Birding-The Great Meadows in Corcord, MA

I decided to take the day off from work yesterday and take a "me" day as I am been feeling a little burnt out lately due to so much going on. I started the morning off with a 3.5 mile walk/run/hike in my town as well as the Cross Street power lines where I saw a flock of approx 60 European Starlings and approx. 30 American Robins.

I then took off in the afternoon with my friend Alan to the Great Meadows in Concord, MA to see if we could get any birds that we can't get here in Central MA. One of the most frequent birds we saw were these adorable Marsh Wrens that seemed to be in all of the cat tails we went to. Their call is very wren like and distinctive so it was hard not to pinpoint their location. They were difficult to get your eye on though as they spent the majority of their time either in the water underneath the vast cat tails (trying to stay cool) or in the middle of the cat tails which made getting a view of them rather challenging to say the least. Such adorable little wrens though and another check on my list as this was a lifer for me.

The Great-blue Herons were out in full force at the meadows (we did see one Great Egret there too but my pictures came out lousy). One interesting things about these herons is that they are not as afraid of people as the ones in my area are, so getting pictures was easy.

Great-blue Heron trying to cool off! All of the birds seem to be oppressed by the heat lately. It's almost as if it went from May to deep July overnight and both people and birds are having a hard time adjusting to it!

When we arrived at the Meadows one of the first things we saw was an Osprey on a nest box like type structure in the shade just looking around.

There was another one in flight attempting to hunt I presume. I have not seen this bird since late April so it was a real treat to say the least. One thing I noticed about this bird is that its flight patterns is so very different than other birds of prey I have been observing. They have a lot more wing beats per minute, but I guess they have to for the type of hunting they do.

Another birds I have not seen in a while which is the Black Duck. I had thought I heard a Mallard while we were walking the path, but it sounded a little different to me than the typical Mallard and we soon found out why. Notice the white feathers on the Black Duck with its bill facing your computer screen. You will see a lot more white on it than the other which indicates there is some Mallard in it. Not enough to make it a hybrid obviously as it was passed along generational but it was still interesting to look at.

A female Mallard trying to escape the brutal heat.

A butterfly and a moth(?), taken on the powerlines this morning during my walk. Both of them were on this object and I have no idea what it is. I am not sure if anyone can identify it or not, but I thought it was interesting.

Take care all.