More Weekend Birding

As I've mentioned in recent posts, I've not had as much to time to devote to my blog as I would like, and wish I could post a bit more. It's been a combination of less birding, even less bird photography, and even less yet personal time at a computer.
Well, this weekend I got out for a bit, and even got a few photos, and here I am typing at my computer BUT... pBase, where I have reliably kept my on-line galleries for several years now is down, and has been so for several days. I know I could use other free services like picassa online or flickr, but I really like the pBase set-up and have grown so accustomed to it, that I'm really reluctant to use anything else. So, any photos will have to wait until they are back up again.

A quick note about the birding...
Yesterday morning, Pam and I joined Paul & Diana(and about 10-11 other birders, for a Brookline Bird Club(BBC)/Menotomy Bird Club(MBC)/Woburn Residents Environmental Network(WREN) walk to Horn Pond right around the corner from where we live. The day started cool, but warmed up relatively quickly - both temperatures and birding. We had some fall warblers to puzzle out, including Blackpolls, Black&White, Palm, Black-throated Green, and Common Yellowthroat - some nice sparrows including Lincoln's, Field, Chipping, Song, and Towhees - as well as a vocal Eastern Screech Owl that responded to Paul's, excellent imitation.
After a fantastic breakfast at Masa (excellent Saturday brunch menu at a price you can't beat!) we decided to head north (as we almost always do when we can't decide what else to do) to Plum Island. Birds there had been pretty active too, with lots of warblers and some interesting sparrows being reported (including two Lark Sparrows and a Clay-colored reported on Friday but not relocated Saturday). White-throated Sparrows have really arrived on the refuge - there was barely a spot on the refuge where you couldn't hear them scratching around in the leaf litter! It's an interesting time on the refuge, where we still have some of our "summer birds" like Great and Snowy Egrets, there are some Autumnal migrants around like the warblers that are coming through, some of the shorebirds that haven't quite left yet and the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, as well as some of the vanguard "winter birds" (for this area) including White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. Other indicators of change are the conspicuously absent Tree Swallows, which staged here and left since the last time we were here. One of the highlights of our time there on Saturday were several Merlins that we saw.

Hopefully, pBase will be back soon, so that I'll have some photos to post, rather than hoping that you'll keep coming back for my writing (!?!)

OH - and lately I've been completely pre-occupied with the idea of going birding in Costa Rica. Not that I haven't been daydreaming about it since I started birding (and actually even before then) but it's become an all-encompassing desire lately. Pamela and I are starting to look at our options for early 2010. If you have gone there birding, and have any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em!