Year Birds, Life Birds, and Rarities

The amazing migrant show continues at Mount Auburn Cemetery. It has been truly amazing and very exciting. Below are more of my favorite photos. Enjoy and if you haven't been out to the Cemetery, go tomorrow!  My target birds are Yellow-throated Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Wilson's Warbler 

Bay-breasted Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Black-billed Cuckoo

Blackburnian Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Baltimore Oriole butt

Spotted Sandpiper

White-crowned Sparrow 

Cedar Waxwing

Scarlet Tanager

Common Yellowthroat 

Swamp Sparrow

Black-and-white Warbler

Great-crested Flycatcher

An Unbelievable Weekend!

I spent Mother's Day in Westchester NY and birded my favorite spot, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. It was completely loaded with migrants on both Saturday and Sunday. Below are some of my favorite photos. Mount Auburn also had a huge number of migrants today and I was lucky enough to see a few once I arrived back in town. In total I saw 84 species in two days at three locations. This includes no shorebirds. Unreal for me.

Blue-winged Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Brown Thrashers Sparring

Black-and-white Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Eastern Bluebird

Indigo Bunting

Pileated Woodpecker

Scarlet Tanager

Nashville Warbler

Canada Warbler

Ovenbird

Magnolia Warbler

Rose-breasted Gosbeak

Blackburnian Warbler

Gotcha!

On my way to the airport in the early morning hours of January 8, I spotted what I thought was a Screech Owl flying into a hollow in a tree near my house. I couldn't stop because I was bound for warmer climes. Since then  I steal a quick glance at that spot every time I drive by. Yesterday I was finally rewarded. I saw a little head poking out so I rushed home, grabbed my camera and got a few shots before he/she headed out for her evening hunt.

Eastern Screech Owl- Red Morph

Migrants Have Arrived!!

Mount Auburn was loaded with migrants this weekend. I'm posting a few of my favorite photos from the weekend and continue my hunt for a Blue-winged, Kentucky, and Tennessee Warblers.




Prairie Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Blue-headed Vireo

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler



Common Yellowthroat

Green Heron

Great Horned Owl

Magnolia Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Waterthrush

Ovenbird

Prairie Warbler

Red-shouldered Hawk

American Redstart

Warbling Vireo

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Life Birds 300, 301, 302

It's been a long, cold, winter and its been difficult to get motivated for birding lately. I am hoping that the weather will break soon and I can get back to my favorite places; Mt. Auburn and Great Meadows. In the meantime, I've been "cherry-picking" some life birds when the appear on eBird or when I have business trips. I saw two black-headed gulls that have been hanging around Nantucket Harbor when I was in town for work. While I was there a friendly local birder helped me out with locating some lesser-black backed gulls(rare to find in Boston but abundant on Nantucket).

Black-headed Gull

Lesser black-backed Gull

This week I stopped in Mendon, MA to see the Barnacle Goose thats been hanging out at Maple Sanctuary. He was very close so I got some great looks. Thanks to some tips on MassBird I also located a group of Black Vultures in Blackstone, MA. These were not lifers but were a state bird for me.

Barnacle Goose

St. John, USVI

I had a nice vacation in St. John, USVI and logged some really nice birds (42 species to be specific). Highlights were a Hooded Warbler, Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Bridled Quail-dove, and Lesser Antillean Bullfinch (photos are stock. I took no photos). It was a real brain-bender to think that the warblers I was seeing on the Island may be the same ones I see in Mount Auburn in May.