Next weekend I will be leading a "Woodpecker Walk" for the Brookline Bird Club and Menotomy Bird Club, so this past weekend I felt like I ought to do a bit of scouting. I woke up entirely too early on Saturday morning and decided that I wanted to head out to a heron rookery that last year had TWO Red-headed Woodpeckers. It was right about this time last year that they were first reported, so I thought I'd give it a shot. No luck this time around, but I may try again after the walk on Saturday. Other woodpeckers were in evidence - Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied - as well as a few Great Blue Herons, a Kingfisher, several Wood Ducks, and an Eastern Phoebe.
Next I continued on to Mt. Auburn Cemetery where sapsuckers are regularly reported. Within a minute of being inside the gate I spotted one of the day's highlights - a coyote.
Also spent some time watching and photographing a flock of very cooperative Cedar Waxwings. Couldn't decide which was my favorite photo so I'm just going to post three.
Mount Auburn Cemetery is really where I started birding, so (like many others) it is a special place for me. One of the birds that caught my interest way back when, was the Red-tailed Hawk. At the time, I had no idea how common they were, and I used to go there and spend hours watching them. They have been nesting here for years are are pretty easy to find. Most people that visit Mt Auburn probably have a story or two about an experience that they've had with them. Anyway, this day was no different with several of them being seen and one working it's way through a female mallard.
OK, I know that last photo was a little gorey, but I cropped out the carcass for those of you with slightly weaker stomachs. If you felt at all quesy about that last photo, definitely DO NOT play the following video. I'm still not showing the carcass, but you certainly get the point...I never did come across the sapsuckers.
On Sunday, Pamela and I started out at Crooked Pond (at Bald Hill Reserve in Boxford) which is where my trip will be meeting next Saturday, and found Pileated Woodpeckers exactly where we expected them, as well as the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. No Hairy WPs this morning, but hopefully we'll get them there next weekend.
