BirdingGirl

My boyfriend and I made a trip to Blue Hills last weekend and I was thrilled when he wanted to go to Fowl Meadow. We hadn't been there since our first trip in January 2007 when I tried out my new camera. This time of year there's much more activity there, as many of you locals know. Steve got some really great pictures of a Female Yellow Warbler: We were tipped off about a Rose-breasted Grosbeak and about halfway through out hike we encountered a male that was very active and tended to stay high in the canopy, hence the crummy pictures: We also encountered a Mallard family as we went through a swampy area. I heard them first and then saw the mother and babies making their way away from the path to the other side of the swamp. The male was actually in the trees above us and did a lot of squawking and flying around in distress. This died down of course as we got further away from the family. Here are some non-bird pictures I got while in the Fowl Meadow. This is an iris that I...

On Sunday my boyfriend and I went to Blue Hills to test out the new camera. This time we went to the Fowl Meadow area since we hadn't been there before and it seemed like a good place to look for birds. We didn't get there until midday so there wasn't too much activity, but we did manage to see some good birds. These included a Northern Flicker, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, a female Cardinal, Downy Woodpecker, and what we believe to be a Mourning Dove. The best pictures of the day came from the nuthatch. I just love them- they have such great personalities. Northern Flicker: Mourning Dove (?): Yes I know, not too exotic. But at the time it seemed much bigger than any mourning dove I'd ever seen and I had never seen the tail hang down as long as it did. We were on one side of a creek and it was on the other side high up in a tree. When it finally flew away, again, it seemed much bigger than a mourning dove. I was fortunate to be abl...