Tuesday Night Birding-Millbury

I decided to do a little birding after work today and headed over to the Brierly area to see if I could get some fall warblers in, even though they all still confuse me, but wanted to at least try. I looked over at the small pond near the parking lot and there was one lone male Wood Duck mingled in with the rest of the Mallards.
My natural instinct takes over which is to tip toe as close to the duck as possible while adjusting my camera settings knowing any moment now the bird will fly off in a total panic while I am stuck with a picture of water and no bird.
The funny thing was, the bird never flew off, but instead came closer!
Changing angles every now and then and even getting into better light so I could get better shots.
The Wood Duck was following the Mallards as he was an official member of the gang! What was funny about this whole scenario was that the Mallards would do their indigent Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack call (the one that always makes me laugh because it sounds like Snoopy when he's yelling at Charlie Brown), and every once in a while the male would follow suit with it's zeeting whistle. Too funny!
An out of sequence photo of a drake Mallard I took at Brierly Pond (separate from the pond where the Wood Duck is). You may recall me posting a picture of this duck a month or so ago because of the condition of this poor little guys bill, as you can see it doesn't seem to bother him much as he is still alive and kicking or rather quacking!
The Great-blue Heron was at its usually spot and I thought the pretty fall foliage reflecting off of the waters edge would add a nice touch. The heron actually stuck around for me this time which was an added plus.
As I was leaving to go toward the Brierly woods area for some warbler birding, I could see more Mallard's flying by and landing in the water including the one above. How cool is this shot!!! I am getting dangerous with my flight shots lately, all due to hawkwatching as I am getting a trigger finger because I have no choice. You snooze, you lose so you better be ready to push the button real quick!
A picture of a female Downy Woodpecker foraging from an extremely small branch. Talk about eating like a bird! Anyhow, that's it for the pictures in the Brierly woods. There were a ton of mountain bikers there so a lot of birds were not around and I got to talking to one I have seen there a few times who both trail runs and mountain bikes. He and I have exchanged emails some as I am thinking of getting a mountain bike for next spring so instead of birding, I spent most of my time gabbing. That's not to say I didn't get any other birds though. I got the usual Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays, etc, and even two different types of warblers.

As usual, they were their elusive little selves and would come into view for a split second before I could even get my binoculars on them. Out came the camera as I pished hoping for at least one shot or two shots and that's exactly what I got before it flew off again. I looked at one and have been pouring through my guides and still can't figure so I will do that when I have time and am looking at the St Philips Warblers I am trying to identify. The other one was what I thought was a Common Yellowthroat. I saw the bird peeking it's head out at me and all I could see was its wee little head and yellow throat. Aha, I say to myself! At least I got one I can identify, as I take a couple of really quick shots before it flies off for good. Blow the picture up on my screen and the darn bird has wing bars that I never saw through the bins because it was hidden!!!! SOB!!!

I continue to bird from my office window during lunch and a couple of quick glances here and there whenever I get a chance. The picture above is what I am assuming to be Canada Geese flying through downtown Worcester and headed south. I am telling you my downtown Worcester list is getting pretty impressive!
Two Turkey Vultures went by during lunch and not in their usual manner. I can always see a TV in the sky when I take a look and they are always circling around like they usually do. These two headed South rather quickly with no circling what so ever, so perhaps they are migrating? ETA: I have been keeping my eyes peeled the the HawkCount site and sure enough hundreds of Turkey Vultures are starting to migrate down here so keep your eyes sky as they should be pretty hard to miss!

Yesterday morning after getting my coffee from Dunkin Donuts I was treated to seeing a Cooper's Hawk terrorizing the local birds as it flew in the air heading in a South East direction. It decided to hang around long enough for me to confirm it as one vs a Sharp-shinned Hawk (due to it's steadier wing beats, larger head and finally tail). The male Peregrine was on his usual ledge so every once in a while I would take a look at him to see if he would notice the hawk as I remembered what happened last time a Coops had the audacity to enter the falcon's domain. Anyhow, the male Peregrine didn't even take notice as he was too busy looking at his feet!!!

