Franklin Park Bird Log
By Franklin Park birder, Stephen Baird, of the Emerald Necklace Bird Club and Friends of Jamaica Pond.
April 20, 2008 
Flocks of Yellow Rumped Warblers (in photo) and Chipping Sparrows have arrived and filled the Emerald Necklace air with their trills and chips.Woodpeckers are drumming for mates.
An American Woodcock aka "Timberdoddle" has set up a singing stage mating area in Franklin Park where it does a 300 foot arial display and dive complete with wing trill sound effects. See this web site http://timberdoodle.org/ for details of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife partnership with the Wildlife Management Institute to protect these woodland worm eating birds.
Cedar Waxwings have feed on the seeds of the Scholar Trees on Yew Avenue at Forest Hills Cemetery for the past two weeks. If you have never seen the Cedar Waxwings berry and flower petal ritual then you are in for a charming natural wonder.... described best by this story from the Arthur Cleveland Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds:
"As we came up to some sumac and other shrubs, we saw a slight movement, as of birds, near the ground. Looking closer, we were delighted to see two Cedar Waxwings perched together on a branch in a little space clear of foliage. We saw after a moment, that they seemed to be engaged in a dance or game, and we watched, half doubting our eyes. One bird had a tiny flower or very new leaf in its bill. The other, standing perhaps 6 inches away, all at once hopped close, took the leaf, and with one hop came back to its position. There it stood, straight, its posture being perhaps a cue to the other bird, who now approached and, to our wonder, received the leaf, gave one hop back and stood erect. There was a rhythm and precision about the little exercise which made it appear a conscious performance on the part of the birds and one which they seemed to enjoy greatly. We thought we had never seen anything with such a pretty grace and delicacy of movement and color. They repeated it several times and when they flew off at last, we were left with a feeling of having been audience to a scene in a fairy play." -- Harriet McCoy (1927)Detailed Emerald Necklace Bird Club web page information: http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/CedarWaxwing.html
April 13, 2008
Palm warblerApril 7, 2008
In the cold mist and blustery northeast winds yesterday a flock of crows were sounding an alarm in the white pine grove next to the Franklin Park golf course third hole tee. I went to investigate expecting to find a Red tailed Hawk or Great Horned Owl.To my surprise, it was a moon faced, brown eyed, streaked breasted Barred Owl. Do not expect it will stay around Crow and Great Horned Owl territories for very long...April 5, 2008
A white morph snow goose was on the Franklin Park Golf Course below School Master Hill today! Golden Crowned Kinglet, Eastern Phoebe, Great Blue Heron in full mating plumage, Brown Creeper, plus the usual suspects were also in the neighborhood. A second Great Horned Owl was roosting in the Wilderness. The male was roosting in his usual white pine on Scarboro Hill.
April 2, 2008
Sometimes you do not have to travel to remote areas to see the wonders of wildlife. I returned this evening to find over 70 Cedar Waxwings berry picking and enjoying the sunset in my back yard trees near Franklin Park. One pair were ritually passing a berry back and forth between each other...
The Cooper's Hawks are tending and defending their nest in Franklin Park. Incubation lasts 32-36 days and I expect the new arrivals any day now. Two male Eastern Bluebirds also arrived to show off their colors in the golf course, on their way further north. The inconspicuous Brown Creeper spent the entire winter here in the Emerald Necklace. Also this pair of Red Tailed Hawks are making sure there will be another generation to catch rodents, squirrels and rabbits.
The Cooper's Hawks are tending and defending their nest in Franklin Park. Incubation lasts 32-36 days and I expect the new arrivals any day now. Two male Eastern Bluebirds also arrived to show off their colors in the golf course, on their way further north. The inconspicuous Brown Creeper spent the entire winter here in the Emerald Necklace. Also this pair of Red Tailed Hawks are making sure there will be another generation to catch rodents, squirrels and rabbits.
March 10, 2008
A pair of young Northern Goshawks are nesting in the Emerald Necklace. I have seen them hunting the last few weeks and watched the female leave a nest with male guarding. Nesting is a month earlier then usual. Suspect this is first nesting of Northern Goshawks in Emerald Necklace for over 25 years and likely much longer. Northern Goshawks are nesting in Massachusetts more often-- since much of the old farm land has become reforested.March 5, 2008
The warm southern winds on March 4th blew in the Red-Winged Blackbirds which claimed the Emerald Necklace's trees and reeds with their songs and flashing red wing colors. An Eastern Screech Owl (Gray Morph) pops out of a hole in a tree to take a brief sun bath many mornings around 10:30 am at the corner of Lake View and Consecration Roads in Forest Hills Cemetery.
February 2, 2008
The immature Bald Eagle came back to Jamaica Pond on January 6th and roosted for the evening in the trees on Hellenic Hill. Jamaica Pond's Albino Gray Squirrel is still gathering crowds. View a photo essay on this amazing creature: http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/jamaicapond4.html
The woods of the Emerald Necklace have been filled with the drumming of Brown Creepers, Red Breasted Nuthatches, White Breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red Bellied Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers. Common Redpoll finches have migrated down here from the northern arctic tundra.
The Great Horned Owl has been hooting around Scarboro Pond in Franklin Park most eves from 4:30-5:15 PM. See this web page for a photo essay on the "Flying Tiger" http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/
jamaicapondowls.html
An American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk) had this daring "dog fight" with two much larger crows on Playstead Field in Franklin Park. A Peregrine Falcon hunted from the top of apartment buildings on Commonwealth Avenue Mall. A Red Tailed Hawk swooped right over my head and caught a Rock Dove on the fly and had it for lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts. See this web page for a photo essay on Red Tailed Hawks including a link to a WBZ video story of a rescue of an immature Red Tailed Hawk that caught its claw between planks of a park bench on Boston Common. http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/
jamaicapond3.html
The woods of the Emerald Necklace have been filled with the drumming of Brown Creepers, Red Breasted Nuthatches, White Breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red Bellied Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers. Common Redpoll finches have migrated down here from the northern arctic tundra.
The Great Horned Owl has been hooting around Scarboro Pond in Franklin Park most eves from 4:30-5:15 PM. See this web page for a photo essay on the "Flying Tiger" http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/
jamaicapondowls.html
An American Kestrel (Sparrow Hawk) had this daring "dog fight" with two much larger crows on Playstead Field in Franklin Park. A Peregrine Falcon hunted from the top of apartment buildings on Commonwealth Avenue Mall. A Red Tailed Hawk swooped right over my head and caught a Rock Dove on the fly and had it for lunch at the Museum of Fine Arts. See this web page for a photo essay on Red Tailed Hawks including a link to a WBZ video story of a rescue of an immature Red Tailed Hawk that caught its claw between planks of a park bench on Boston Common. http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/
jamaicapond3.html
January 2008 Bird Sightings
Franklin Park - House Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, Dark Eyed Junco, American Robin, Blue Jay, Crow, European Starling, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpccker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Brown Creeper, White Breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Black Capped Chickadee, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Mallard Duck, Canada Goose, Hooded Merganser, American Kestrel, Red Tailed Hawk (3), Great Horned Owl, Gull fly overs, (Cotton Tailed Rabbits)