November 2024

Friday November 1 A few hooded mergansers at the pond this afternoon. As I scanned the water, I spotted a muskrat, lying still at the surface, close to one of the lodges. After a minute or so, it swam toward the lodge and dove. I waited to see if it would come up again, but it didn't, so I'm guessing that it probably went into the underwater entrance.

Saturday, November 2 Twenty four hooded mergansers at the pond this morning, along with four wood ducks. Four ducks flew in and landed in the center of the pond, making it difficult to be sure of the ID. I think from the white crescents at the bases of their bills that they were blue-winged teal. Also a downy woodpecker, poking into the crevices in the bark of a tree. And a tiny golden-crowned kinglet in one of the bushes by the water, intermittently hovering and perching. They're so small, smaller than a chickadee, that they can briefly hover, but can't maneuver like a hummingbird.

Went to another drawing session at Mass Audubon's Museum of American Bird Art - this time a peregrine falcon.

 

Sunday November 3 More and more hooded mergansers are showing up at the pond every day.  This morning, about 40.

Driving home from an errand, I noticed that the hole in the tree at the end of my street where the screech owls once nested looked redder than usual. And there it was: the red screech owl, sunning itself, eyes closed, maybe having a bit of a nap. When I got home, I walked back and got a good look with the binoculars.

Monday November 4 The first frost of the season this morning. Most of yesterday's hoodies were gone - I spotted only 9, who may or may not have been from yesterday's flock.

Susan sent me this Facebook post from David Attenborough Fans: photos of harvest mice snuggled into tulip flowers to sleep. Mega-cute with their little faces poking out!

Went to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge at Plum Island today. Driving on Interstate 95 north of the city, I could smell smoke from the wildfires around Middleton for about 20 minutes. We've had very little rain the last 3 months: just over 3", compared with the usual 11".

When I got to the wildlife refuge and walked along the boardwalk over the dunes to the ocean, I didn't think there were that many birds to see. But as I looked more closely, I spotted about a dozen red-throated loons and dozens of white-winged scoters, all diving more or less continuously, presumably feeding. The loons breed in northern Canada and Alaska, and spend the winter along the Atlantic (and Pacific) coasts. The scoters breed in the far northwest of Canada and into Alaska and, like the loons, winter along both coasts. It's a long migration, requiring feeding stops along the way. The loons can fly at 45 mph (70 km/hr), and even faster with a tailwind, covering several hundred miles a day.

I liked these colorful berries along the roadside.

One of the marsh ponds.

At the Hellcat parking area (not sure where that name comes from), I saw a couple of downy woodpeckers, pecking in the bushes just a few feet away from me, right next to the parking lot. And walking along the path to the large pond, another four. None seemed to mind me walking close by them.

Driving along the road, stopping at several of the marsh ponds, I didn't see too much: some black ducks and a few yellowlegs. But when I got to the bird blind at the end of the paved road, there was a bonanza, perhaps a couple hundred migrating ducks: 

- several Northern shovelers, with their funky shovel-bills, skimming the surface for invertebrates; 

- dozens of elegant Northern pintails, tipped over, head in the water, feeding; 

- maybe a hundred or more little green-winged teal (which I thought was a lot, but Cornell's All About Birds says that wintering flocks can number up to 50,000!)

- a few hooded mergansers, looking sharp as they swam along

- a few gadwalls, with their finely dappled grey and black feathering over their wings and back, and jet black butts

- a single great blue heron, standing at the edge of the pond

Wonderful to see all of them!

Tuesday November 5 The hoodies and ruddy ducks at the pond have all moved on. But I'm sure more will arrive later.

At Ward's Pond, the two adult swans are gone, leaving the juvenile, now mostly white, on its own. I chatted with a guy who was looking at it too: he said he hadn't seen the adults for a week or so and the juvenile has injured feet. I could see that the webbing on its feet was damaged, maybe from a snapping turtle. Don't know if this means it will have a hard time taking off from the pond.

