Back to the land of ice and snow... 3-8-2015

With the Everglades 6 days behind us, we readily accepted out friends Teá and Mike's invite to take a walk around Castle Island on Boston Harbor. We hadn't seen them in what seems like forever and needed to get on our feet again, regardless of how cold it might be. It really wasn't too bad, low 40s and sunny. Teá, however, was going to try this on her first day without crutches... just a foot brace to protect her healing, fractured ankle.

I figured we'd be moving slowly but I was proved wrong. We hit the water and saw plenty of Common Eiders right away.

There were some Common Loons there, too.

There were some Red-breasted Mergansers, which I needed for my Life List. It clocked in at #123.

This massive boat made a couple of them scurry closer to our camera lenses.

I saw a duck way out, nuzzling some ice. I wasn't sure what it was, but Teá informed me it was a Common Goldeneye... another need-it. Life List #124!

She also pointed out some more need-its... a group of Brants (Life list #125)

Earlier, we had been watching some House Sparrows. Teá mentioned that one time here, she shot some sparrows only to notice when she uploaded the images that she had gotten a Horned Lark. With that in mind, we kept our eyes wide open and sure enough, some Horned Larks turned up! Life List #126.

Among the Black Ducks, Ring-billed Gulls and Buffleheads, we saw a few other birds that I still needed for my 2015 Contest Count. This Black-backed Gull got me an extra point for eating!

Mike checked it very close for us... yep, still frozen! And it will be for a while.

We made the whole hike and hit up Sullivan's for some lunch. There were plenty of birds there begging, mostly Starlings and Gulls. And a few obese Rock Doves.

That was a couple of hours very well spent! Hanging with friends, seeing new birds and eating greasy food with Starlings! It couldn't get much better than that. Unless of course we could have herped as well.