birds

Birds she has heard

Shaw Pong posts audio from her recent recordings of birds in Jamaica Plain, from the Arboretum to Franklin Park.

Do you know what attracts these birds? No, but hum a few bars ...

Hummingbird

B. MacLean photographed a hummingbird at one of the feeders in his backyard near the Blue Hills Reservation.

Copyright B. MacLean. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Citizen complaint of the day: Crazed bird dive-bombing Harborwalk visitors in the North End

Attack bird is out thereAttack bird lurks, awaits next victim.

From Citizens Connect:

A very aggressive bird (bluejay maybe) attacks anything, human or dog, that comes through this part of the Harborwalk between 40 Battery and Union Wharf. Can animal control do something about it?

A goldfinch sings

Shaw Pong Liu records and describes a goldfinch singing near Bussey Brook in the Arnold Arboretum.

Watching the food chain in action

John Halamka reports all the extra bird food he's put out and the heated bird bath have attracted plenty of birds to his Wellesley backyard this winter - and not just of the birdseed-eating variety:

I looked up and saw a cardinal eating safflower. I looked up again and saw a Red-Shouldered hawk eating the cardinal.

A flashy coat only gets you so far

Steve Borichevsky photographs a male Baltimore oriole putting the moves on a female - without success.

Poisoning ravens in the park

Channel 5 reports the National Park Service is telling ravens on the Cape: Nevermore. Workers will build fake piping-plover nests in the Cape Cod National Seashore and fill them with hard-boiled chicken eggs laced with crowicide to kill the birds going after endangered plovers.

At this rate, I should probably get a bird book

What?

We went to Echo Bridge in Newton today, and it really is amazing - you can basically whisper and hear your voice echo back from the other side of the Charles (so you can imagine what it was like when an exuberant kidlet decided to yell). Up river, near the old mill, we spotted the above large bird (so for those of you who know the distance, yes, it pays to have a zoom lens). Anybody know what it is?

I'm assuming its proper name is not Whatchamacallit Bird

?

As yesterday afternoon's storm wound down, I drove up to the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury, figuring there might be a rainbow. There was! Split in two, with one end landing just left of the high school and the other end between the VA hospital and the Great Blue Hill. Alas, it was just a little too faint for my camera to do justice, so no photos, but I did take some shots of this twittering bird, which seemed to be enjoying the wet road. Anybody know what it is?