Boston Birding

I couldn't attend the fabulous banding adventure this weekend, but I tried to do as much birding as I could on the sidewalks of Boston. On the drive up, I was proud to be able to use my knowledge gathered on our Montauk birding expedition to point out some turkey vultures flying over the highway (fingertip wings!) to my mother. She humored me. On the streets of Cambridge I spotted some song sparrows in bushes, recognizable with their russet and gray coloring and streaks on their white chest, as well as house sparrows, with their brown coloring, yellow and gray bills, gray caps, rusty napes, and black around the throat and breast, and white underbellies. I also saw some European starlings, glossy black with the beginnings of white spots across their feathers, on the quads of Northeastern University. Not as productive as a day out with the birders would have been, but not a bad weekend.