Winter

January - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. A pair of Buffleheads swam together over a patch of the pond by the White-cedar bog, alternately diving for food. Meanwhile, a Muskrat waded through shallow water and reeds by the swampy border of the path.

January - Boston Nature Center, Mattapan. A group of Wild turkeys walked around the Nature Center grounds on a very cold and sunny Sunday morning. There was one male and maybe 6 or 7 females. They were feeding on bird seed on the ground beneath the bird feeders. Here is an image of a Wild turkey. A Cooper's hawk also flew over the grounds, starting from a perch on a leafless tree in the bordering woods. A few Red-winged blackbirds flew about the marsh. A couple of American robins and Northern cardinals hopped about the muddy banks of stream.

January - Wollaston Beach, Quincy. Eight Common dolphins were found beached. Two survived and were helped back into the ocean by concerned neighbors. See an image of a Common dolphin.

Spring & Summer

April 19 - Residential backyard, Norwood. (Carly Rocklen) Earlier this evening, before the sun set, I started to hear odd noises at the back of the house. I thought to myself that it's probably the neighbors' kids, playing in the driveway with a toy they're blowing air into. But the sound became incessant enough that I begin to doubt this theory. So I crept over to the back window and looked out. And I saw two birds at the bird feeder, pulling sunflower seeds through the metal holes, making beeping noises and interacting with one another on the bird feeder itself, then flying to the nearest tree trunk with their treasures. What do you think these birds were, now standing upside-down, clasping onto the tree trunk with long, dark feet, sharing the meat of sunflower seeds after one would crack open the seed husk and "beak" it to the other bird? Bizarre noises they're making, as compared to what they sound like the rest of the year. They're White-breasted nuthatches. I watched one repeatedly fly back and forth between the bird feeder and an adjacent tree trunk. He'd pry a sunflower seed from the metal grid, fly off with it, jam it into a crevice in the bark of the tree trunk, then hammer at it with his bill until he could pull out the seed/meat. Then he'd give the seed to the other nuthatch, who'd trade off between swallowing it right then and there and flying to another tree with the seed. Every time the "seed-hunting" bird would return to the tree with a prize in its beak from the bird feeder, its partner would fly to him, wait for the seed to be extracted, then munch, munch, munch. I figured this must be courtship behavior.

April 24 - Burma Road, Fowl Meadow/Blue Hills Reservation, Canton. (Bill Guenther, Carly Rocklen) Slowly walking up the Burma Road (a multi-use path created on top of a sewer line parallel to the Neponset River) on an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day, we were coming up to a small, wooden bridge when we noticed ripples moving slowly over the length of the stream. Moving closer, we saw a dark shadow making its way under the bridge. It was a Snapping turtle moving from riverside marsh to marshland further inland. Slowly, it glided beneath the water's surface. Further up the path, we purposefully walked very quietly and closer to the water's edge. What did we see? The tail of a Water snake, rustling in a clump of sedge.

April 24 - Lower Neponset River, Hyde Park. (Bill Guenther, Carly Rocklen) We were floating along in our canoe, paddling occasionally in the afternoon sun. On our right, we passed by the dead stalks of Purple loosestrife that had grown in clumps in the middle of the channel, the season before. Ahead of us, high in the sky, a hawk was being mobbed by 2 crows. Eventually, the hawk landed in a tree - having given up on flying in the midst of the harassing crows. The crows continued to dive at the perched hawk. Suddenly on our left there was a burst of movement closer to the river. Four to six large birds took off, out of the shrubbery at the river's edge. They were Black-crowned night-herons!

April 26 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) I walked around a lake, early this evening. Remarkable amount of birdsong everywhere, and bird sightings! Soothing sunlight and views of the water from the forest edge, too. Here's what I noticed:

     Several Yellow palm warblers. Flitting about leafless alders, birch, Poison sumac, and Swamp azaleas along an earthen dam. Catching flying insects.

     Several Myrtle yellow-rumped warblers. They were bopping around the same stand of leafless deciduous trees as the Yellow palm warblers. Catching flying insects.

