2024

Propsect Hill Park, Waltham, Massachusetts

My dad visited us in Massachusetts near the end of the summer and stayed for a few days. During that time, he suggested that we go to Prospect Hill for birding. Given that it's a large, forested hill, it's not really great for birding, except for the pros who want to hunt down stuff like eastern wood-pewees and brown creepers. Despite that, it's an excellent spot for hiking with many good trails and a plethora of different insects and other life.

We saw this fly not long after entering the park. The black on its wings makes it really stand out.

I see deer often while birding but I had never managed to score a good picture of one until this trip.

Dragonfly gaming... So colorful.

There were a lot of bird feathers on the forest floor. Dad found this one! We were trying to follow a great crested flycatcher at the time, so we initially thought that this feather belonged to it because of the yellow color. But as we thought about it a bit more this is most likely a goldfinch feather.

At the top of the hill, there's an observation point, and this mourning dove was sitting there enjoying the view. I must have taken dozens of pictures of this very moment.

A closeup of that mourning dove. They were not shy at all with us, and let us get pretty close before flying off. They must have been used to a lot of human contact here.

There were a few of these brown grasshoppers at the observation point. Normally they'd camoflague quite well, but on the gray gravel, not so much.

The observation point overlooks the Boston skyline. It's a great view, even if on this day the city was more obscured.