Southern Berks, Statues and Shrikes, Sunday, 11/8

Visited the Sheffield and New Marlborough areas on the beautiful, warm Sunday two weekends ago. Even though we've been out to Stockbridge and Tyringham a bunch of times this fall, we haven't quite made it down to Sheffield so this seemed like a good idea.We made a beeline directly for Mill Pond in South Egrement right at the junction of Rts. 23 and 41. And while the lack of waterfowl was decidedly disappointing, we were surprise to have several Red-winged Blackbirds singing on territory like it was early March rather than early November.

Since not much was going on we went to Sheffield hoping to at least find geese along the river or in the corn fields along Rt. 7 near the covered bridge. This is usually a good spot in winter to find a few unusual ducks among the flocks of Canada's.

As we crossed the covered bridge and stepped out into the early morning sunshine, it was hard to imagine this place covered in snow.

Not sure whether the weather was just too nice, but this place, too, was pretty devoid of waterfowl.

We did have a Woolly Bear caterpiller crossing the covered bridge and it was hard to think a bad winter was coming when the temps were pushing 60 and the sun was shining.

Since birds seemed strangely missing from this section of the state, I found myself photographing whatever else seemed to be around -- like this pair of military helicopters flying incredibly low over the corn fields. We thought they might be looking for something, but they were just doing maneuvers.

After years of going to this area, we finally stopped and looked at the statue of the newsboy in North Egrement.

In addition to being the oldest monument to newsboys, it was actually a fountain and on the four sides there was a carving of a dog, a lion.....

a hissing cat (what is it about the southern Berks and their hissing cat fountains?) and a satyr!

And while a dog might be tempted to drink from this fountain, I doubt that many lions or satyrs are frequenting the place -- or hissing cats for that matter.

Although we did have a mating pair of Ruby Meadowhawks landing on the warm stones around the fountain and a young Red-tailed Hawk calling for a nearby evergreen.

Since there wasn't much happening with birds in the area, though, we decided to head off to New Marlborough and check out the ponds for waterfowl there.

We had better luck finding some species of ducks......with Hooded Mergs in a number of spots.

And it seemed that this muskrat was totally oblivious to our presence. We watched this little guy for almost 10 minutes, before he even realized we were there and took a dive into some nearly vegetation.

As we headed back up to the Mass Pike in Lee we took a small detour through the magical Tyringham valley to see if there were any unusual sparrows or waterfowl there. As we approached the the junction of Meadow Street and Fernside Road we spotted a black and white bird perched out in the field at the top of a tree.....

We pulled over and spent the next 15 minutes watching an adult Northern Shrike hunting the field and flying from perch to perch. We didn't see it catch any birds; however, it appeared to catch several large grasshoppers.

I remember when I first started birding I would be at Bolton Flats and see a mockingbird fly up and think "oh, is that a shrike?" And even though I made that mistake so many times, I've never seen a shrike and asked "is that a mockingbird?"

A perfect way to end a delightful day in the field!


Enjoy.....Sheila

Bonaparte's Gulls at Quabbin - November 7th

Last Saturday we had a great morning trip to south Quabbin to see if there were any unusual ducks putting in yet. It seems we've missed the larger scoter flocks this year. We actually started in Rutland State Park listening for Saw-whet Owls and were successful in hearing 2 or 3 different birds along the roads before dawn. When we got to the area in front of the Administration Building there were several Common Loons in and out of the mist. There were fish almost jumping out of the water and the loons all seemed to be enjoying a robust breakfast.

We were fortunate to be looking in the right direction when the "local" adult Bald Eagle decided to go fishing himself. Luckily for the loon there were so many fish in the area the eagle didn't didn't even bother with the loon...probably too much work to swim back to shore with a loon for breakfast. Unfortunately for the eagle he made a couple of dives and came up empty-handed before flying off to the north looking for better spots.

Robins were everywhere in south Quabbin and there's lots of food for them, so it will be interesting to see how many hang around this year for the various Christmas counts. (It's hard to believe that our first count is just over a month away!)

Clearly Juncos were on the move, as were White-throated Sparrows, but we only had a handful of Yellow-rumps flying over.

So we were left with the beginnings of the "winter flocks" of chickadees, nuthatches and Brown Creeper. We also had Golden-crowned Kinglets in fairly good numbers.

Even though it was a beautiful morning, we didn't have much in the way of raptors at all from the Enfield Lookout. We kept wondering if the weather was too nice.

