A wild turkey has been spotted around Harvard Square for at least a couple of years now. Probably the same bird making an appearance on Universal Hub back in 2012, it has also been written up in Spare Change News last year and the Boston Globe this year. The Harvard College Naturalists Club posted recently about a few sightings.
This turkey was not difficult to spot. I found her dawdling just outside Wadsworth House in Harvard Yard this week.
Yesterday, on a truly spring-like day with warm temperatures and bright sunshine, we took a walk around Ward’s Pond, a small pond in Boston’s Emerald Necklace. Signs of spring abounded.
Red maples were in bloom. And our migrant birds from the south were out and about. A very noisy flock of grackles was foraging in the leaf litter.
Continue reading
Last weekend, as we were birding around Leverett Pond, we noticed a lot of commotion among the birds. Gulls took to the air and Canada geese and mallards walked off the ice into open water, huddling together. Soon afterward, we spotted a large dark bird flying overhead, our first bald eagle sighting in Boston.
Today, we noticed something similar on our walk around Jamaica Pond. This time, we spotted the bald eagle first as it approached the Pond. Then, we noticed that all of the gulls on the Pond had taken off and were flying helter-skelter.
Continue reading
American coots migrate north for the summer. Their return is a sign of autumn. As of Sunday, at least one of them has returned.
The trees and shrubs around Jamaica Pond are slowly catching up to the coots, but remain green for the most part.
Pockets here and there, though, show clear signs of fall.
To our great surprise, we crossed paths with a wild turkey yesterday on Spectacle Island. We knew turkeys weren’t strong fliers, so how does one get to the Boston Harbor Islands?
Continue reading
After a few cold, cloudy, rainy days, we took advantage of today’s brilliant sunshine to walk through the Arboretum. We spotted a Baltimore oriole nest in the Meadow hanging on a silver maple branch. A female oriole perched next to it and watched us.
Continue reading
Monday was a fine day for birding at the Arboretum. Spring migrants are everywhere to be found. I managed to see seven species of warblers alone!
I saw and heard a number of catbirds, many of them hiding inside bushes. The red underneath the tail feathers caught my attention for the first time.
Continue reading
We walked the Arboretum yesterday in search of spring activity. Despite the gray skies, birds were in spring mode. We were lucky enough to see our first warbler of the year, a palm warbler, near the beech collection on Bussey Hill. The warbler migration has begun!
Continue reading
American woodcocks, a bird we had never seen, had been spotted in the Fenway Victory Gardens. So, on this sunny spring day, we went looking for them. About 45 minutes into our walk, we saw one fly right by us and land in one of the garden plots. It paced back and forth, bobbing its breast up and down.
Continue reading
We have endured a colder-than-normal winter in Boston and so any sign of spring is much celebrated. On March 1, we counted over a hundred American robins near Meadow Road in the Arboretum. While the number might be unusual, robins in and of themselves are not a true sign of spring. Many overwinter in the area.
Today, however, we saw and heard our first male red-winged blackbirds. These birds are a more reliable indicator that winter is waning. Coincidentally, today was the nicest day we have had all year, with balmy temperatures and clear skies. The cold will soon return, but so will more of the red-winged blackbirds, and spring will win out.
Continue reading