Egrets and regrets

If there's any requirement more basic to birdwatching than getting outside, I don't know what it is. But all spring and summer, I was so busy that I scarcely saw the outdoors, except through my windshield.  Finally, last Sunday, I was able to go for a walk on the Mystic, as I used to do religiously, before I got so busy.

By way of reward, I came on this great egret, just downstream of the dam. Egrets have been abundant this summer in the Rumney Marsh (one of the things I've seen quite a bit of from my car window), but I've never seen an egret of any kind here in Somerville before.

I'm still plenty busy, but I hope to see at least a little migratory action this September. I mostly missed out on May, to the detriment of my list. (This has been something of a disastrous year for my list. In fact, great egret is one of only three new additions, against two subtractions. But at least, thanks to great egret, I'll end my year in the black.)

Just got to get outside.

First warbler

The first warbler of spring appeared this morning.  If you chose ovenbird in the office pool, you're looking pretty good right about now.

Uncommon loons

Whatever else you may say about loons, they're not particularly common here in Somerville.  The two in the photo above are only the second and third I've ever seen, and the first was last week.  I'm led to reflect that there's something of an inverse relationship between the fact of a species having the attribute of "common," and the likelihood you'll see it in Somerville.

In fact, looking over this list of Massachusetts birds with "common" in their name, there's only one I'd consider halfway common in Somerville:

Common chaffinch:  Never seen one, unsurprisingly, since it's an Old World bird, mostly
Common cuckoo:  Nope
Common eider:  Only on a single occasion
Common gallinule:  Never
Common goldeneye:  Not at all common, though I saw more this winter than I had ever seen
Common grackle:  The only one I'd call common:  numerous in summer, but not widespread
Common ground-dove:  No
Common loon:  See above
Common merganser:  Not common, but not rare either, on the Mystic in winter
Common murre:  No
Common nighthawk:  No
Common raven:  No
Common redpoll:  No
Common ringed plover:  No
Common tern:  Once in a blue moon
Common yellowthroat:  Not numerous, but they do pass through, and there was a breeding pair near Assembly Square last summer.

Meanwhile, it is officially spring, though wintry in weather, so here's a bird who speaks of seasonal indecision:  a goldfinch still quite a few karats away from its summer plumage.

State of the list, 2014

Redhead is the latest addition to the Somerville list, though it properly belongs to 2015.  When I last gave an accounting of the list, in October of 2013, I had 104 species, having added species at a furious clip over the previous year.  In 2014, I tapered off a bit, not unnaturally, but still added 11 species:  blue-headed vireo, brown thrasher, chestnut-sided warbler, eastern towhee, golden-crowned kinglet, great cormorant, northern rough-winged swallow, osprey, tree swallow, winter wren, and wood thrush.  I now have 120 total, including the redhead. I'd be a bit stunned if I added more than half a dozen new species this year, but we'll see.

I've also substantially updated the species list, with a new introductory tab, and revised entries for each bird to give some idea of its numbers here in Somerville, and whether it nests here.  This data is provisional, based on my best knowledge, but I think gives a truer picture of each bird's place here.

Two down, one to go

Earlier this year, I mentioned in a post that in visiting the Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I saw a good number of birds, but only three I had never seen in Somerville: tree swallow, golden-crowned kinglet, and red-bellied woodpecker.   I also mentioned that I thought that at some point, all three would show up here.  Well, here it is six months later, and I've just bagged the second of the three:  golden-crowned kinglet (I saw tree swallows on a number of occasions over the summer).

I see ruby-crowned kinglets every year, both in my yard and by the Mystic, usually in the months of April and October.  They're usually in little flocks.  This golden-crowned, however, was by itself, in some trees and bushes in a little fenced area next to I-93.  There's no birdwatching in Somerville unaccompanied by the sound of traffic, or, these days on the Mystic, the smell of hamburgers.

Chicken on the Mystic

Out for my usual Sunday walk by the Mystic this morning, I ran across something I had never seen before:  a feral chicken, hanging out with a small group of mallards.  In the absence of other chickens, I guess ducks are the next best thing.  As more and more people keep chickens in Somerville, it's inevitable that we see a few escapees.

Fishing without a license

This morning by the Earhart Dam, I saw the Environmental Police bust a couple of guys for fishing without a license.  I find myself wondering if I'd need a license to fish with a trained cormorant.   Certainly the cormorants are the only fishers I see who ever actually catch anything.  In the picture above, it looks like the eel is winning, but no dice; seconds later it was in the cormorant's stomach -- whole and undoubtedly quite alive.

I was thinking I might see some sandpipers this morning, but no luck -- or maybe I was just a bit early.  I did see quite a good a number of common terns, though, which was a bit unusual.  Otherwise just the usual suspects.  Except, surprisingly, for Canada geese.  I didn't see a one.  Maybe they were busted for crapping on the grass.