Last weekend in March

We had a mixed bag of weather this past weekend - Saturday started out a little cool and overcast but then got pretty nice out, then Sunday was cool and rainy. Pamela and I took advantage of Saturday's nice weather to get out and do a little birding after an early breakfast at the S&S in Cambridge, MA. A quick side-note on the restaurant before I go into the birding - I first learned about the S&S when I moved to Cambridge, MA from Buffalo, NY over 10 years ago. I don't think it was on purpose, but for my first 3-4 years here, every time we moved, we got closer and closer to it, until finally I could step out my front door and see if there was a line. I'd not been there in over a year, so it was nice to get back.
After breakfast we headed over to Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Many of you birders will probably have heard of Mt. Auburn as it is a pretty well-known hot-spot, especially in migration. And really it is just a beautiful place, and nice to visit at almost any time of the year. One of the highlights for me was that within about an hour or so, we had seen 4 species of woodpeckers - Downy, Red-bellied, Flicker, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I thought I'd heard a distant Hairy, but couldn't confirm it. (It's ok, I had one later in the evening to make it a 5 woodpecker day)


The other highlight of the day for me were the continuing White-winged Crossbills that we've had in the area. I know that many of you have also had White-wings this winter, as they seem to have had one hell of an irrurptive year, and maybe you're bored by reports of these birds by now, but I really had an exciting time with them. I found a flock of 14-16 birds a few times throughou the day, foraging on the ground among the fallen spruce cones. They seemed little bothered by walkers, joggers, passing cars, etc, and at one point I just sat down about 20' away from them and waited for them to come to me -which they did, and I had quite a few birds come within 2 feet of where I sat! Unfortunately, it was in a shaded area so the photos didn't come out nearly as well as I had hoped...




On the way home, we stopped in Winchester to check in on an eastern Screech Owl that I've now seen 5 out of 5 times. (It's hard to resist visiting a reliable owl when it's so close to home and far enough away to not be disturbed by your presence.) Since I didn't have my digiscoping camera with me, I thought I'd try my hand at "phone-scoping" with my iPhone, with mixed results:

I tried placing the photo here, but didn't seem to work, but if interested, you can see it here.

The day was topped off by hanging out with good friends, eating good food, and having a great time playing Scattagories. (The laughter helps to burn off all the food we ate - really, it does.... doesn't it?)

Oh, and on Sunday morning, we went back to the S&S again with my sister and brother-in-law. Man, I love that place!