A quick stop at the blueberry patch didn't add much either. There was a small flock of Bluebirds in the trees.....

and a very feisty Red Squirrel yelled at us constantly.

Down near the Goodnough Dike we had a pair of calling Pileated Woodpeckers working the trees to the west of the reservoir.

But Mark wanted to go back to the Administration Building and check for unusual gulls. We had 1 or 2 young Bonapartes quite a ways off first thing in the morning and we wanted to see if they stayed around. We checked the Fish Hatchery which produced one sub-adult Bald Eagle flying over. But it seems that the Killdeer that usually linger have moved on.

I've learned over the years to trust Mark's intuition, because when we got back to the Administration Building, one of the young Bonaparte's was flying around catching fish right in front of us.

Since these things move around so fast, I was happy to be able to study some of the shots when we got home and really see the field marks...a nice first winter bird.

As we headed back to Worcester through the Brookfields, we stopped a couple of places to look for geese in the fields and for ducks at Quabog -- nothing much going on; although we had our first Goldeneye of the season at Quabog.

Much to Mark's chagrin, I can't seem to pass that miniature horse farm without stopping to take at least a few shots. While he considers them "mutants", I definitely have a soft spot for these little guys....even bundled up in their winter coats. It sorta makes them look that much more cuddly!

Enjoy.....Sheila

October Sliding into November

Since the weather was supposed to be windy and warm on Saturday, we decided to make our annual Halloween pilgrimage to Swan Point Cemetery in Providence and see what interesting tributes were being left for H. P. Lovecraft. And to bird the Blackstone Corridor along the way. We made the usual stops in Cumberland -- Sneech Pond, Diamond Hill and Arnold Mills Reservoirs -- and found some of the fall ducks had moved in. In addition to a good number of DC Cormorants, we had our first Ruddy Ducks of the season. In fact we had more than 200 Ruddies on Diamond Hill Res and still had a lingering Killdeer and Osprey. In the Woonsocket Reservoir No. 3 (in Lincoln actually) we had two adult Peregrines who disappeared suddenly to be replaced by an adult Bald Eagle. Needless to say there were no ducks in the immediate vicinity. And shorebirds had either cleared out or been feasted upon by the Peregrines.

In the Uxbridge area we had a very large flock of Ring-necked Ducks.....all in all signaling that fall is coming to an end and we should start thinking about our next favorite phrase -- "I hope the water stays open for the Christmas Count"

But our real purpose was the trip to Swan Point to see Lovecraft's grave. It was a bit disappointing, in that we didn't run into one goth kid looking for the grave!

However, we did get to see that they still have special alarm lighting set up just for the occasion and we got to leave our little momento to this author on this oh-so-special-day....

So we headed back to Worcester to get ready for the hordes of trick-or-treaters. And we weren't disappointed. The first kids appeared at 4:45 (one of the earliest starting times) and it was non-stop until we shut the lights off just after 8:30. We had the usual Transformers, princesses, ninjas and witches -- but also a great Titanic, katydid and painter with her own moving wall. Don't ask, but you really had to be here to appreciate the chaos. Our final tally (including parents) was somewhere between 300-400!


On Sunday (with the clocks falling back) we headed off to Westport with Rebecca and Kevin Bourinot at a reasonable hour hoping to find a Cave Swallow that had come northward in yesterday's balmy 73 degree weather. But alas we were denied.

We started early at Gooseberry Neck and didn't have much in the way of landbirds at all. However, there were both Common and Red-throated Loons aplenty.

And lots of scoters and eider. This female Surf Scoter was staying very close to shore and managed to get several good things to eat right off the rack line. Mark and Kevin had an unidentified swallow (even with their scopes) way down the beach from Allen's Neck, but it never came in our direction. After a brief stop at Allen's Pond, where I must admit it was a bit disconcerting to see my first female Buffleheads of the season, we decided to head to Acoaxet.

But what was even worse than Buffleheads was to find our first Harlequin Ducks in Acoaxet! Even though we had a semi-pal and 3 Black-bellied Plover, try as I might, I just coulden't shake the impending doom of another winter. I'm already asking "where we can go for a long weekend in January or February?"

And while the "mermaids' purses" seemed to cheer up Mark, I seem to be experiencing an early bout of autumn melancholy. It didn't help that landbirds weren't much better in Acoaxet, although we managed to find about 6 or so Eastern Meadowlarks right on the border with RI in the Brayton Point Rd. area.

