Beginning the 2026 Bird Count. 1-10-2026

It crushed me to fail to produce a December 2025 post here. The last one I missed was February, 2012... 13 years ago. But the weather was shitty all through December, or we had other commitments. Starting 2026 wasn't much better but we finally got a day where we wouldn't freeze our asses off and could start our Bird Count.

We'd heard about a Bald Eagle and some Ravens munching on a deer carcass on a frozen local pond and it just so happened to be a part of the pond system that we've been hitting to start our counts for the last few years. So, we headed out to walk around part of "The Emerald Necklace".

Of course, we saw some Canada Geese in the field on the way to the pond but I wanted to wait for a water shot so our official first of the year is a flock of Mute Swans. Yes, I see the geese, too. Sure, Mute Swans are non-native but they're here, so eat me.

#2, a Hooded Merganser. A female was nearby as well.

We'd never seen a Green-winged Teal (#4) in this pond before.

Mallards (#5) with dirty faces. They were digging through the mud and looking pretty damn silly.

#6 White-throated Sparrow, striking a pose and maybe pooping.

We made it to the main pond and could see the carcass over on the other side, but there were no birds pecking at it. We decided to go for it and walk the whole way around but we didn't add many birds going that way. Lots of human activity.

#9, a corpulent Northern Mockingbird was one of the few along that route. The Vic Diaz of Mockingbirds.

Heading back by the Magic Tree (of Jamaica Plain), we were happy to see that someone had thrown some seed out and there were a number of bird species taking advantage of it before the Gray Squirrels moved in to take over.

We didn't hear any but were happy when a Red-bellied Woodpecker (#12) visited the tree.

The Tree is always a good spot to photograph a White-breasted Nuthatch (#15) because they actually slow down enough to grab some seed. Otherwise, it's just hop hop hop hop...

The last shot of the day was a pair of pals, a Bluejay (#16) and a Gray Squirrel (Mammal #1 on the year unless I want to count the half eaten Deer, which I don't) sharing a feast.

I didn't get a good shot, but a male Mallard was under the tree, laying down and scooping up fallen seed. Pretty damn funny.

I can't explain how good it felt to get out and see some nature. We did a little over four miles and, of course, were pretty tired after that. We've been so fat and lazy this Winter, thanks to shitty weather. Time to wake up and get out and work on birds until cold blooded things start to wake up. Hell, I still need Starling, Robin, House Sparrow... nowhere to go but up.