Tag Archives: olmsted park

Leverett Pond: Wood Ducks and Woodpeckers

Today was one of the nicest days of this new year in Boston: sunny and around 55 °F/12 °C. Even after our mid-winter thaw the last few days, Leverett Pond was mostly frozen and its banks covered in snow. The wood ducks I had seen early in the winter are still around.

Wood ducks
Wood ducks on Leverett Pond

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In Search of a Mandarin Duck

Late Saturday afternoon, we walked around Leverett Pond in Boston’s Olmsted Park, in search of a mandarin duck. I had heard this duck was on the loose from The Rambling Brambling.

Mallards abounded in the area; we saw 140 of them. Three male ring-necked ducks swam past us in a line.

Ring-necked duck
Ring-necked duck

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Family of Red-Winged Blackbirds

It’s been a rainy June. Boston averages around three and a half inches of rain in June and we have had over ten inches of rain with more to come.

The Muddy River is starting to overflow its banks. I stopped at Willow Pond in Olmsted Park to watch a family of red-winged blackbirds. The male with its red wing-patch (partially covered in the photo below) is the most easily recognizable.

Male red-winged blackbird
Male red-winged blackbird

The female looks like a large sparrow with a white, streaked breast.

Female red-winged blackbird
Female red-winged blackbird

And I saw a juvenile in the same tree as a female.

Juvenile red-winged blackbird
Juvenile red-winged blackbird
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A Walk through Olmsted Park

I took a walk through Olmsted Park yesterday, a piece of the Emerald Necklace within Jamaica Plain. I saw a mother mallard duck with a dozen ducklings in tow.

A mother mallard duck with some of her dozen ducklings
A mother mallard duck with some of her dozen ducklings

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Birding Leverett Pond

I saw two birds for the first time yesterday. First, a pair of double-crested cormorants were lounging in the middle of Leverett Pond, black but for their orange chins.

Double-crested cormorants
Double-crested cormorants bask in the sun on Leverett Pond.

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