Bird Sightings

I grew up in a big city where not much space was left for birds. As a child I only remember seeing sparrows, pigeons and rarely, magpies. People raised song birds as pets of course.

In Boston, like in any other city I guess, the most common birds are still sparrows and pigeons. Since Boston is by the ocean, there are also plenty of gulls. By the muddy river on my way to work, you see mallard ducks and Canadian geese all the time. I have also seen hawks and once or twice, swans. What graceful, magnificent birds swans are. Recently a friend got me interested in bird sighting. I think I am inherently bad at it since getting up early in the morning is practically impossible for me. Still I started paying attention to bird songs while walking outside. If you follow the sound sometime you can have surprising finds, at least surprising for a city girl like me.

The best was near the Longwood Mall. I saw the Northern Cardinals, both male (right) an female (above). The male cardinal has such a stunning fiery red color, deeper and brighter than the picture shown on the right. They have interesting sweet calls as well.

Then there are the Blue Jays (left). There were a whole flock of them! Besides the rather raucous "Jay! Jay!" calls, they actually make a variety of softer, more interesting sounds. They are very pretty too.

Another bird I like is the chickadee (right). They are so small and very cute! You can also see robins with their reddish brown chest quite often since it is spring now. What I don't quite like are the European Starlings. They are aggressive birds and drove out many indigenous birds after being brought to the U.S.