World's End, Hingham - 4/13/2013

10 people came for the trip which was a good number considering how cold and windy it was in the morning. It warmed up a bit and the wind dropped by late morning when the trip ended. We got all the expected birds for this trip, except for Tree Swallow. They were in other places, but we didn't have any today. This trip (on this date) seems to miss Chipping Sparrow by about a week. Oystercatcher, both loons, all the herons and egrets on Sarah island, the yellowlegs, good numbers of woodpeckers and the migrating American Kestrels made today a fun early spring birding trip.

Wild Turkey 1

Red-throated Loon – 2
Common Loon – 1
Horned Grebe – 5
Double-crested Cormorant – 52
Great Blue Heron – 2
Great Egret- 12
Snowy Egret - 4
Black-crowned Night Heron – 3
Canada Goose - 15
Brant – 53
American Black Duck - 4
Bufflehead - 61
Red-breasted Merganser – 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 4

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel – 4
American Oystercatcher - 1
Greater Yellowlegs – 7
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 20
Herring Gull - 100
Great Black-backed Gull – 6
Belted Kingfisher – 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 4
Northern Flicker – 5
Eastern Phoebe – 4
Blue Jay - 16
American Crow -2
Black-capped Chickadee - 6
Tufted Titmouse - 11
White-breasted Nuthatch – 4
Carolina Wren -1
Golden-crowned Kinglet – 5
Eastern Bluebird – 1
American Robin - 15
Mockingbird – 1
European Starling
Song Sparrow - 5
White-throated Sparrow – 2
Northern Cardinal – 3
Red-winged Blackbird – 12
Common Grackle - 9
Brown-headed Cowbird - 6
American Goldfinch -2
House Sparrow - 3

*Photos by Steven Whitebread

Helen Cross

Turkey Hill, Weir River Farm, Whitney-Thayer Woods on April 27, 2013

On a gorgeous spring day with temperatures around 60 degrees and little wind, ten club members explored these three contiguous properties with the hopes of finding some recent migrants.  Alas, sometimes nicer days don't always portend outstanding birding.  For most of us, a flock of 6 Cedar Waxwings provided the only new species for the year.  A breeding-plumaged Common Loon flew over the top of Turkey Hill as well as a couple of Great Egrets.  At the end of the walk, an American Kestrel flew in and landed on a fence post for a distant look while an even more distant Osprey soared over the water tank.  Eastern Towhees posed for us in several locations while Pine Warblers made us search hard for a decent look.  The Blue-grey Gnatcatcher teased us with his whiny notes, but never put in an appearance in spite of our scouring the area.  A Ruby-crowned Kinglet hopped around some trees and only later serenaded us with his busy song.http://ebird.org/ebird/submit

Sally Avery

36 species (+1 other taxa) total

4	Canada Goose Delete
1	Wild Turkey Delete
1	Common Loon Delete
29	Double-crested Cormorant Delete
2	Great Egret Delete
1	Osprey Delete
1	Sharp-shinned Hawk Delete
4	Herring Gull Delete
1	Mourning Dove Delete
5	Red-bellied Woodpecker Delete
4	Downy Woodpecker Delete
3	Northern Flicker Delete
1	American Kestrel Delete
3	Eastern Phoebe Delete
4	Blue Jay Delete
8	American Crow Delete
6	Tree Swallow Delete
7	Black-capped Chickadee Delete
5	Tufted Titmouse Delete
4	White-breasted Nuthatch Delete
3	Carolina Wren Delete
1	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Delete
1	Ruby-crowned Kinglet Delete
14	American Robin Delete
8	European Starling Delete
6	Cedar Waxwing Delete
9	Pine Warbler Delete
8	Eastern Towhee Delete
10	Chipping Sparrow Delete
7	Song Sparrow Delete
5	Northern Cardinal Delete
5	Red-winged Blackbird Delete
2	Brown-headed Cowbird Delete
2	House Finch Delete
12	American Goldfinch Delete
20	House Sparrow Delete
3	passerine sp. Delete birds perched in a distant tree in bad light; could not be identified with certainty