Saturday, May 2, 2009

Baltimore Oriole at Charles River

I've found a new way to work birding into my busy work week. As I mentioned last week, I've started birding along the Charles River before work to catch migratory warblers while they're at their peak. Some days I don't have enough time for a full walk so I've been pulling over and parking on Charles River Rd. right near the prime spot I mentioned (stand of trees right after Watertown Square) to get in some quick birding. I did it on Tuesday of this week and saw some more yellow-rumped warblers but didn't get any good pictures.

Then on Thursday I decided to pull over and stop in the same spot on my way home. I was excited to see my first Baltimore Oriole of the year!

This is a young male I believe- the black is still coming in on its head:

Then I spotted another male along the banks of the river:


I also enjoyed watching the double-crested cormorants that were roosting in the trees rather than perching on logs/dead trees in the river. This was because the Boston College women's crew team was practicing so they had to stay out of their way.

6 comments:

Spencer said...

It's so nice that you got to see orioles. Everytime I've been birding this spring, I've run into birders who have seen orioles, but so far none for me. For my S2 Is, I have a Sony Tele conversion lens, 1.7X magnification. It say VCL-DH1758 on it. If you look that up on google, you can find it easily. Good Luck!

Dawn Fine said...

Yippee...I just saw Two here, male and female..first time I have seen in my sisters yard here in NC...
and a Scarlet Tanager...
migration city!

Birdinggirl said...

@Spencer- Thanks so much for the tips on buying a lens! I've been so overwhelmed by shopping for one I've been afraid to start. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

@Dawn- That's great! I'm very jealous of your Scarlet Tanager. I never seem to have good luck with those.

meg said...

pretty pics of the oriole! LOVE the pics of the cormorants in the tree-i've never seen that before! they're always perched on rocks in the reservoir by my work.

Anonymous said...

hi, I had my first sighting of the season of a baltimore oriole on the same day. Today saw a group of three chasing eachother- there are so many at the Jamaica Plain pond in Boston.

Birdinggirl said...

@Meg- thanks for stopping by! And for the kind words :) I like to watch the cormorants too, although on the Cape they get a bad rap because the perch on everyone's moored boats and make a mess all over them.

@Anonymous- Cool. I find Orioles really interesting to watch too. I saw a couple interacting with red-winged blackbirds last weekend.