Take care everyone

Barre Falls Hawkwatching and Other Birding

Alan and I headed to Barre Falls today to do a little hawkawatching with Donna and Don. As soon as we stepped out of the car we could hear the now familiar Pileated Woodpecker who seems to make his presence known whenever I go there. We could see a good sized bird land on a tree and sure enough there he was just staring at a small branch as we all stared at him. He sat there staring at the branch long enough for me to get a couple of digiscoped pictures. Much more cooperative than the Pileated in Grafton that's for sure!
As soon as we arrived we could see large flocks of migrating birds but they were not of the raptor kind but rather the Blue Jay kind. We stopped counting after 200 or so but they continued to migrate through, most of the morning.
Soon enough a few Accipiters decided to grace up with their presence including the Sharp-shinned Hawk above. A few seconds later a Cooper's Hawk followed but was too far away for a decent photo.

And what would we get after that??? Well a Northern Goshawk of course!!! This bird has purpose in its flight as it headed south. Was able to get some shots of it before it vanished for good though.
How cool is it to get all three accipiters in the same hour and by order of size going from smallest to largest! Very exciting way to start your Sunday morning. ;-).

We also some some American Kestrels, Broad-winged Hawks and a Turkey Vulture that was actually migrating which was really interesting to see because you could tell just by the way it was flying-which was with a purpose rather than leisure.
I decided to head to St Philips cemetery a little before dusk this evening to see what would be there. The first bird I saw was the Northern Flicker above.
There was also a now familiar face that decided to see if it could trick me again. Not this time buddy!
One of the most interesting things at St Philips this evening were the MANY Canada Geese. I had counted 40 and then stopped as I could hear a lot of passerine activity starting to develop in area trees.
Suddenly I could hear a flock of other Canada Geese coming to join them as they made their classic honking call. they never landed in the water but rather, the Canada Geese that were in the water honked back and formed their own flocks in the air.
The various flocks (some of only 4 and some of 15 or so would circle around the wetlands while other flocks seemed to form until finally they all flew off together. I know Canada Geese are common birds and a pain in the *** very often, but it was really interesting to see. Perhaps various northern migrators who will be wintering here or maybe just passing by??
Just about 20 minutes before the sunset, bird activity seemed to pick up drastically and it all centered around four trees in particular. The birds would fly from tree to tree making their various one note calls and disappear into thick foliage as I attempted to get my binoculars on them. Right the minute I spotted one with my bins, off it would fly into the next tree where I would attempt to follow it but get interrupted by the dozen or so other birds who flew into view.

I became dizzy after a while scanning the branches of this one tree and every so often I would see some familiar faces like that darn Eastern Bluebird, a Black-capped Chickadee and a Downy Woodpecker getting his last meal of the evening. But more often than not, it was a lot of small bird activity which caused me to whip out my camera in a flustered attempt to at least get a picture of the birds. And the photo above is a good example of how most came out. Too tired to try and identify them all tonight because I do like to sleep, but I have a chosen few I want to examine this week as I do think they have field marks I can decipher if I play with the lighting to my pics some.
And one more picture just because. I am not EVEN going to attempt this one as it would take me until next May when they all come back. The larger looking bird was chasing the smaller one though. Deja Vu all over again, just a different day.

Take care all.

The Turkey Vulture Tree-Millbury

I will be sad to see the Turkey Vultures migrating later this fall. For they have been the source of much pleasure and entertainment for me as I go about the daily tasks of life. They are the first to welcome me back to town after a long days work as I drive along Route 146. Kettles of up to 25 gracefully soar the skies in sweeping circles and seem to play with each other with familiar criss-crosses and my favorite, follow the leader. Sometimes, if the thermals are right, I will see them in the morning, often as early as 7AM, where they seem to prefer the area around the high school for unknown reasons.
When the skies are cloudy or worse, rain. They are not as fond of those skies that serve as their playground and they take to evergreen trees for shelter, just as they did Friday when I was getting out of work. There were quite a few of them in this tree so of course, I had to stop and take a picture. The one above was taken out of my car as I wasn't sure if they would flee once they saw me so I played it safe and got my first shot from the drivers side window.
Everyone once and a while, one would be brave and take to the skies and in effort to "test the waters" if you will, I am assuming. Off it would fly, flapping it's heavy wings over toward the Blackstone, only to return a few seconds later, defeated as it went back to its perch.
The leader of the pack never gave up its spot as it sat there scanning the skies and watching the cars go by.
And this is why I refer to the tree as the Turkey Vulture tree. Over the past week or so, I have noticed they have taken a strong liking to it which is fortunate for me as its a place a go by on a regular basis.
While their faces are not pretty, one has to be impressed with the beautiful plumage this bird has.
While I will be sad to see them go, I am looking forward to seeing them migrate. I have had the opportunity to study these birds more while in flight recently and I have noticed they are the most laziest flyers of all of the birds I look at during my lunch hour at work. They don't like using their wings but when they do it's a heavy, slow wing beat, but clearly not enjoyable on their part as they prefer the thermal lifts to do the hard work for them. There is also no apparent reason for their soaring as they are probably only looking for food and have no where to go anytime soon. It will be interesting to see if their flight behaviour is any different while heading to their winter location.

