March 2014

A couple of Olmsted Park patch visits turned up the regulars who were now beginning to get more vocal, most obvious were a couple of House Finches in Willow Pond Meadow.

Sunday 1st, Leverett Pond, MA, USA
Sunday 1st, Willow Pond, MA, USA
Sunday 1st, Ward's Pond, MA, USA

Mid-month was vacation time in Montego Bay, Jamaica! There were scant few birds around the small Iberostar resort so I hired a taxi to take me to the wonderful garden and forest at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary. I totalled 39 species, 22 life ticks, including 10 endemics! I also saw a few more familiar species on the sewage farm outside Montego Bay on the way back from Rocklands.

Endemics (all life-ticks):
Chestnut-Bellied Cuckoo (Coccyzus pluvialis)
Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo (Coccyzus vetula)
Jamaican Mango (Anthracothorax mango)
Red-Billed Streamertail (Trochilus polytmus)
Jamaican Tody (Todus todus)
Jamaican Woodpecker (Melanerpes radiolatus)
Sad Flycatcher (Myiarchus barbirostris)
White-Chinned Thrush (Turdus aurantius)
White-Eyed Thrush (Turdus jamaicensis)
Orangequit (Euneornis campestris)

If I go again I'll try to go to more birdy part of the island and follow some of the tips in these two posts: part 1, part 2.

Monday 10th, Iberostar Rose Hall Beach, Jamaica
Wednesday 12th, Rocklands Bird Sanctuary, Jamaica
Wednesday 12th, Montego Bay Sewage Ponds, Jamaica

After returning from the Caribbean, the still frozen north felt particularly parsimonious, for birds and warmth. However first of year Common Grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds at Brookline Village T-stop and Olmsted Park respectively, offered hope that I wasn't living in Narnia or Arendelle.

Wednesday 19th, Brookline Village T-stop, MA, USA
Sunday 23rd, Leverett Pond, MA, USA
Sunday 23rd, Ward's Pond, MA, USA