Thursday November 7 My neighbor Mary saw the juvenile swan at Jamaica Pond this morning, so it somehow made its way there. I'm wondering if it just walked up the hill and across Perkins Street. But how did it know where to go? Could it hear the adults calling? Did the adults lead it?

Mary Horst

I'm at a rather luxurious resort in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, at Bretton Woods, to give a couple of talks. I was invited by a friend I see at the pond who thought his biological chemistry department at Harvard Medical School would enjoy my talks.

Walking along by this stream this afternoon, I heard a great commotion of flapping wings: a grouse, I think. 

Late this afternoon, the mountains glowed red from the setting sun.

Friday November 8 Early morning sun hitting the clouds above the mountains.

Saturday November 9 In the duck department at the pond this morning, there were 23 hoodies, 4 ring-necked ducks (I think - they were a bit far away to be sure) and 2 ruddy ducks. I also saw the juvenile swan, but not its parents. Odd, as there has been a pair of adult swans at the pond the last couple of weeks. Later in the day, I checked Ward's Pond, where they'd nested and raised the juvenile, but they weren't there either. Also spotted this hawk on a downed branch just above the water - a bit of an odd spot for a hawk to perch. It stayed for long enough for several people to take its photo; was still there when I walked on.

Tuesday November 12 Dramatic sky at the pond this morning, reflected in the water. By the time I finished walking around the pond, the clouds had disappeared, leaving a crisp, clear fall day.

 

Wednesday November 13 Hoodies at the pond every morning now, usually between 20 and 30. I haven't seen the juvenile swan at the pond again. No evidence that it was killed, so I think it must have figured out how to take off and fly away. I suspect taking off was the tricky part; swans need a pretty long runway, flapping their wings and paddling their feet, to get up enough speed to become airborne.

Jeannie's huge Christmas cactus has just started putting out little pink buds, getting ready for another magnificent bloom.

 

Saturday November 16 Walking around my neighborhood, I spotted this new plaque on the sidewalk outside the former home of Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman student admitted to MIT (in 1870). She became a lecturer in chemistry at MIT, interested in water quality and public health.

Monday November 18 Went to a mounted park ranger meet-the-horse event at the pond this afternoon. Here's Otis: a Clydesdale-Percheron mix, 18 hands (six feet high at the withers), a big boy.

On the walk  home, a Cooper's hawk was standing on the sidewalk right by a neighbor's hedge, where a few dozen house sparrows like to hang out. It hadn't caught one, but I'm guessing that's why it was there. It flew off, landing in another neighbor's tree.

Wednesday November 20 The pond, still this morning, looking like a 17th century Dutch landscape.

Thursday November 21 Heavy rain today, finally breaking the drought we've been having. This evening, going out for dinner with friends in Watertown, next to Cambridge, there were few cars on the road and people on the street. After dinner, on the way back to Susan's, turning onto Craigie Street from Brattle Street, not far from the always busy Harvard Square, a fox ran across the road just in front of us, quickly trotting into the garden of one of the neighborhood's grand homes.

Sunday November 24 On this very windy afternoon, Susan and I walked along the Emerald Necklace from my house up to Route 9. White caps on Jamaica Pond and very few ducks, perhaps discouraged by the waves. We had better luck seeing ducks at the more sheltered Leverett Pond: a few hooded mergansers; several ring-necked ducks; and, best of all, about a dozen wood ducks, some swimming across the pond, others congregating by one of the islands, swimming alongside it, flitting about, flying a few yards then splashing down into the water again. Lots of males, with their gorgeous colors. Also a single great blue heron, standing on a log at a low point in the water, neck hunched down to nothing so that its head appeared to be stuck onto its back. 

Wednesday November 27 Beautiful light over the pond as the sun rises.

Saturday November 30 In Provincetown for the weekend. A sunflower still managing to hang on.