eBird Report - Bolton Flats WMA, 5/7/10 - Several Yellow Warblers and an Eastern Wood-Pewee

Did some birding near my neck of the woods again, this time with my good buddy Kirk Marshall, all before he had to head off around noon time to class. He got to my house in Littleton at about 6:30 am. We were going to try and make a morning of it at Assabet River NWR, but the clouds of mosquitoes were utterly horrendous, thusly scaring us off. We were there for no more than 15 minutes.

We then tried to bird SVT's Memorial Forest in Sudbury, which is rather close by to Assabet. We survived a little bit longer, lasting probably about 45 minutes, hiking from the parking lot to Heron Spur Trail and the Desert Loop, but eventually, the mosquitoes that assailed us drove us away. And yes, we did have bug spray, but trust me, these bloodsucking pests had us in their targets big-time! We did manage to come across an Eastern Towhee around Cranberry Brook on Heron Spur Trail, and a Pine Warbler along Desert Loop. Red-breasted Nuthatches were heard everywhere, as well as Common Yellowthroats, but we just could not stand the mosquitoes. We did come upon a very brightly colored Baltimore Oriole on the way out near Hop Brook when walking over the bridge that spans said waterway.

So, we then decided to check out the section of Bolton Flats WMA off of Route 117 in Bolton. It was here that we finally started to have a good morning of birding! 7 Yellow Warblers, an Eastern Wood-Pewee and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher were the highlights. A fellow birder from Concord had also spotted a Magnolia Warbler before Kirk and I had arrived. The eBird report is added below this little narrative.

Our final stop, after having spent 45 minutes at Bolton Flats WMA (9:30 to 10:15 am) was to check out Oxbow NWR (yes, my 3rd day in a row there). Also fairly productive there, coming across a couple of American Redstarts, a couple of Common Yellowthroats, a Veery, an Eastern Kingbird and 3 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.

Overall, a decent day of birding, in spite of the atrocious beginning with mosquitoes assailing us from all directions! Good luck to everyone, happy birding, and bring plenty of bug spray!

Location:     Bolton Flats WMA
Observation date:     5/7/10
Number of species:     17

Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura     1
Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus     1
Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca     1
Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes     6
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura     2
Eastern Wood-Pewee - Contopus virens     1
Warbling Vireo - Vireo gilvus     1
Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor     3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea     1
Gray Catbird - Dumetella carolinensis     1
Yellow Warbler - Dendroica petechia     7
Pine Warbler - Dendroica pinus     2
Common Yellowthroat - Geothlypis trichas     3
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia     3
Red-winged Blackbird - Agelaius phoeniceus     25
Common Grackle - Quiscalus quiscula     6
American Goldfinch - Carduelis tristis     6

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

To get to Bolton Flats WMA from I-495, take Exit 27 for Route 117. Go west on 117. Soon enough, you will come across Route 110. At this traffic light, keep going straight, and I would say about a quarter to half-mile down on your right will be the pull-in and parking lot for this small section of Bolton Flats.