Date: 12/27/24 11:11 am From: Jason Forbes <jason...> Subject: Re: [Arlington Birds] Addenda to Mystic Lake Report 12/25/24
Friday morning, the kingfisher was actively hunting right at the edge
of the parkway a little south of the dam. The Fox Sparrow was still
along the driveway in and there was a male Northern Shoveler mixed in
with the Mallards right there too (still molting the flanks).
On a merganser note, last weekend I had about 25 flying west southwest
over Falzone field on Trapelo Rd in Waltham, in the general direction
of Hardy Pond. Extending a line from Hardy Pond to where I was
standing another few miles goes straight to the lower Mystic Lake.
I'll have to watch in the evening once the pond isn't frozen and see
if there's any movement the other way.
Jason
On Thu, Dec 26, 2024 at 12:22 PM 'PAUL ROBERTS' via Arlington Birds
<arlingtonbirds...> wrote:
>
> Several additions to my post for the Mystic Lakes yesterday.
> 1. Yesterday my wife Julie heard but did not see the Belted Kingfisher. This morning Jim Renault heard but did not see the Kingfisher. Both reports are interesting because we have not seen the kingfisher for weeks.
> 2. With the dramatic increase in Common Merganser numbers, it looks as though the first wave of female or immature Common Mergs has arrived. With roughly 250-300 Common Mergs seen in recent days, almost all were adult males. Yesterday there was a large number of females/immatures, which look very similar and are virtually impossible to differentiate at a distance. Very different flock composition yesterday and today.
> 3. This morning we had an enormous flock of Common Mergs flying east to west south of Mt Pleasant cemetery. These birds had not been on the Mystic Lakes this morning, but in the distance we saw a huge flock apparently lifting off from their evening roost and flying west, possibly towards Spy Pond. It's challenging to orient oneself properly, but it did not seem as though the birds came from the Mystic, or possibly (unlikely) from Fresh Pond. Has anyone seen large flocks of Common Mergs on in the evening in Cambridge/Arlington?
> 4. I did get word that several people had seen a Fox Sparrow along the dam parking lot yesterday morning, before my sighting of what appeared to be a Fox Sparrow, but which flew before I could photograph it.
>
> Best,
> Paul
>
> Paul M. Roberts
> Medford, MA
> <phawk254...>
>
--
Jason Forbes
Waltham, MA
<jason...>
www.brewsterslinnet.com