Take care all.

All Faiths Cemetery, Worcester-Friday Birding

After a long week at work, it was time for some birding on Friday to unwind a little as birding seems close in impossible tomorrow unless I want to hang out with the ducks and I think even they will be seeking shelter from the rain. Alan and I decided to head over to All Faiths Cemetery in Worcester to see if we could find the reported Pied-billed Grebes, Northern Pintail and American Wigeons that John Shea posted about on the Central Mass Bird sighting web site.
When we got there we saw a couple of American Wigeon's including the one above. Picture is lousy which seems to be a common theme of mine lately. Need to get a better camera with more zoom capacity as 15 just doesn't seem to cut it for me anymore as it appears as if my photographic subjects lately are getting further and further away.
Not to mention the lighting was terrible. I decided to see what the shots would look like with my flash on and while they didn't come out over exposed, they did come out kind of funky as you can see. The poor bird looks half wigeon and half zombie! So pretty though, love the color of the bill and the small white triangle that we were able to see a few times on the secondaries.
We also saw a Northern Pintail while there who was hanging out with the Mallards. Many of the drake Mallards are starting to come out of their eclipse plumage and back into that lovely color of theirs. It was interesting to see them mixed in with the other drakes that are still not quite there yet.
Again, the pictures didn't come out all that grand, but I wasn't complaining as it was nice to see them with my own two eyes and binoculars as I didn't have this bird on my Central Mass list.
We never did see the Pied-billed Grebes which was a disappointment as it was the bird I was most looking forward to seeing. This juvenile Eastern Phoebe made up for it somewhat though as it serves as a gentle reminder that while the air has a certain "crisp" to it, the Phoebe still remains. I will miss this bird terribly once it decides to head a little further south as I scrape ice from my windshield.

No birding tomorrow obviously, but will be heading to Barre Falls on Sunday for a little hawkwatching. Hoping the Sharpies and Kestrels decide to grace us with their presence.

Take care all!

Goodbye to the Ice Cream Barn-Fire in Millbury

Updated: My youngest son has a friend that used to work there, and from what she is hearing nobody was hurt. Just an FYI as I have gotten a few emails from concerned people in Worcester County as I seem to be the only one out in google land with any information of this fire.

Story from the T&G can be found here: Ice Cream Barn Fire

Got home from All Faiths Cemetery in Worcester after doing some birding with Alan and was uploading my pictures when suddenly there were fire trucks flying fast toward the center of town in every direction. I went outside to see what was going on and the entire area was filled with so much smoke that it looked like a fog had taken over the center of town.
I grabbed my camera and found out it was the Ice Cream Barn that was on fire. I immediately thought of the gas station right next to it as it has quite a few gas pumps. Spoke to the manager who runs the place and he was lucky enough to see the first set of flames and shut down all gas lines obviously.
Our heroic volunteer fire fighters from Millbury were on the scene as well as much needed help from nearby Grafton.
Very sad to see this place burn down as I have a lot of fond memories of freshly brewed ice cold iced tea on hot summer days and hot fudge sunday's with peanut butter cup chocolate ice cream on special days with the kids. The ice cream barn was the place to go after Little League Games, the last day of school and the 4th of July.

Our fire fighters did an awesome job putting the fire out and I sat there and watched them in awe. These brave men and women are the ones who run into smoldering buldings, while others flee. That says a lot about ones character. Brave and heroic indeed.
Have gotten quite a few emails from people asking if I have anymore pictures so posted some more at the link right here More Fire Pictures

More Pictures of the Ice Cream Barn Fire

More photos and link to original post and link to the T&G Article, can be found Here