November 2025
My upcoming book, Birds Up Close, now has a website ! You can pre-order it on Bookshop.org (US and UK) or Indigo (Canada) Saturday November 1 Saw five ruddy ducks at Jamaica Pond early this morning, the first migrating ducks I've seen this fall. Encouraged by this, I walked over to Leverett Pond later in the afternoon and was rewarded with a single female ring-necked duck . Ebird reports a handful of migrating ducks starting to show up at Plum Island, on the north shore; I'll have to head up there in the next couple of weeks. The highlight of the day was a bat flying over Ward's Pond in the afternoon. A couple of other women were at the edge of the pond watching it zipping around, catching insects. Unusual, but not unheard of, to see a bat in the afternoon. After watching it for a few minutes one of the women called out - Oh, look, a hawk! Which then proceeded to catch the bat! Amazing precision flying, as the bat was darting all over the place. I did...