BirdingGirl

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 getti...

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 C...

I got up extra early this morning to do some birding along the Charles River before work. Since I don't live in Watertown anymore I need to take advantage of being near the river during the work week. For all of you Massachusetts birders caught up in the warbler frenzy right now (I see Christopher at Picus Blog made a recent trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery and to Brighton to see the Townsend's Warbler at Chestnut Hill Reservoir- so jealous!), I'll give a tip of my own about the best spot for warblers on the Charles River Rd. stretch of the river in Watertown. Today confirmed for me that the best area is in the stand of trees immediately after Watertown Square. This is where I've seen nearly all of the warblers/kinglets I've spotted in along the Charles in Watertown. I walk the whole stretch between Watertown Square and N. Beacon St. when I go birding, but for some reason they only like that area. Especially where the trees border the lawn when it is nice and sunny. I...

I was inspired by Andy, of Andy's Lens , and finally got around to entering my Birds of the Equinox count to Birdstack. I've had a login for a while actually, but this was my first time creating a list . Here's my list from the day: Bufflehead Common Merganser Red-tailed Hawk Song Sparrow Hairy Woodpecker Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Mourning Dove Dark-eyed Junco Tufted Titmouse Black-capped Chickadee I didn't get to go out during my lunch break since I had meetings the whole day (it was such a busy day) but at least I watched my feeders in the morning and watched for birds during my drive to work. I drive along Charles River Road during the last leg of my commute so I always check out the river as I drive along it. It helps that the speed limit of 30mph is strictly enforced so I have an excuse to go slow and look for ducks!

I decided to participate in the Birds of the Equinox BirdStack count . Is anyone else doing it? It's a beautiful day here in the East and I'm curious to see what I run into later on. I've done some feeder-watching already at home, and during lunch I plan to go for a walk on the Charles River to see what birds are hanging out down there. I've had some really good luck at the Charles River- it's fun to reminisce and look at old posts from those trips: http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/search/label/charles%20river Happy Birding!

These first pictures are from my birding trip to the Charles River three weeks ago. It took me a while to figure out what these little wading birds were, but I feel pretty confident they're Spotted Sandpipers. According to Cornell's All About Birds Website (see the link in my blog's sidebar) they're extremely common on the edge of nearly any water source throughout North America. I returned to the river today and was able to get some more pictures, this time of a solitary bird teetering on top of the lilypads: Let me know what you think of my ID. The turning point came when I got to step 11 in my methodology : the National Geographic Birder's Journal. Sometimes it takes getting a fresh perspective to be able to see the way. Then I returned to my Sibley Guide to see his description of the Spotted Sandpiper that's when I picked up on the yellow bill notation in Sibley's description. Aside from the spots on the body, that was one of the most distinguishable ...

It took me an especially long time to identify a wading bird I had seen at the Charles River about three weeks ago. We were going through a dry period and the river was very shallow. The dam near Watertown Square was a prime spot for viewing herons and other wading birds. I took several pictures of two small birds that I guessed were sandpipers or something in the same family. I kept putting off identifying them in favor of posting pictures of other birds from the trip that I was sure of (the black-crowned night heron , eastern kingbird , juvenile wood ducks , juvenile downy woodpecker ). It's not to say I was lazy during this time, it's just that sometimes it takes me a really long time to identify a bird. I thought it might be interesting to share my methodology: 1. Upload the pictures from my camera 2. Delete the blurry pictures 3. Move the good pictures into a sub-folder labeled "Keepers" 4. If I don't have any good close-ups I'll zoom in and crop a pictu...

These pictures are from my walk along the Charles River last week. I walked out onto one of the wooden lookout points and saw 2-3 of the birds perching on the branches on either side of it. At first I almost thought they were swallows, but the white tipping on its wings made me think otherwise. According to my Sibley Guide they will perch on any open perching area to watch for passing insects. The area I saw them in was perfect for that since the water is very shallow and calm there and plenty of bugs were out that night.

While on my recent walk at the Charles River I noticed lots of juvenile ducks that I initially assumed were Mallards, then thought were Blue-winged Teals, and finally realized were Juvenile Wood Ducks thanks to my friend Dave. Many of the ducks I saw were hanging out on overturned trees laying in the river, and this group was roosting in a tree right near the footbridge. There was a very large group of Canada Geese nearby since people were feeding them bread. This annoys me not only because I know it's not good for the birds, but also because it's frustrating if I'm running or walking because I need to navigate around the birds or avoid the path altogether if there's too many of them. According to a recent feature in the "Green Guru" column in the July/August issue of Audubon Magazine, feeding wild birds is harmful for the following reasons: White bread offers poor nutrition for the birds (refined sugar and processed fats are essentially "junk food"...

I was on the hunt for a large gray heron-like bird with a short bill at the Charles River after one of my readers, John, wrote in about it. Here's the backstory, taken directly from my post at the Boston Birds Google Group: A reader of my blog emailed me back on June 9th about a mystery bird he and his wife had seen. He wrote: "Looking for info on a pair of birds my family saw while walking along a Waltham section of the river this weekend. They were about the size of blue herons without the long beaks. Their beaks actually looked more like parrot beaks. They were grayish in color except for their heads which were more of a yellow. There were two of them together (another non-blue heron trait) on a tree that had fallen over the river." I did a little bit of research and the best guess I could make was a Sora or some other type of Rail, although they seem to be pretty rare in Massachusetts. Then this morning I was jogging along the Charles River headed toward Watertown Squ...

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...

It's been a while since I've been able to do this, but I went for a walk during lunch last Wednesday (April 9th) and was surprised at all of the birds I heard and saw. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera but I'll do my best to report on what I saw. I came across several ducks, and interesting ones that included a Common Goldeneye pair (or so I think- male had a mostly white body and black head), as well as a pair I saw in which the male had white rings around its all-black neck. My Sibley Guide is really helpful since I encountered the ducks as they were taking flight, and it includes illustrations of ducks in flight. The Harlequin Duck has the same white rings I saw, but according to the description it's a coastal bird, so it's unlikely I would have seen it in an inlet of the Charles River. But currently, that's the best guess I can make. I heard many red-winged blackbirds throughout my walk. At this part of the Charles River the banks are very close to o...