The Hitchcock Center Birding Class headed east today to visit historic Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. The cemetery is clearly one of the most beautiful places to bird in Massachusetts or for that matter, New England. The lush vegetation is a magnet for spring migrates that filter out of the predawn skies looking to rest and refuel for the continuing journey north to there breeding grounds. The cemetery is literally an Island oasis in a sea of concrete and steel.
We arrived at the cemetery around 7:30am, gathered up our group and worked our way to Indian Ridge. The weather conditions were considerably less than ideal, overcast, on-off light rain, light easterly wind (raw) with temps holding around 44 degrees.
I knew this was not going to be one of those legendary Mt. Auburn days, but the group and I managed 43 species (7 species of Warblers) and had some nice looks at some common, but at times, hard to view species.
Species Seen:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker (1)
Downy Woodpecker (3)
No.Flicker (1)
Eastern Phoebe (1)
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Warbling Vireo (1)
Blue Jay
Am.Crow
Fish Crow (1)
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch (1)
White-breasted Nuthatch (1)
Carolina Wren (1)
House Wren (1)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (15)
Hermit Thrush (2)
American Robin
E.Starling
Northern Parula (1)
Yellow Warbler (1)
Black-thr.blue Warbler (1m)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (14)
Pine Warbler (2)
Black/White Warbler (3)
Ovenbird (1)
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow (1)
White-thr.Sparrow (22)
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole (1-m)
Baltimore Oriole (3)
House Finch
Am.Goldfinch
House Sparrow
View of Boston. (Click on Images for larger photo)
The Group-
The Cemetery..
Baltimore Oriole- one of three. Overcast conditions made for a difficult day with the camera.
Orchard Oriole
