Posted on September 29, 2014

On Saturday I led a group of 13 birders on a walk in the Meadow Road area of the Arboretum. The walk started off at 8 AM with temperatures in the low 50’s but by 10AM the thermometer was reading 72 and headed upwards. The fall migration has been very slow in Boston and today was no exception; we had no northern birds passing through. Overall the species diversity was low, but we did have good looks at several resident birds.

Two of the three man-made ponds at the end of Meadow Road are nearly dry, but there was a Great Blue Heron feasting on the concentration of fish in the dwindling pool.

Great Blue Heron Photo: Bob Mayer

Elsewhere we had good looks at several of the resident Red-tailed Hawks in the Arboretum.

Red-tailed Hawk Photo: Bob Mayer

All the rest of the sightings were pretty mundane, but the good weather and an enthusiastic group kept the walk upbeat to the end. Here is our list for the morning:

Arnold Arboretum, Suffolk, US-MA
Sep 27, 2014 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: sunny, 52-71
17 species

Great Blue Heron 1
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Herring Gull 2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1
Mourning Dove 6
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 7
Black-capped Chickadee 2
American Robin 18
Gray Catbird 2
European Starling 6
Cedar Waxwing 1
Chipping Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 1
Common Grackle 20
American Goldfinch 25
House Sparrow 20

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S19958859

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

I will conduct another Arnold Arboretum fall walk this Saturday, October 4th at 8AM, starting from the Peters Hill Gate. Hopefully the later date, and the abundance of fall fruit on the hill, will bring in some migrants! Hope to see you there.

Good Birding!

Posted in Arnold Arboretum, Avian, Bird walks