In addition, we had this very colorful Red-tail hunting in the area.

And a small flock of Field Sparrows. There were also the obligatory Yellow-rumps and a few Golden-crowned Kinglets sprinkled in for variety.

Nothing extraordinary (see highlights below), but an enjoyable day nonetheless!

Enjoy......Sheila

Westport/Acoaxet Highlights:

Both Common (37) and Red-throated Loon (14)

19 species of waterfowl including:

American Widgeon (26)

Green-winged Teal (26)

Ring-necked Duck (64)

Greater & Lesser Scaup (159 including scaup spcs.)

Common Eider (1084)

Harlequin Duck (7)

Black Scoter (3)

Surg Scoter (32)

White-winged Scoter (62)

Bufflehead (3)

Hooded Merg (12)

Red-breasted Merg (89)

Ruddy Duck (8)

9 species of shorebird including

Both Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs

Pectoral, Dunlin, Sanderling

Killdeer, Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

But only 2 species of warbler -- Common Yellowthroat & Yellow-rumped

Plus we had a coyote and a Monarch butterfly!

Northern Berkshires in September & October

Okay so the first big, white snowflakes are falling and I feel the need to look back at warblers and fall foliage....of course it was only a few weeks ago! Anyway, this blog is actually the result of two different trips to the northern Berks -- one on Labor Day and one a few weeks later when we were on vacation a few weeks later (10/1 to be exact). In the first trip we spent most of our time in Florida and Monroe right up on the Vermont border....We visited the Bakke Mountain Trust area and had great views to the north. Hopefully, this area will be spared the proposed windfarm that's been in the courts for several years.

This area had a good showing of Kestrals on the day we visited, and I do wonder if they would breed there if someone erected a kestral box. Of course, if this place does go the way of the windfarm developers, we can say goodbye to that possibility.

Between this area and the dirt road in Monroe up to Raycroft Tower, we had a great showing of landbirds. It's sorta hard to tell who's a migrant and who's a permanent resident in this neck of the woods.....like this Blue-headed Vireo.

Black and White Warbler

Immature Common Yellowthroat, along some powerline cut-throughs.

We also had a good number of female Blackburnians.

And both male and female Black-throated Blue Warblers.

And this immature Magnolia warbler.

We even managed to spish in an Ovenbird who acted quite territorial.

The dirt road to and from Bakke Mountain proved to be quite interesting as well. One of the odder sightings are these road signs, since you're clearly in the middle of no-where.

And while I know it's a necessity, it's always disconcerting to see the dead ground cover and plantings along the power lines once the electric company has been in there with their herbicides. It really makes you wonder about the damage it's doing to the environment. I'd love to know the cancer rates in the areas close to this sort of spraying.

Two highlights of the trip were this Red-backed Salamander Mark found after turning over ten's of rocks along the road.....

and most impressively this Spring Salamander along the side of this same wet dirt road.

The opportunity to photograph these two little guys was very exciting. Although I must say that Gyrinophilus porphyriticus is quite hefty. Being a lungless salamander we quickly got this guy back into a nearby fast-moving mountain stream. I'm not sure he would have made it under the rock where we found him.

And we had quite a few woodpeckers as well.

We found Bottle Gentian at the higher elevation as we approached the open area near the Bakke Mountain property....

and we found Nodding Ladies' Tresses in the lower parts of Monroe along the brook leading down to Dunbar Reservoir and the Deerfield River.

In fact I actually found this petite member of the orchid family as I was trying to get a good close photo of this Common Ringlet.

Our 2nd trip to the northern Berkshires a few weeks ago allowed us to enjoy the area in her most colorful fall wardrobe.

Even the goldenrod and asters seemed to be brilliant.

We spent most of this trip doing the areas in Cheshire that we had down for the BBA, only now we were looking for migrants and not just breeding birds. In areas where the corn had been harvested already, we found good numbers of American Pipit. I put this photo in so you could experience the same frustration as I did trying to find the darn birds when they were down on the ground. Believe me, there is a pipit in the photo below!

Once I got home and was able to enlarge the photos I could actually see the bird....at least in most of the photos.

The scenery was just as impressive as the fall birding...

We spent some time at the WMA on Stafford Hill and were able to get great looks at Black-throated Greens feeding on the goldenrod and ragweed.

This towhee actually seemed to be wagging his tail....

And, of course, everywhere we stopped (in the right habitat) we had tons of Palm Warblers.

They really are a smart-looking bird -- even in fall plumage.

