BirdingGirl

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 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's been pretty steamy in Boston, and the birds are feeling it too. On my trip to Mt. Auburn Cemetery three weeks ago I also stopped to watch a Double-crested Cormorant cooling in Auburn Lake. These pictures were not taken at a fast shutter speed- the bird was simply holding its wings up and fanning them very, very slowly. It was such a hot day, and this was such a small, sheltered body of water it made me wonder why it wasn't out in the open ocean or even in the Charles River where I see lots of them. It's a mystery. Has anyone else spotted cormorants in small ponds like this before?