     Red squirrel. The squirrel came up from the opposite side of a White pine trunk, stopped in its tracks and stared at me. Proceeded to repeatedly stamp on the bark of the tree trunk with its hind legs. Stomp. Stop. Stomp. Stop. Then it started high-pitched chattering. (Evidently I'm a horrific predator, or at least a big risk of being one. Giant me.) I raised my binoculars to get a better look at it and - it ran down the far side of the tree, to the ground. Bounded over the ground and leapt behind a log.

     Gray squirrel. Several were poking around in the leaf litter on the forest floor. Occasionally running across the path.... 

     Tufted titmice. Calling out loudly from scattered stands of trees around the lake. Sometimes their calls were so loud that they overpowered the softer sounds of the warblers. (I wished they were quieter today so that I could identify the warblers.)

     American robins. Many robins were hanging-out on the golf course by the lake, as well as in the woods. Calling out in that soothing way, signaling the end of the day; signaling dusk from my childhood.

     Blue jays. Mostly solo presences in the woods today. Hopping from one tree to another. Checking things out. (Did you know they live to be in their 20s?)

     Canada geese. So raucous on the lake, this evening. They were mostly traveling in 2's. Calling out loudly when coming in for a landing - on the lake or on the golf course - and when taking off. Calling out when other geese were flying overhead, or when geese paddled over to join their group. One goose poked its head out over the bog vegetation (nesting area?) to stare at me and call out loudly and repeatedly as I passed by on the walking path.

     Muskrat. The muskrat I saw today was sitting in the water by the shoreline. In the sunshine. In fact, the sun was glinting off the water and its fur (pretty). Doing something, I don't know what. It was looking downward, sort of hunched over and focused on an activity. When it noticed that I'd walked up behind it on the path (though at least 10 feet away), it immediately dove under the water.

     Black-capped chickadees. Bopping about from branch to branch - especially in the wooded swamp section of the lake walk. They mostly appeared solo, or pretty far apart from other individuals.

     Some kind of a wren. If I hadn't stopped walking so fast and making loud crunching sounds with my feet on the pebbles in the path while searching out the branches high above, I would've never noticed this bird. It was flying and perching, flying and perching, near the forest floor. I couldn't see its markings very well from my vantage point.

     I'm pretty sure I heard multiple Pine warblers singing at various times from perches in and adjacent to White pines on various sides of the lake. I love their vocalizations - soft, melodious. No matter how long I spent trying to catch sight of these birds, though, they were always too far away to get a good glimpse.

     Red-winged blackbirds. So loud, feisty, and fight-ready right now. They've taken over the marsh area of the lake - and the adjacent wooded wetland. They fly repeatedly between the two, calling out. Battling over territory, I'd bet. The males chase each other from one stand of Phragmites (reed) to another. These birds hang-out in the same vicinity as the grackles. 

     Common grackles: Calling out. Flying between the marsh and the wooded wetland. Today I even caught a pair walking in almost military fashion together, side-by-side, along the forest floor - systematically turning up the leaf litter with their beaks. I wonder which bugs they actually eat?

     Some sort of a thrush - like a Hermit thrush, Wood thrush, Veery or Ovenbird. I didn't catch a good enough glimpse of the bird to see what kind it was. Very red-brown exterior. Lighter, buff-colored chest. Flying in quick bursts between opposite sides of the path, where it'd charge into the brush and flip over leaves on the ground, looking for food. I followed it many yards up the path, by the tussling sounds it was making with the leaves.

     Some type of cormorant. Sitting quietly on a small rock that was half-exposed in the middle of the lake. Catching the sun? Warming up? Drying its feathers? I couldn't tell what kind of cormorant it was (couldn't see the colors on its face or neck).

May 4 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) On a walk around the Pond, late this afternoon, I saw the new flowers of Sessile bellwort, Marsh marigolds, and Wood anemones.

