Warbling Vireo and Chipping Sparrow at Charles River

I spent a half hour birding before work this morning. I stuck to my favorite section of the Charles River in Watertown, MA, but one of these days I really need to make the effort to bird along the other side in Nonantum. I've been invited to contribute to a new local blog called Newton, MA Birding. When I lived in Watertown I spent a lot of time on the Newton side of the river in the village of Nonantum. When I would go running or birding along the river I would always cross over the footbridge before Watertown Square and then again over Bridge St. I really enjoy birding in the Watertown/Newton area so I'm going to try and get over there someday soon.

I chirped/tweeted this morning about the warblers being gone already from my favorite stand of trees along the Charles. Perhaps I just didn't spend enough time there, or maybe I didn't get there early enough. I'm confident there are still plenty of warblers at Mt. Auburn Cemetery though so I'll just plan on getting there sometime this week. My list is seriously struggling...

This morning I did see a Warbling Vireo:

I also was watching a pair of Chipping Sparrows. Sparrows can be tricky to ID and these pictures aren't great. I did positively ID the male (but did not photograph) so I'm pretty sure this is his female counterpart:

Comments

Dawn Fine said…

We werent birders when we lived in Brookline, Ma..
I walked some of the areas that you talk about...
I heard MT. Auburn is hoping with birds..so guess you will have good luck there.
We will be in the area for most of June and plan on doing a little birding between visiting family.

May 13, 2009 at 1:38:00 PM PDT

Cathleen Voss said…

I know- I feel that way about the Chestnut Hill Reservoir since I wasn't a birder when I lived in Brighton. This spring there was a Townsend's Warbler spotted there- right in my old neighborhood!

Yes- Mt. Auburn is at its peak right now. There were tons of birders there today.

You'll have to let me know when you plan on birding. Maybe we can meet up.

May 13, 2009 at 6:18:00 PM PDT

Dawn Fine said…

Yes..I will give you a shout out..let you know where we might go birding..would love to have you join us..Chris from Picus mentioned getting together to bird as well..Maybe we could all go on outing somewhere if time works for all.

May 13, 2009 at 6:26:00 PM PDT

Difference Between Grackles and Starlings

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