Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Natural Habitat | Page 13

Binoculars Ready?
Enjoying Birds in the Months Ahead
by Robert Stymeist ; Bob, charter member of the Friends, Brookline Bird
Club statistician and Bird Observer’s bird sightings compiler, has been docu-
menting the birds of Mount Auburn for decades .
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN HARRISON, 2005
Even in winter, birds
can be found in Mount
Auburn. Not as many as in
the spring, certainly, but the
observant nature lover can
sometimes find a roosting
great horned owl in one
of the many evergreens
or a sunning screech owl
A cedar waxwing with red berries
perched outside its hole in
an oak tree. In recent winters, a few yellow-bellied sapsuck-
ers have been spending the time drilling horizontal rows of
holes in Mount Auburn’s four Nikko Firs as well as in some
walnut trees. These sapsuckers generally winter far to our
south; other “southern” species that have been extending
their range into New England are the red-bellied woodpeck-
er and the spunky Carolina wren. Many robins, some cedar
waxwings and a few Northern flickers hang around and
sometimes can be seen feeding on the fruit of the Amur
Cork trees near Halcyon Lake. Sparrows and juncos (“snow-
birds”) join the resident cardinals, chickadees and goldfinches
at the feeding station at Auburn Lake.
Red-tailed hawks start courting in March; on a nice
winter day you can see some pretty nifty aerial maneuvers
and you may be fortunate (or patient) enough to catch one
of the adults carrying a branch to a nest site. At the end
of March the first blackbirds return, the red-winged call-
ing his “kong-ka-ree” song from a prominent treetop. The lucky observer may even flush a
woodcock from under a shrub.
A red-tailed hawk
In April and May when there
are warm south winds, the
Cemetery becomes a temporary stopping point for waves
of migrating birds. These songbirds are making their annual
journey from Central and South America to their breeding
grounds in the north. Most of these birds travel at night; at
daybreak they seek a place to feed and rest before continu-
ing their journey. Mount Auburn is an oasis of green for
these weary migrants. Birdwatchers come from all over to
see this annual spectacle of warblers, vireos and flycatch-
ers. On most May days more than 200 birders are on the
grounds by 7:30 AM covering nearly every inch of the
Cemetery; hardly a bird escapes discovery. If a rare bird
shows up, for example, Mount Auburn’s first ever white-
winged dove last year, word travels fast. A bird such as the
dove or a summer tanager is verified by the mass of bird-
ers in no time, and word goes out bringing in many more
observers.
In June Mount Auburn becomes very peaceful; almost all
the birders have left, only a few continue to visit and enjoy
the many nesting birds such as the Baltimore and orchard
orioles. Catbirds and chipping sparrows are feeding their
young; and an occasional brown thrasher or great-crested
flycatcher can be found. It’s a time to relax, enjoy the lush
foliage and not have to worry about a rare warbler hiding in
all that green.
President’s Award ’05: Bill Clendaniel presents the annual President’s
Award for “superior performance, …loyalty and creativity” to custodian
Jose Rivera at the staff holiday party, December 9, 2005. A school visit: Librarian Karen Kosko and 6th grade students from the
Haggerty School, Cambridge, film a project on US Senator and 19th
century abolitionist Charles Sumner at the Cemetery, November 2005.
Winter 2006 | 11