Mismatched set

This blog has been threatening to die of starvation lately, but here's a tasty morsel. It's a prairie warbler, a new species for me, and an unexpected one at this time of the year.  The location is also a bit implausible -- Assembly Square.  I have to give a shout-out to this guy, because otherwise I'd have identified this bird as something else.

My confusion stemmed, partly, from the fact that there was another warbler in the same tree:

This one is a palm warbler, a species that's a bit more familiar around here.  Still, I shouldn't have assumed that these birds made a matched set.

Quel bon vent

Every year, in early May, there's a day when everything arrives at once.  Yesterday, the 11th, was that day.  I clocked four species of warbler:  yellow-rumped (above); Cape May:

...northern parula:

...and common yellowthroat:

The photography, as you'll notice, is what we might call security-camera quality:  just sufficient to identify the guilty.

But the warblers were not even all of it.  The catbirds came back, as did the chimney swifts, and we had a couple of white-throated sparrows, some chipping sparrows, a ruby-crowned kinglet, a Swainson's thrush up by the monument, and even, strangely enough, an osprey circling overhead:

And then today, nothing.

State of the list, 2015

Before I get to the halfway point of 2016, I should give an account of the state of my Somerville list as of 2015.  As I noted before, this was not a good year for me, birdwatching-wise.  Lack of time outdoors translated into a meager tally of new species.  I only had five (American wigeon, common loon, great egret, green heron, and redhead), against two species I deaccessioned (hooded warbler and Philadelphia vireo, in both cases because I lost confidence that I had really seen them).  All the ones I added were waterbirds, as it happens.

For 2016 I have a couple new species, and I'm hoping that over the next few weeks, I'll pick up a few migrants I haven't yet seen.

Trash day

Despite appearances, this palm warbler is not keeping up with the Red Sox.  It's actually looking for its breakfast among the river of trash that lines the I-93 embankment.

On the subject of rivers of trash, the Mystic River Watershed Association is having a river cleanup on Saturday, April 30.  Be there!