We took a walk through Mount Auburn Cemetery Thursday morning. We would go long stretches without hearing any birds and then, suddenly, we’d be in the midst of a birdstorm. One of the easiest birds to find was this wild turkey, whose gobble we could hear at a distance.
I approached him to take his photo, but backed off once he started to gobble at me. Turkeys can be very aggressive. I know this one is a male because he has a beard, although turkey “beards” are at chest level.
We saw three mallards in one of the ponds, the only aquatic birds we saw all day.
We saw our state bird, the black-capped chickadee.
This magnificent red-tailed hawk peered at us from a low tree branch.
A small flock of white-throated sparrows foraged in the dirt. The grainy photo below shows the white throat, and the white mid-stripe on the head, along with the black and yellow head stripes on either side of it.
I have become interested in what fruit, native or exotic, birds consume. A flock of robins was interested in the fruit of a Korean mountain-ash (Sorbus alnifolia). Here’s one about to gulp down one of the berries.
I saw two birds for the first time. The first, a red-bellied woodpecker, was perched on the top of a hemlock tree. The black and white pattern on its wings along with the red hood helped me identify it.
Finally, a pair of red-eyed vireos flew in and out of various conifers. Thanks to Chris Swan and Kendall Watkins for help with that ID.
Here’s the full e-bird checklist.