The fall colors were amazing....and I probably took more than my fair share of photos -- partly because I promised my niece in California that I would "share" fall foliage with her and partly because I'm just a sucker for the colors!

We actually spent the night in Great Barrington, so now I have to dig out those photos and do a southern Berkshires blog within the next few days.

Enjoy.....Sheila

The Nostalgia of Chasing a Rarity

On Columbus Day after birding the Westport/Acoaxet area, we returned to Worcester to find that a Brown-chested Martin had been found at Cumberland Farms in the Middleboro area. We sort of kicked ourselves for not checking MassBird on my Blackberry, but there wasn't much we could do. We agreed that if it was still being seen on Tuesday we would try for it in the afternoon. However, the weather was not great and we made the decision not to go for it. So after hearing Tuesday night it was seen several times we decided to go for it Wednesday a.m. We don't usually chase birds the way we did 25 years ago, but even though this wasn't a "life" bird, it was a North American bird (and a Massachusetts bird to boot!) I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Massachusetts list birds. After all it was our sighting of the Jackdaw on Martha's Vineyard in the early 80's that was responsible Mark and I deciding to get married....but that's a story for another time.We made the decision Wednesday a.m. to take the morning off work and make a run for the Martin. I decided that I would be able to catch up on work this weekend with the rain forecast for tomorrow (Sunday). We got to Cumbies just before 10 and the bird had flown over just 5 minutes earlier....but was currently nowhere to be seen. The numbers of White-crowned Sparrow were pretty spectacular though, so I contented myself with shots of sparrows darting back and forth across the main dirt road and let the 40 or so other birders keep looking for the Martin.

A juvenile Red-tail allowed quite a close approach and didn't even fly off as I passed him.

As expected, there were numbers of Harriers in the area. After about 10 minutes Mark spotted the Martin coming in high over the trees to our east.

Suddenly there it was -- Progne tapera. This bird didn't spend a ton of time with other swallows; we had trees, a barn and a rough-wing all fly over. But the Martin seemed more solitary; however, it did get bombed by the Rough-winged Swallow once while we were watching it.

So let me apologize for some of the less-than-clear shots -- catching flying swallows in my camera is one of the many things I still need to master. I did want to include a couple of different shots so that you could see different aspects of the bird. For example, the one below gives you a good idea of just how broad that wing can look. While somewhat larger than most of our "regular" swallows, the bird is not nearly as large as our Purple Martins.

Also (as anyone who mentions this in Mark's presence knows) you really can't judge size against a clear sky -- there aren't any reference points, so how do you know it's not just closer or further away? Of course, it was interesting to overhear some of the birders at Cumbies doing just that.

To me the most notable field marks were the coloration, the size (when you saw it with the Trees or the No. Rough-winged) and the breast band somewhat similar to the Bank Swallow. Also the brownish sides when it passed close enough to get a good look. The question I have is could I pick this out in one of the really large flocks of swallows or would I just overlook it in the chaos and "noise" of all the other swallows.

Like I said, this wasn't a life bird -- we had this species at Iguazu Falls in Argentina. And even though the Cumberland Field farms aren't as exotic, this was still an exciting bird to get on our Massachusetts state list.

We were back in Worcester before noon, and I was able to get into work for the full afternoon. I really like it when things work out like that....sorta makes up for all the times when you just miss the bird by 5 minutes and it doesn't show up again! And of course I have a long list of those as well.

Enjoy.....Sheila

Fall in the Tyringham Valley

Friday night Mark & I drove out to the southern Berks so that we could get up and see if dawn migration was happening in Tyringham. Last year about this time we had some great sparrow migration and even though we were a week or so earlier than last year, we were excited about what we might find.Since there had been frost warnings we awoke to find the area filled with morning mist, which only got thicker as the sun came up on the mountains and warmed the frosty valley floor.

We started on Fernside Rd. (which is really in Lee) at the nw end of the WMA that covers most of the Tyringham Valley. We spent the entire morning in this well-defined area -- Meadow St. on the north, Fernside/Jerusalem Rd. on the west/Tyringham Rd./Main Rd. on the east and Jerusalem Rd. on the south. Our detours included time spent on Breakneck Rd. (cutting across the valley) and a trip up George Cannon Rd. to Goose Pond.

Even in the morning mist we were able to see that there were lots of birds moving through, including good numbers of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, along with flocks of Chickadees.

