Birding my Hometown

I did not take this photo today, but this species, 
Hooded Merganser was one of the ducks 
I saw this afternoon

 I live in North Attleboro, MA. This is a very convenient place to live in southern New England if I want to get somewhere fast. I live with a five minute drive of I-295, I-95, and I-495. This means if a good bird is in Rhode Island, I can be inside its borders in ten minutes. The Cape Coda Canal is fifty minutes from my house and the New Hampshire state line is an hour. 

   However, within the borders of my town there is not a lot of places to go outside. There are two trout lakes in town, Falls Pond and Whitings. I live a five minute walk from Falls Pond. Both ponds are heavily stocked. Besides the trout, the bass fishing is at best, okay. 

  We do not have any large land trust properties, state parks, town forest, or any wildlife refuges. We do not have any saltwater or major rivers. We do have some farms near the Cumberland border but most of it is private. There is one farm that does have trail access. Long story short, I am glad to be near the Eisenhower Highway System. 

   I have been fooling around with the idea of doing a North Attleboro Big Year. This would mean counting all of the birds I see in town for a year. Since it is March, I would do a March 16- Ides of March year, not a traditional Jan-Dec. I've kind of thought about this for a while now. As I've said, there really isn't a lot of open public land in town, so much of any Big Year would be roadside birding. 

  Today, I decided to do it. Don't get me wrong, I'll be spending my days off where I usually do, the ocean and the mountains. However, this will give me something to do after work. Even if I go trout fishing after supper, I'd still have plenty of time to spend an hour looking in bushes for sparrows somewhere. I do not have high hopes. Without any ocean or swamps, the habitat is limited. If I get one hundred species, I'll be happy.

   Anyway... this morning while getting on the highway to go to work I saw a Raven harassing a Bald Eagle. I don't know why the eagle was there. There isn't any water at the Route 1@ I-295 ramp, maybe it was just passing through and I looked up at the right time. This was my first North Attleboro Bald Eagle. I've seen a few flying around Manchester Reservoir only a few yards from the NA/Attleboro line, but as far as I can remember, it was my first one in North.

   This afternoon determined not to waste the nice weather, I had hoped to go fishing. When I found out my best friend wasn't around I went for a walk instead. I went to an impoundment for Attleboro drinking water ( I don't know the name, but it is off of Old Post Road).  There is a dam and some hiking trails. Nothing very long but it is nice. I saw some Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers and Mallards. The highlight was a muskrat that came up on the bank very close to me. It cut off a branch of a small pine tree and swam off with it in its mouth. I also saw a mammal swimming way across the pond that I'm positive was a mink. 

  I left the pond at sunset and went up to the farm fields by Ellis Road and Hight St. Never have I looked for Woodcock in my town and decided to see if I could find some. I drove up to Fales Rd and heard some there. I pulled over and one of them was in the air. When it came down it buzzed by me about fifteen feet away. It was a moment of satisfaction.

  I went back to the Chorney Property on Ellis Road and parked my car. I heard several more Woodcock peent and a few more fly. Along the way I saw fifteen deer and heard my first Spring Peepers and Killdeer for the season. All in all, it was a fun couple of hours, and it cost me less than one gallon of gas!