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 didn't see it but the other women did and I didn't see the bat again. 

Wednesday November 5 Watched an online lecture on Aztec feather mosaics "Splendorous Messaging in the New World", by Eulogio Guzman, sponsored by Mass Audubon's Museum of American Bird Art; the video is available here. The mosaics were astonishing. This one was made with feathers from broad-billed hummingbirds and roseate spoonbills.

 

And this piece used iridescent feathers from hummingbirds, so that the mosaic changed color with viewing angle, just as iridescent feathers do.

 Thursday November 6 Saw one of the juvenile bald eagles at the pond this morning, flying low over the water and then up to perch on a tree. It only stayed there a minute or so, then took off again, over the water. I spotted it a few minutes later being harassed by a single, determined crow. The pair of them circled the entire pond before the crow gave up and flew off, leaving the eagle alone.

 The leaves were gorgeous this morning, with the early sun glancing off the treetops.

Last night a full moon, the beaver moon, so called, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, because "This is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges, having laid up sufficient food stores for the long winter ahead. During the fur trade in North America, it was also the season to trap beavers for their thick, winter-ready pelts." A supermoon, too, with the moon the closer to Earth than any other full moon this year. 

Friday November 7 Saw the first hooded mergansers of the fall at the pond this morning, looking dapper as ever. They usually stay until the pond freezes over (and even then, often come back once it thaws again). Love seeing them. 

Saturday November 8 Drove up to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (aka Plum Island) on the north shore this morning to check out the migrating ducks. Got off to a slow start, but a few beautiful birds: a couple of horned grebes and 4 red-throated loons on the ocean side. At the maintenance yard, a few gadwalls and a couple of green-winged teal sitting on a semi-submerged log at the edge of the pond there. But then at the pond by the Hellcat parking lot a bonanza: scores of northern pintails and green-winged teal. Also a single great egret standing at the edge of the pond. 

Heading further south on the gravel road (which, for once, was not totally pot-holed) I stopped to walk along the Stage Island Trail. Along the way, I saw a northern harrier flying low over the marsh, hunting. At the end of the trail, at Ipswich Bluffs near the tip of Plum Island, a raft of hundreds of common eiders. Nearby, several buffleheads and a lone white-winged scoter.

Atlantic ocean beach

Marsh on the inlet side

 If I didn't see a single bird, it would still be a spectacular day out.

November 9-15 A few photos of local fall color.  

Early morning light at Jamaica Pond

 

Wet Japanese maple leaves on the sidewalk on my street, after the rain.

Neighborhood tree glowing in the afternoon sun.

Sunday November 9 Just after I arrived at the Broadmoor sanctuary in Natick this morning, I saw a buck with a big rack of antlers in the field by the visitor center. I see deer often, but rarely a buck with antlers. Very cool.  

 Friday November 14 Met Miles, a 6 month old Bedlington terrier, at the pond this morning with his trainer. You don't see a lot of Bedlington terriers around. I always get excited to see one, mostly because my mother had a large soft spot for them, partly because of their lamb-like looks, and partly because she went to high school in Bedlington, a small mining town 5 miles south of her hometown of Ashington. 

 Saturday November 15 And in more Northumbrian news, at the Winslow Homer exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts this afternoon, I saw this painting, Tynemouth Sands, from the time he spent at Cullercoats on the North Sea, just outside of Newcastle. Wasn't expecting that amongst all his scenes of the Adirondacks and the Maine coast.

Tuesday November 18 Spotted this great blue heron, with its neck scrunched up, standing on the water drain at the pond this morning. Also saw one of the juvenile eagles circling over the Jamaicaway and then flying across the pond.

 Wednesday November 19 Saw a squirrel in this tree, eating its dried up, purplish berries, half the size of a pea. When I looked more closely, there were 7 squirrels hard at work stripping the berries off the tree. And the next day, the only berries left were on the spindly furthest extremities of the branches that were too thin to support a squirrel.

Thursday November 20 Went to Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island this morning to see migrating ducks. The pond itself is behind a barrier beach, separating it from the ocean, which the ducks find attractive for a stopover. Hundreds of ruddy ducks and American wigeons, most of them sleeping, with their bills tucked in under their wings. Lots and lots of scaup and ring-necked ducks. A few flocks of red-breasted mergansers, looking a bit bedraggled. Scattered blue-winged teal and gadwalls. Also a single pied-billed grebe and a redhead. Spectacular to see so many ducks gathered together on the pond. In the distance, with the spotting scope, I could see an offshore windfarm, too.

Several times, groups of ruddy ducks flew from one spot to another on the pond, staying so low over the water that they ran their feet over the surface, leaving a wake and making an odd clacking noise as they went. You can get an idea from this video. At first, I couldn't figure out what was making the noise, then I watched them through the scope, seeing their feet splashing as they glanced across the water.

 Friday November 21 Jeannie's Christmas cactus had its first bloom today.

Saturday Nov 22 There are hooded mergansers at the pond every morning now, sometimes half a dozen, sometimes 20. Love watching the males display, opening and closing their white "hoods".

 The swan family is still at the pond, too. 

Teenagers are exhausting

One morning I saw them fly a couple of laps around the pond before heading away over the treetops. A friend saw them all back at the pond later on that morning, so they must have gone on a jaunt and come back. Maybe getting ready to migrate.

Sunday November 23 I liked the pattern of the frost on these Japanese maple leaves along my street. 

Monday November 24 Went into MIT to pick up some things from the office and saw this black squirrel.  In Niagara Falls, where I grew up, the squirrels were all black. But here, I had not seen a black squirrel until a few years ago and still only see them rarely among all the gray squirrels.

 Tuesday November 25 Stunning sunrise this morning.

Thursday November 27 I liked this article in the local newspaper, about the Arboretum giving the Franklin Park Zoo (also in JP) cuttings from their bushes and trees for the zoo animals to eat. There's a cute video of a giraffe enjoying thorny branches from the Arb.

Friday November 28 At Race Point in Provincetown this afternoon. Hundreds of northern gannets just offshore, diving into the ocean, fishing. They're like white torpedos, tucking their wings in as they plunge down into the water. Cousins of the blue-footed boobies of the Galapagos, who do the same diving behavior. Also a big flock of scoters, mostly black scoters, and some eiders. Blustery wind with gusts up to nearly 40mph, turning the 39F temperature into a wind chill of 18F. Big waves coming onshore. 

 

Saturday November 29 Back at Race Point this morning, the gannets at it again, plunging into the water. At one point, a huge flock of scoters flying past remarkably fast (many types of ducks can fly at 45mph and some can go up to 60mph; with a tailwind they go even faster). Off the Wellfleet Atlantic beaches, a couple of dozen red-throated loons and a handful of long-tailed ducks.

Sunday November 30 At Jamaica Pond this morning, a little group of hoodies.