks ago we went up to Fryeburg, Maine to visit some of Steve's college friends. They live on Lovewell Pond, which actually seems more like a lake. I did some birding (and also jogging) on the trails near their house, and didn't see anything too exciting, but did see my first red-breasted nuthatch. The underside isn't as "red" as typically seen in pictures, although it could just be the lighting. I still wanted to include it in case anyone wants to set me straight! Every time I went jogging or birding on the trails near their house I heard this "mystery bird" that had an eery whistle-like call. I was very, very, patient but the bird was elusive and I could never get close enough to see it—it always got spooked and moved further away. I reached out to my friends at the BwBTC Forum and Sharon and "Chickadee" in the Maine forum were very helpful in identifying this call, even without hearing my audio clip! Both suggested thrushes (Chi...

I spent the 4th in Fairfield, CT with my boyfriend Steve's family. On Saturday we went for a walk with his mom and dog Toby to Aspetuck Land Trust in Easton, CT. Aspetuck is a really great spot- we usually go there whenever we're in Fairfield. (I believe this is a Cooper's Hawk because of the white spots on its back.) *UPDATE: Thank you to Chris from Tails of Birding for sharing this helpful insight. He believes this is actually a Broad-winged Hawk because "Tail is short, beak appears dark, eye appears dark, and a brownish hood - all suggest a broadie. Cooper's would have a long, banded tail, lighter eye (if juvie - red if adult) and bigger head." Thank you Chris! I didn't see any other interesting birds during the trip, just the usual suspects. I did get some great nature photos though. Newt: Water snake: Tadpole: Water spider: And some wildflowers (using the macro feature on my camera): Orange Butterfly Weed (thanks to Kelly from Red and the Peanut...

I've been so busy taking pictures that I haven't paused to recognize my cousin Sue (of Nature of Framingham ), who was so thoughtful in selling me her Sony telephoto lens (actually she refused to accept my $$ so I'll need to find a way to get her back- I'm thinking of getting her a nice birding gift). I had blogged about wanting to buy a telephoto lens for my Canon PowerShot S2 IS and got a tip from Spencer at Beginning Birding that he uses a Sony VCL-DH1758 for his S2 IS. I then tweeted about it to see what people had to say about that lens. I'm very happy with the lens so far, although I'm really just happy to have a tele lens. Here are some recent pictures taken with it: