January 2022

January 2  Went on a bird walk with the Brookline Bird Club at the Arboretum this morning.  Around 30 birders, looking a lot more carefully than I usually do, we found a couple of less common birds for this area: a red-breasted nuthatch and a golden-crowned kinglet.  Both tiny birds: the nuthatch weighs about 1/3 of an ounce (10g) and the kinglet, a little less than 1/4 ounce (6 grams).  I like to think of bird weights in comparison to the tablespoon markings on a 4 ounce stick of butter: the kinglet weighs the same as half a tablespoon of butter.  But, even at its small size, it is not to be underestimated: this little bundle of energy migrates from its breeding grounds in northern latitudes, from British Columbia to Quebec, to winter as far south as northern Mexico.

The other highlight: four red-tailed hawks.  A juvenile near the entrance to the Arb, flying across the road where we stood to perch in a tree, then flying back over the road again (very cooperative, from a birder's point of view).  A little further along, across from the lilac collection on Bussey Hill, two together: a larger female, at the very top of a tree, easy to see against the (drizzling, grey) sky, and a smaller male, lower down, a bit hidden amongst the branches of a nearby tree.  Then, finally, across from the Leventritt garden, another high up in a tree.

Also several downy woodpeckers, doing their pecking routine.  And then the usual winter suspects: chickadees, white-breasted nuthatch, titmouse, dark-eyed juncos, cardinals, blue jays, house finch, white-throated sparrow.

I was taken with the witch hazel already blossoming near the ponds and a holly bush, more like a tree, covered in berries by the bonsai collection.

Walking home from the Arb, I ran into a neighbor walking her dog, who mentioned that the screech owl is back at the hole in the tree by the rotary at the end of my street.  Last spring, there was a pair of screech owls nesting there: after seeing them nearly every day in May, they left in early June.  And sure enough, when I went to look, there it was: a little grey screech owl, hunkered down out of the rain.  My neighbor, Mary, told me she saw two at the same time: one grey and one rufous. So great! 

January 3  Cold this morning: wind chill 16F (-9C).  Quick morning walk with Maddie. Then out again around 10 by myself, to Ward's Pond.  In the trees right by the parking lot, I first noticed half a dozen juncos, hopping about on the ground. As I paused, I spotted a couple of white-breasted nuthatches working their upside down way along tree trunks, probing for insects as they went.  And then, a small bird with a yellow cap: another golden-crowned kinglet!  Delightful!  Darting around among the branches of a small beech tree, nearly hovering at one point, quite close up so that I got a good look even though I'd left my binoculars at home.  Also a downy woodpecker pecking at what looks to me like a dead branch, flitting to another branch.  Further along my walk, a red-bellied woodpecker up in a tree, more pecking.  

At Jamaica Pond, the hooded mergansers are still there in large numbers. And the grey screech owl at the end of the street.  

January 4 Even colder this morning: wind chill 7F (-14F)!  The cove where the mergansers have been hanging out had a thin sheet of ice on it.  Some dispersed to other parts of the pond while others seem to have taken off elsewhere: there seemed to be fewer than I've seen the last couple of weeks.

At Ward's Pond, one of the long-ago downed trees was oozing sap out of the broken base.  Not just a drip, drip, but gobs of sap. Seemed strange that it was coming out of the tree so long after it fell.

 

Checking for owls, I saw the rufous one in the tree at the end of the street.  Larger than the grey one, probably a female. Fun to have spotted both of them.

Walking Maddie after lunch, we ran into a neighbor on his front steps, who stopped to pat her.  As he was telling me about his Labradoodle, she snufflled the corner of his garden, prompting him to say  "More interested in the past than the present", which made me smile.  A little further on, I saw yellow flowers, I think some sort of heather, blooming. Amazing to see on such a cold day.

January 5 Still dark outside when I walked Maddie this morning.  Saw a wake in the water, parallel to the edge of the pond: a muskrat swimming.  When I pointed it out to two women walking by, they said they'd seen one on the grass a couple of days ago, and when they looked more closely, saw another two.

My drawing from this morning's class.  Needs more work, but I'm pleased with it so far.

 

Weird weather: today, out with Maddie at lunchtime, 50F and raining. Yesterday morning 7F windchill. And tomorrow 6" snow forecast, the first real snow of the season...

January 7 Double the forecast: a foot of light, fluffy snow. 

 

And here's Maddie, looking like a little lamb in her winter booties.
 

January 8  Saw both the rufous and grey screech owls in the tree hole this afternoon, snuggled up next to each other.  

January 9  The hoodies still at Jamaica Pond, today joined by two male common mergansers, shimmering white and black, much larger than the hoodies.   It's now cold enough that the pond is beginning to freeze over in places. Ward's Pond is entirely frozen over, strangely, with huge circular swirls frozen into the ice, as if it froze while circling some giant drain.

Walking along the woods between Ward's Pond and Leverett Pond, I heard a squeaky, trilling call - a red-bellied woodpecker, high up in a decaying tree trunk, at an old nest hole, repeatedly poking its bill into the hole.  Nearby, a downy woodpecker high up in another tree.  Goldfinches darting around, too.

In the afternoon, spotted this grey squirrel in its drey, munching on a nut or something.  Although the neighborhood is overrun with squirrels, I don't often see them in their drey.

January 12 Bitterly cold yesterday and today, the coldest days of the winter so far, with wind chills a few degrees below zero.  After a still night last night, the pond finally froze over.  A few geese standing on the ice, the mergansers gone.  Where to? Cornell's Birds of the World says that they may winter on "freshwater wetlands, brackish estuaries and tidal creeks", so perhaps they head across to the coast where the saltier water is open in colder temperatures.

January 13 Coming back from our early morning walk, we go to check on the owls but first run into a guy with binoculars who is here for the owls, too. While watching the rufous one at the opening, we chat.  In the spring, he saw both adults, with one of the owlets next to them, at the opening. Pretty great!  He'd seen the great horned owls nesting at Forest Hills Cemetery last spring, too.

After breakfast, I go out again.  Leverett Pond, which flows into the Muddy River, still has open water, with Canada Geese congregating at one end and mallards at the other.  Ten hooded mergansers have joined the geese.

The rufous owl has been sunning itself at the opening most of the day, enjoying a much warmer, nearly 50F (10C) day. And in the late afternoon, the gadget I ordered to attach my phone to my spotting telescope arrived, just in time to see both owls snuggled up, catching some rays.  

Cornell's Birds of the World says that Eastern screech owls can start courting as early as late January, although the female typically doesn't begin laying eggs until mid-April to mid-June.  Last spring our pair left the hole in early June, the female probably laid her eggs at the beginning of April, as the eggs incubate for about 28 days, and the owlets need another 28 days to fledge and leave the nest.

Nearly all the neighbors I talk to about the owls has commented on what a strange location they've picked: their tree is on a grassy strip by 3 lanes of traffic, right on the Arborway, next to a 3 lane rotary by the pond.  But now that I'm looking at the screech owl entry in Birds of the World, it does say that they prefer nests that are harder for predators like raccoons to reach. So it may be that they are exploiting the traffic to deter predators. Wise owls.

January 14 After yesterday's thaw, there's a tiny patch of open water at the pond; about 30 hoodies, 5 common mergansers, 2 males and 3 females, and half a dozen mute swans have gathered there.  Plus a couple of Canada geese walking very carefully and gingerly on the ice, sliding a little as they put each foot down, looking like a couple of elderly women picking their way along a slippery sidewalk. 

January 15 Brutally cold this morning - 5F, wind chill -18F.  Yikes.  Went birding by car - no owls, no mergansers, just a few geese out at an open patch of water on Jamaica Pond by Perkins Street.  By the boathouse, a larger area of open water, mist rising from the cold air hitting the warmer water.  The Chestnut Hill reservoir as smooth as a newly Zambonied ice rink.  

 January 16  Cold again, but no wind, so it's much more bearable.  Geese huddled down at the pond this morning.

My friend Jaime and her husband Howard came up from New Jersey to see their son, Jared, who has been living in Somerville; they all came by for a walk around the pond this afternoon. First stop: the owl tree where we see the grey owl snoozing at the opening.  Then to the pond: bright sunshine gleaming off the ice, clear blue sky, lovely afternoon.  Along the Parkman Drive side of the pond a couple stops us to point out a bald eagle on the ice, eating a gull, in the middle of the pond - pretty amazing!  On the return home, we stop to see the owl again, which appears to have not moved in the hour or so we were walking.

January 17  And today, warmer again: 48F (9C).  After drenching rain accompanied by blasting wind overnight, by lunchtime the sun is out and it feels positively springlike.  Walking around the pond, I see a guy take off his coat and walk off in his t-shirt.  Balmy after the -18F day before yesterday.  And at home, I'm switching out wool long johns and parka for rainpants and raincoat, and then again, for spring jacket.  

After lunch I look out my study window to see this nearly complete arc of rainbow. I'm meeting with a student on zoom, she's just joined the call when I notice it.  I rush to open the window to take the photo, telling her there's a rainbow and I want a picture of it. She humors me and I get this shot.

January 20 Rainy and mild today; I see these green shoots saying "spring".

January 21 Freezing cold, wind chill -5F (-20C). I see these swans saying "winter".

At Ward's pond, saw this tree stump with fungus growing on more fungus.

Saw a male common merganser at Jamaica Pond; the hoodies are all gone.  And the grey screech owl was in its tree-hole; I thought they might have moved on as I hadn't seen either of them for five days.    

January 22  Cold again, wind chill 0F (-18C), gently snowing.  At the bottom of the waterfall by Ward's Pond, there is a tiny little open bit of water that usually has a few mallards dipping their bills into the water. Today, they were joined by a pintail - love the crisp white stripe along their necks.

Then in the open water at one end of Leverett Pond, a single male wood duck and a female bufflehead  among the mallards. And at the other end, a few hooded mergansers.  Pretty good birding in the neighborhood.

January 24 I wake up to a white coating from the teeniest, maybe a millimeter, snowfall.  Just enough to reveal the rabbit traffic in the night.  Tracks all along the sidewalk on the street. And in front of my neighbors, Martin and Katherine's house, apparently a rabbit party - little footprints all over the place.

A milder day is forecast, so I head up to Plum Island to look for snowy owls; there have been reports of them there for the last few weeks.  I stop at all the parking lots along the main road that runs the length of the spit of land that forms the refuge, walk out to the beach on the three boardwalks, look around the salt marsh all along the roadway, but no owls.  And no one else I talk to has seen them either.  A bit disappointing in the owl department, but it's such a glorious place, it's wonderful just to be there, taking it all in.  And I did see several Northern harriers, flying low over the marsh, hunting. At one point, one flew along the roadway, just above the car ahead of me, before darting off and diving into the marsh, presumably after a meal.

I was particularly awed by the dramatic ice formations in the little inlets along the marsh.

 And this circular one that made me wonder how it came to be. 

Just as I was finishing up, near the exit, I stopped at a parking area overlooking part of the river that was still open water and saw dozens of ducks, including four long-tailed ducks (check out the photos on the link for their very long, very pointy tails; the Cornell website describes the tail as "extravagantly long" and also says they can dive down to 200 feet) and a few common goldeneyes.  And then the back of a seal's head just barely slid out of the water, paused a few seconds, and then went under again.  Probably a gray seal - the US Fisheries and Wildlife website says there are two species common to Massachusetts:  gray seals, along the coast year round, and harbor seals, visiting from May to September.

January 25 Yesterday's snow melted by lunchtime. But it snowed again in the night, this time about half an inch. And the rabbits were out partying in front of my neighbors' house again.  You can see Maddie and my shadows; she figured out a long time ago that she needs to wait for me while I'm taking photos.

January 26 Cold again this morning, only did a short walk around Ward's Pond, but still interesting. Someone, probably not the raccoon who left tracks on the boardwalk, made six nearly identical snow cones on the pond. 

Also watched two tufted titmouse chasing each other around, sometimes in repeated tight circles, amid the bushes at the edge of the pond. It looked like some sort of titmouse dispute, one going after the other, their flared out wings backlit by the rising sun.

January 27  Walking Maddie in the afternoon, saw a hawk, I think a Cooper's hawk, fly low across the Dane Street right in front of us, then rise slightly to make it over a fence and cut through the back yards. Seconds later, a bird screeched, either warning the hawk away or caught.  

January 28  Huge blizzard, 50mph winds, predicted for tomorrow.  Two days ago, the weather folks were saying snowfall of 8-12", yesterday 12-18", and, first thing this morning, 18-28". Yikes.  

A bit before 7am, Maddie at the JP post office, greeting her friend, John, who gives her treats.  Her tail a blur of wagging.

Jamaica Pond solidly frozen all over, the hundred or so geese and half dozen swans that have been there for weeks all gone.  On my walk at Ward's Pond and Leverett Pond, I see the male wood duck again. As I stop to look at him through my binoculuars, I see the mallards swimming towards the edge of the pond. And when I put the bionoculars down, I realize that they are parading over towards me, a dozen or so already out of the water headed my way, the leaders just a few feet from me. I guess someone is feeding them.  

On the way back, I hear loud, really loud, loud enough to be a pileated woodpecker, pecking. I look around but can't see who is hammering, though.  Walking into the woods a little, I notice this tree, with even more balls than the one I found before.

As I was walking Maddie around the block tonight, I ran into a family headed out for a walk.  Mom with son in stroller on the sidewalk, waiting for Dad, up on the porch, with their large, chocolate, wire-haired dog on a leash.  Mom told me that the other day, when their son wanted to go out, he walked over to the front door and barked.  Like the dog does.

January 30 Yesterday, big blizzard, winds around 50mph (80km/hr), snow horizontal at times, everyone hunkered down.  The snow was so blown around, drifting in some places, scoured off the ground in others, it's hard to say how much snow, probably around 20".  Today, winter wonderland, piercingly clear blue sky, cold.  Here's the pond this morning.

Lots of the usual winter birds out this morning, I think trying to make up for food they missed out on yesterday during the storm. A downy woodpecker pecking the crevices in the bark of a tree behind my house (what is even in the bark in the winter???).  White-breasted nuthatch working its way down a branch.  A male cardinal landing on the electrical wire running along the back yard, red feathers even redder against the pristine white snow. A robin chasing a female cardinal out of a bush in my neighbor's yard.  The two cardinals flying off together.  And I saw the rufous screech owl sunning itself in the usual spot (even though it was only 10F (-12C)).

Heading up the street to look for the owls this afternoon, a bird zipped past me, just above my head, going in the opposite direction, letting out two quick squeals, then a hawk tore by, just a little higher, after the bird.  Startled, I turned and followed, but didn't see them again.

January 31  An ethereal mist over the pond early this morning, dissipating in the time it took to walk Maddie to the boathouse and back.