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Birds

By adamg - 3/5/23 - 7:39 pm
Maturing eagle

Mary Ellen spotted this eagle, maybe 3 to 3 1/2 years old, across the Charles from Millennium Park today. Bald eagles go fully "bald" when they're about 4 1/2 years, assuming they don't get poisoned by rodenticide first.

By adamg - 3/1/23 - 8:54 pm

The Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable reports that "MK," a bald eagle that had been nesting in a cemetery in Arlington died last night from internal hemorrhaging caused by rat poison. Read more.

By adamg - 2/19/23 - 6:22 pm
A hawk perched above South Boston

Michael Spicher reports this hawk regularly hangs out outside his South Boston condo.

By adamg - 2/16/23 - 3:33 pm
Peregrine falcon at moonset and sunrise in Millennium Park

Mary Ellen captured a falcon, up for an early breakfast, at Millennium Park in West Roxbury this morning.

By adamg - 2/9/23 - 12:24 pm
A couple of ring-necked ducks at Jamaica Pond

There are always mallards at Jamaica Pond, sometimes supplemented in the spring and summer by a family or two of wood ducks (and one black Muscovy duck in love with a mallard), but the pond now is home, even if temporarily, to all sorts of other ducks. Read more.

By adamg - 1/6/23 - 3:17 pm
Eagle on a light pole in Somerville

Andromeda Yelton spotted this bald eagle today, perching on a light pole at Trum Field in Somerville.

By adamg - 12/31/22 - 12:19 pm
Northern Lapwing

Mary Ellen journeyed up to Ipswich to take a gander at the Northern Lapwing that is now plovering about in a field there. Audubon reports Northern Lapwings are normally found all over Europe and Asia, but are only rarely seen here, sometimes blown here by winter storms. The Mass. bird world is, of course, all atwitter, Mary Ellen says.

By adamg - 12/22/22 - 12:59 pm
MacGillivray's Warbler on Mission Hill

Mary Ellen spotted this MacGillivray's Warbler in McLaughlin Woods, part of Mission Hill's McLaughlin Playground. They're not usually seen east of Texas, so maybe it was blown here by one of the recent cross-country storms?

By adamg - 12/17/22 - 5:08 pm
Geese in the Esplanade lagoon

Samuel Maskell watched a flotilla of geese floating along in the Esplanade lagoon.

By adamg - 11/1/22 - 4:19 pm
Barred owl in Belle Isle Marsh

Mary Ellen spotted this barred owl in East Boston yesterday.

By adamg - 10/22/22 - 12:19 pm
Pair of red-tailed hawks form a heart shape on a branch

Mary Ellen caught a pair of red-tailed hawks doing some heart-shaped bonding in West Roxbury the other day.

By adamg - 10/11/22 - 9:01 am
Hawk atop the statue in front of the Museum of Fine Arts

Max spotted a hawk performing a balancing act on Dallin's Appeal to the Great Spirit in front of the MFA this morning.

There's a statue downtown that can commiserate.

By adamg - 10/8/22 - 2:07 pm
Dickcissel in West Roxbury

Wandering the moors along the Charles River in West Roxbury, Mary Ellen spied a dickcissel, no doubt debating whether those seeds it's eying are worth risking getting swallowed by a hawk.

Which of course, raises the question of who the bird formerly known as the black-throated bunting so offended in the ornithological world that they renamed it with one of birddom's more ridiculous names. Read more.

By adamg - 7/4/22 - 9:37 am
Kestrel takes flight in South Boston

Jim Gavaghan watched this young American kestrel launch itself off the top of a 65-foot pine tree in South Boston around 6 p.m. on Sunday:

I’ve been watching them off my third floor porch for about a month now, part of a family of three. They have been feeding on a lot of rodents, so I love them.

By adamg - 7/1/22 - 3:39 pm
Pigeons

Some pigeons up a couple floors at the old boiler plant at the Shops at Riverwood on River Street in Hyde Park.

By adamg - 6/26/22 - 3:45 pm
Egret flying over the Neponset River

This egret had been standing in the marsh along the Dorchester side of the Neponset River, near the bridges, when either it realized there just wasn't anything to eat there or got tired of the small black birds that kept flying right over him, so it took off and didn't stop until it got all the way to the other side of the river.

By adamg - 6/22/22 - 4:30 pm

The state is looking for some help spotting any recent outbreaks of avian influenza. So if you see any dead seabirds (terns, gulls, cormorants), or if you see five or more other types of birds just lying in a single spot on the ground, dead, fill out this form (note they have a separate form for dead poultry).

By adamg - 6/19/22 - 5:27 pm
Terns all over by the Charles River locks and dam

We walked across the temporary North Washington Street Bridge today and couldn't help but notice the large colony of terns dive bombing the water - as a flotilla of cormorants dived well under the surface. And then a guy with several fishing rods in a kayak powered by pedals arrived on scene. Read more.

By adamg - 6/16/22 - 11:32 am
Duck and ducklings at Jamaica Pond

The other day, a mother duck and her ducklings were at the northernmost end of Jamaica Pond, slowly paddling through the muck there, stopping from time to time for a bite to eat. Read more.

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