Fowl Meadow - Milton/Canton 5/4/2014

 

Nine early risers met to walk the Fowl Meadow section of the Blue Hills Reservation in parts of Milton and Canton. The group enjoyed bright sunshine and calm winds with temps around 50F. We got off to a nice start with a singing Blue-headed Vireo. Vireos like to perch motionless for periods at a time, but we eventually had fine looks at the Blue-headed here and a couple of Warbling Vireos later on in the walk.
Noteworthy for this location were 2 Great Egrets in the cattail marsh. These large, white wading birds are much more in evident coastally than inland. Seems like this species is increasing in number in Massachusetts.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher nest

We came upon a scolding Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and while trying to locate the bird, we also found it's nest. It's much easier to find bird nests in early May because many of the trees have not leafed out yet, as you can see in this picture above.
Other highlights of the walk included fantastic views of Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Black and White Warbler and the underrated Swamp Sparrow! A few Northern Waterthrush were heard singing, but we were unable see any of these swamp dwellers.
Fowl Meadow is a floodplain of the Neponset River and one of the few places locally where Leopard Frogs are found. A sharp-eyed observer in our group found this one pictured below.

Leopard Frog

*As you can see, by the lack of any nice bird pictures, we did not have any expert photographers among us. Sorry for the blurry photos.

Complete list
50 species

Canada Goose 15
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 10
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 - migrating overhead
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Herring Gull (American) 5
Mourning Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 5
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 7
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Tree Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 7
White-breasted Nuthatch 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 8
American Robin 15
Gray Catbird 8
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 4
Blue-winged Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 10
Northern Parula 2
Yellow Warbler 20
Palm Warbler (Yellow) 1
Pine Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 8
Eastern Towhee 5
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 10
Swamp Sparrow 14
White-throated Sparrow 7
Northern Cardinal 11
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 8
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Common Grackle 30
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
American Goldfinch 10

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Vin Zollo