Catbird

Catbird's back, but is it sitting in the catbird seat?  Hard to say.  The surroundings seem pretty good for them, but they've had some bad luck here.  A couple years ago, the neighbors told me a cat got the local nesting pair, and then last year, the catbird we had sang and sang, but never seemed to find a mate.  So here's wishing it luck this year.

I've seen a few black-and-white warblers, but not much else.  However, it's early yet.  I wouldn't expect any great variety of warblers for a week or so.  White-throated sparrows have been pretty numerous.  There was a little flock on my yard the other day.  The chimney swifts, meanwhile, seem to have deserted our neighborhood.  I know they're back, because I saw a few in Cambridge this evening.  I'll miss them in summer if they're truly gone.

First warblers

On a very hot Patriots Day, the first warbler showed up -- the palm warbler (?) above, and then this kinglet:

And, in addition to the hermit thrushes, who are pretty numerous, we've also had a number of white-throated sparrows about:

First migrants

Here's the first real migrant of spring I've seen in my yard:  a somewhat skinny hermit thrush.  Normally by this time, I'd have seen a few migrant woodpeckers, but then again, I haven't been out in the yard much.  Who knows what this aberrant spring will end up producing.  If it proved a hardship for migrants, I wouldn't be surprised.  It's awfully dry out, and the plants are farther along in their cycle than is usual.  Then too, it's looking a little bare on my Prospect Hill hillside, with half a dozen large trees fewer than last year, courtesy of some hireling with a chainsaw.

Late winter

Late winter, and nothing much doing.  The neighbors have a feeder up, hence the flock of sparrows above. Chickadees, juncos, and the occasional nuthatch have also been partaking.  Meanwhile, there's a robin stationed almost permanently in my privet, slowly stripping it of berries.  Those berries must not be very palatable until they've had a winter's worth of freezing and thawing.  No one ever gives them a look in the fall.

But it is March, and we should begin to see the first migrants within a couple weeks.  Judging by history, it'll be hermit thrushes and woodpeckers first, warblers later.  I'm a bit worried this year, and why?  Have a look:

As clearcuts go, this one is not much to write home about -- maybe six to eight mature trees, and a number of smaller ones. That said, if there's one thing Somerville doesn't have a large supply of, it's stands of big trees.   And I know for a fact that that particular stand of trees was well used by the different migrants. What possessed someone to go to the trouble and expense of clearing it is beyond me.  All I know is that they've made our poor little habitat still poorer.

Mystical birds

In my accounting of birds in Somerville, I've been a bit remiss in not giving any attention to the Mystic. Lately I've made a few trips down there to see what there is to be seen. The swans are so prominent you can see them from the highway, but there's actually a good variety of other aquatic birds. This morning there were several kinds of gulls, a flotilla of Canada geese, a couple of coots, a red-breasted merganser, some mallards, and a trio of buffleheads.

In the picture above, you can see a flock of ring-billed gulls surrounding a juvenile herring gull, which you'll notice is banded on the leg. If anyone was looking for Gull 8R5... why, there it is.

New camera!

After complaining for a year, I finally got a new camera -- better resolution, and above all, a better zoom. It's still a point-and-shoot model, but a vastly better one. I'm really hoping it'll help me better identify birds from a distance, which has always been a stumbling block. Of course, there's no mystery about the bird above -- though it was a little strange to see a flock of a hundred of these things come through on Thanksgiving morning.

Owl!

I went out this morning hoping to get a picture of some of the thrushes. There were a number in and around my apple tree, but as I was looking up into the branches, I spotted a small, obscure feathered mass. An owl! Specifically a northern saw-whet owl. I was excited, because I'd never seen a wild owl in my life. I had to show the kids, and they're like, "OMG, maybe it has a message tied to its leg!"

The picture could be better, of course, but my camera is now, on top of everything else, semi-broken: the zoom no longer works.

Okay, a few updates: here are a few more pictures from today. The first is a pair of Carolina wrens, taken by my photographic assistant Mimi:

Here's a hermit thrush:

And finally, another rare juxtaposition (remember the ovenbird and catbird one?), a downy woodpecker and the aforementioned owl: