Its not often that one sees snow buntings in a tree!  Although they are a member of the super order Passeriformes (perching birds in English), they dont often perch, a consequence of living much of their lives in the largely treeless and thus perchless tundra.   A large flock (about 175 today) continues to feed […]

I had a heck of a time finding the flock of approximately 1,000 snow buntings in Walpole on January 7th when there was relatively little snow on the ground (http://beyondbirding.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/a-good-day-in-the-valley/), so one would think that with reduced numbers of birds hiding their whiteness in ever more snow, finding them would be an order of magnitude […]

Pat Stoodley snapped this photo of a gray phase screech owl in Marlborough.  The bird was observed from Church Street on January 26th, where it sat on a wire for six hours.  Pat was alerted to bird by an attending mob of blue jays. Screech owls, like all owls, are under-reported due to their secretive and nocturnal nature.  […]

Folks: Just back from Ireland (my dad died), thus the absence of posts.  I will catch up in the next few days with bird news.

I hit the CT River valley today in advance of the snow and to follow up on a report from Ken Klapper of a flock of 1,000 snow buntings in Walpole.  In addition to the snow buntings (careful count revealed 994 but I think the flock split by the time I made this count so […]