Glossy Ibis at Mystic Lakes & Herring Runs

[phaw...@comcast.net]

This morning at the Mystic Lakes I had a lone Glossy Ibis flyover shortly after sunrise. Well seen, the bird flew in from the east, looped once, and flew south. I have had Glossy Ibis in the area only once or twice before. About 13 years ago I had a flock of 5 fly over Alewife Reservation  in Cambridge, and I might have had one fly over the lakes in the past four years.

     The herring run at the Mystic Lakes dam has been rather unusual so far. I've seen only one decent morning flash mob at sunrise on Friday, April 28, which lasted less than three hours, and had 4 much smaller dusk sorties, which I was not familiar with. A night or two ago a herring counter tallied 2900 in 10 minutes on the fish ladder. Meanwhile, there have been upwards of 180 Double-crested Cormorants, a half dozen Great Blues, one or two Black-crowned Night Herons, and dozens of Herring Gulls and the "landlord' Greater Black-backed Gulls hanging out for the herring (or so I thought).

     The past week the cormorant count has plummeted to only 30–40 most mornings, and gull counts have been down as well. I thought this must be because cormorants were finding herring running lower on the Mystic River (e.g., MacDonald Park), or on other streams nearby. Whatever, the remaining cormorants have been incredibly laid back when these mini-runs occur. I had 8-10 cormorant coming up with a herring on almost every dive, but 30 DCC (Double-crested Cormorants) remained on the docks, apparently trying to determine how the Bruins blew the Stanley Cup.  They evinced no interest in fin-backed food, and it wasn't because they were full from eating earlier.

     Alewives run before the Bluebacks, and need a water temp of about 51 degrees to generate the run. (Blueback run later, with a water temp of about 57 degrees as a prerequisite.) The waters have been cold, and the heavy rain over a week ago increased the flow and probably dropped the temperatures a bit.

     Hopefully, the herring will pick up considerably this week.

Best,

Paul 

       

Paul M. Roberts
Medford, MA 
phaw...@comcast.net