We knew there were other things mixed in the with Chickadees, and were delighted to find good numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets flitting through the treetops....

along with numbers of Blue-headed Vireos. At one point we had 4-6 vireos in the same tree just chasing each other around.

The tree tops were literally alive with birds.

And, of course, one of the most common species was Yellow-rumped Warbler.

We had hundreds (300+ by Mark's count) of these birds in every plumage possible. Some were passing in the tops of the tress; and some were skulking down low.

The one thing I do love about yellow-rumps is that they respond really well to spishing. So you can always get a good photo opportunity. (Unlike the Connecticut or Bay-breasted both of which popped in and out in a nano-second.)

There were also the usual suspects -- like variously-plumaged Common Yellowthroats.

Eastern Phoebes, too, were well-represented. And try as we might, we could NOT make even one of them into anything more exotic! Although 43 phoebes moving across this valley certainly make for a sight.

As the mists started to lift we moved east along Meadow Rd. hoping to find some unusual sparrows in the fields there.

This is a great area for woodcock and snipe in breeding season, but the only shorebird we had for the day was Killdeer.

We had good numbers of Songs and Savis, along with a smattering of Bobolink. We even had 9 or 10 pipits working the fields.

The highlight for me was being able to photograph this Lincoln's Sparrow along the roadside before a car chased him off into the fields.

Being able to study all the fieldmarks was a real treat -- even in the mist, the buffy wash to the upper breast showed up very nicely. This bird always seems perky to me....maybe it's the crisp streaking or something.Runner-up for "most common warbler of the day" was Palm Warbler. It seemed like they were everywhere (conservatively, we had about 60 different birds).

We had good representation of both the Eastern (yellow) and Western (gray/brown) forms of this bird.

We found them along the road in the goldenrod and picking around large tarp-covered piles of brush and mulch. Much like the yellow-rumps, they seemed to be everywhere.

The fall asters perked up after the frosty morning and we even had several Cabbage Whites and Clouded Sulphurs once the temps started to climb.

Robins and Flickers were also moving in big numbers yesterday. I can only imagine they were trying to get someplace where they wouldn't have to put with today's damp, soggy, cold weather!

And this year's batch of White-throated Sparrows were all trying out their vocal chords it seemed. We had such weird variations on that "old Sam Peabody" call.

While we did have some minor hawk movement (although not a Broadwing to be seen) the only photo I managed to get was of this sharpie quite a ways out at the edge of a pond on Heartbreak Rd.

By 10 o'clock or so we were at Tyringham Cobble and spent about 20 minutes scanning for migrating raptors. Unfortunately we only had Turkey Vultures going up at this spot. Later on we did have an Osprey and more Sharpies and Red-tails.

We did have another crop of Palm Warblers from the Trustee's parking lot on Jerusalem Rd., along with two pugnacious Eastern Phoebes who were constantly bombing the Palm Warbler as he foraged on the ground for insects.

We weren't sure at first if they were bombing the Palm; however as the bird moved across the parking lot and perched on some fence railings, the phoebes continued to follow him.

And while Mark wanted to believe that this bird was actually levitating, I was just lucky enough to catch him "mid-jump" after the phoebe spooked him.

At one of the access points to the Appalachian Trail, we came across another crowd of Palms, E. Phoebes and Chipping Sparrows. Everyone was busy catching the insects as the sun really went to work warming up the fields.

After saying goodbye to this special place, we took a little detour up through the forests on a dirt road (George Cannon Rd.) to Goose Pond.

The woods were very quiet -- seems like most of the birds had been down in the valley. We did come across some very cool looking bracket fungus. I've tried to identify this, but it's impossible (at least for me.)

Right before getting up to Goose Pond there's a little marsh/pond on the left of the dirt road. This is where we had our first thrushes of the day (other than Robin and Bluebird). We had a small number of Hermit Thrush and this one Swainson's Thrush working through low in the brush surrounding the water. There may have been more, but it was heavy brush and this was the only bird I could photograph.

We came down Forest St. to Rt. 20 from Goose Pond and thought we'd stop and get a quick bite at Subway in Lee before jumping on the Pike and heading home. Little did we know that this was Founder's Day Weekend in Lee and we couldn't get to anything due a parade coming right down Rt. 20 from downtown Lee. We cut through a gas station, made a quick stop at McDonald's (yuk!) and turned around and high-tailed it back to the Pike entrance and got out of their quick!!!

