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Mount Auburn May 18 bird Walk Recap



We recorded 30 different bird species!


About a dozen of us walked by the hundreds of flowering trees and shrubs at America’s first botanical garden/cemetery. The weather was overcast and breezes from the northeast meant no overnight migrants filtered in. Northbound neotropical songbird migrants stay put further south awaiting wind at their backs as they do not like to fly all night into the wind or rain. Nevertheless, we did see or hear 30 species of resident and previously arrived birds on our trek:


  • Mallard 4

  • Wild Turkey 1 (male gobbler)

  • Great Blue Heron 1 (fabulous view of adult seen catching two fish at Willow Pond)

  • Red-tailed Hawk 1

  • Ring-billed Gull 1

  • Mourning Dove 6

  • Chimney Swift 2 (spotted by Chris Bensley)

  • Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

  • Northern Flicker 2 (with nest above the Dell)

  • Willow Flycatcher 1 (at Willow Pond giving a soft “tup” and then perched in open)

  • Great Crested Flycatcher 4 (mostly given its “wheep” call high in trees)

  • Warbling Vireo 4 (wonderful song but not much to look at)

  • Blue Jay 3

  • White-breasted Nuthatch 3

  • House Wren 2 (heard at the Dell)

  • American Robin 15

  • Wood Thrush 1 (gave its flute-like “ee-ooo-lay” high in tree over the Dell)

  • “Southern” (No.) Mockingbird 2

  • European Starling 4

  • Northern Parula 1 (heard by Merlin app)

  • Yellow Warbler 1

  • Yellow-rumped Warbler 1

  • Pine Warbler 1 (heard in tall White Pine)

  • Common Yellowthroat 1 (excellent view in brush over water at the Dell)

  • Chipping Sparrow 4

  • Song Sparrow 4

  • Red-winged Blackbird 6

  • Common Grackle 6

  • Brown-headed Cowbird 10

  • Baltimore Oriole 5 (heard and one adult female seen)


Peter Alden




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