Here are selected comments from participants:
From Maury Hall, 2/16:
Loons grebes and geese down since January, especially Canada Goose: from 1205 to 157. Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Mallard, and Mute Swan up a bit. Eider and scoter, black duck, and scaup about the same.
From Andrew Joslin, 2/10:
Wollaston Beach side of Hough's Neck was completely iced up.
From Soheil, 2/8
Fay, we had a Snowy Owl sitting on a highish object at the edge of Wood Island marsh [Logan Airpot]. Do you know where that is? It could conceivably be seen by you. We saw ours at about 9:30.
On second thought, looking at where your sighting was, I think not. I doubt you could see the one we were looking at clear from the other side of the airport, especially if you're facing Snake Island.
The one we saw was pretty unspotted. Almost looked blue! I couldn't judge size, but probably a male.
From Fay Vale, 2/8
Our [Snowy Owl] was seen at 10:20. It was from Grandview Ave (at Winthrop stop #8), on a snow bank very close to the edge of the harbor, right on the airport grounds. Also seemed pretty unspotted. Also couldn't judge size.
From Linda Pivacek, 2/7:
While doing the TASL count today in Nahant, we saw 4 Thick-billed Murres. Here's the bad news .... one of them was dead, belly-up at Canoe Beach, East Point. A second murre was close by the dead bird, and apparently weakened. It was swimming ineffectively and drifted toward shore. Within 10 feet from shore it was submerged by a wave, surfaced, flapped its wings and recovered - looking pretty pathetic. Attempts to recover the carcass of the dead murre to gain information about the cause of death were in vain. I'll look again on the beach tomorrow morning.
From previous posts about Thick-billed Murres inland, and predation by gulls at the granite pier in Gloucester, these birds appear to be in big trouble.
American Robins added to list - they were uplifting, especially after the dying Thick-billed Murres.
Comments compiled by
Soheil Zendeh
last updated: 2005.09.24
url: http://www.gis.net/~szendeh/tasl.feb.05.notes.htm