That was a close call. I would hate to think about throngs of people wiping out the idyllic morning we had just experience in the always-magical Tryingham Valley. We had spent about 6 hours in this special place and had a great list of 61 species (including 12 species of warbler) to show for our morning's "work".

Enjoy......Sheila

Birds and Art -- A Trip to the DeCordova Scuplture Park

We had a totally delightful field trip this morning in one of my favorite places....the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. This is one of the friendliest, most enjoyable art places I know. Even though we were meeting at 7 a.m. (which for Mark means get there 30-40 minutes early) the staff had made arrangements to have the gate open and even opened the building where the gift store is so that the bathrooms would be open for everyone! And we were lucky enough to have a very knowledgeable and engaged docent, Noni Armony. As most of you know Mark is as knowledgeable about contemporary art as he is about birds....yet he and Noni partnered perfectly together. The result is that we all enjoyed the 2 hrs. we spent walking around the sculpture park.

The morning was a perfect blend of nature and art and it all worked together wonderfully. The birds were often heard rather than seen, but we ended up with a list of 29 species for the two hours. I've been to DeCordova lots of time, but wandering around looking for birds among the artwork (like these two pieces by Boaz Vaadia) almost seemed magical. It was at this spot that we heard Common Loon calling....never quite sure if it was circling high overhead or actually taking off from the pond at the edge of the park. The photo below of Vaadia's Ba'al almost looks like a B&W photo....and I just love the shadow cast on the birch trunk from the sitting figure.

There were still singing Pine Warblers in the trees right off the parking lot and as I wandered through the grove trying to get a photo of a Pine Warbler, I couldn't resist taking this shot of Nam June Paik's Requiem to the 20th Century.

We were seeing and hearing lots of robins, goldfinches and house finches, but we definitely we not in the midst of a heavy-duty fall migration. While a little disappointing, it allowed time for folks to enjoy Noni talking about Chakaia Booker's No More Milk and Cookies. You really need to go the the DeCordova website and check out the background on the various pieces of art at http://decordova.org/decordova/sculp_park/artists.html (if the link doesn't work, just cut and paste it into your browser.)

One of the pieces I've always loved is Listening Stone by Joseph Wheelwright. He actually carved this head from a giant boulder from an excavation on the actual grounds of the DeCordova. I remember about 5 or so years back, they had a full exhibit of his work and it was fun to just walk around all the different heads.

While I was off looking at the giant head, Mark and Noni had the group looking at Jim Dine's Two Big Black Hearts which is amazing once you really get up close to it.

As we left the "South Field" area of the park and moved to the "West Lawn" I was totally surprised to find a Great Spangled Fritillary soaking up sunshine on some nearly rocks.

The temps were still in the low 50's at this point and when she landed you could tell she had seen better days. Not only was she very worn, but you could see where she had lost pieces of her right hind wing -- probably to some enterprising flycatcher (we had phoebes still calling nearby).It the woods just behind Kitty Wales' Pine Sharks we flushed a Red-tailed Hawk who was harassing a nearby squirrel.

These sharks swimming up in the pine grove always seem special. In fact before Mark & I had our surprise wedding-vow-renewal ceremony last year, we had talked about doing a renewal ceremony right in this pine grove under Kitty's sharks. Mark has always wanted to have one of her sharks hanging in our living room, but somehow it just doesn't seem practical!!!

Wandering back to the parking lot we had lots of Chipping Sparrows, both working the birches around the parking lot and sunning themselves along the stone wall lining the lot.

We spent the last 30 minutes of the trip working the birches and managed to turn up several species of warblers, including Black-throated Green, Palm, Blackburnian and Parula. There must have been a bloom of aphids in the birches, because the birds kept coming and going from the small groves lining the steps and paths.

We ended the trip about 9:30 after a totally delightful morning. The folks on the trip were a great mixture -- some hard-core birds, some hard-core art fanatics and a handful of other folks just starting out with birds. It was a great blend and I think everyone had a good time...I know I did!

Driving out past Douglas Kornfeld's OZYMANDIAS I realized just how much I need to come back with my granddaughter, Molly. While we've taken Samantha her a few times, it's Molly who has totally fallen in love with art. So I just want her to experience contemporary art in this wonderful sculpture park rather than in a small "contemporary gallery" stuck inside a bigger, traditional art museum.

I mentioned earlier that you should go the website to see the background on the artwork. FORGET THAT.....drive out to Lincoln and go to the DeCordova to experience the artwork yourself. You won't be sorry.

Regards....Sheila