May 10 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) Following a dirt path in the woods, this afternoon - just beyond the sight-line of the lake - I walked through consecutive clouds of midges. There must have been a huge hatching event. (Midges are born in water, where they start life as aquatic worm-like creatures. Being that the walking path is near a lake and multiple streams, well, they probably grew up in one or the other. Maybe they even hatched today.) So, imagine a dense cloud of newly hatched midges - maybe the swarm was 4 feet tall by 2 feet wide. A column, really, hanging in the air in the middle of the path. You could hear them as you'd approach down the trail - an electric buzz. Then suddenly you'd be enveloped in their swarming mass. All their little wings - vibrating. Flapping so fast you can't see the movement. These buzzy blurs would be in your face, on your arms, in your hair, in your eyes. You'd walk through the high-pitched humming mass and some would follow you out - like a tentacle of the cloud. And then they'd vanish behind you. As you'd walk further along the path, you'd hit another cloud of vibrating insects - and once again you'd be enveloped. Bouncing midges all over your skin, in your eyes, in your clothes, up your nose, in your ears. Then, gone again - save for the tentacle of left-over insects. Another 4 feet of walking, and they'd disappear, too. No more midges. I thought to myself, if I was a bird who ate those midges, I'd be all set!

May 10 - Norwood and also Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) Spring is here, for sure. Wildflowers are blooming in the woods - Wood anemones, Marsh marigolds, violets, even cherry trees. Trees are sprouting new leaves. The young leaves of White oaks are eye-catching - clusters of red, velvety, miniature leaves. Fishermen are encountering lively Chain pickerel and Large mouth bass in ponds. Birds are singing loudly. In suburban Norwood, a variety of delicate wood warblers have been visiting the topmost branches of backyard trees. Baltimore orioles have just returned via their seasonal migration, this past week. Red-winged blackbirds and Common grackles are singing in the marshlands. Brown-headed cowbirds are walking stiltingly around the Sugar maples bordering "Maple Ave." in the Ponkapoag Golf Course. Flickers have been calling-out and flying in their sweeping way, from tree trunk to tree trunk. Canada geese are calling-out and flying around loud as ever, at Ponkapoag Pond and the Golf Course. Northern cardinals are singing away from perches in backyard shrubbery. American robins are hopping around, singing, perching in trees and bopping through grassy lawns and golf courses. Chipmunks are out for sure now, too. Before it was just the Gray squirrels I was seeing on my walks through the woods, but now I see Chipmunks on every excursion. Red squirrels are out and about, too - churring at trail users. 

May 13 - Just north of Neponset Watershed - Cutler Pond, Needham. (Carly Rocklen) Scroll down to see what Alex and I heard and saw while walking around the lake and then sitting down for a long, relaxed while on a bench beneath the shade of newly leafing oak, maple and cherry trees:

     A little masked bird, hopping between flowering shrubs, picking insects off of the twigs and buds. A male Common yellowthroat.

     A pair of very verbal, twittering birds. They'd follow each other from tree top to tree top along the perimeter of the lake. Perching and twittering. Taking off. Returning a short while later. Eastern kingbirds.

     Bright orange and black birds - very vocal. To me, they sounded like somebody whistling jubilantly. Individually, they'd travel from tree to tree, singing out. Landing. Preening their feathers. Looking into the wind (you'd see their feathers ruffled by it), looking behind them, looking to the side. Then they'd take off. Baltimore orioles.

     We could hear these little yellow birds from all sides when we sat down on the lakeside bench. Sweet sound. Actually, some people think their sound can be transliterated as, "Sweet, sweet, little more sweet." Yellow warblers.

     Hear the Red-winged blackbirds who were flitting between perches in the marsh reeds and the shrubbery bordering the lake.

     Here are more of the birds we glimpsed and heard in trees and in shrubbery, perched in the reeds, or floating on the lake: Common grackles, Canada geese, Blue jays, American robins, and Northern cardinals.

June 2 - Neponset River Estuary. (Bill Guenther) Saturday morning, I launched my canoe from the Hill Top Street canoe launch in Milton. I paddled around and fished through the high tide and caught a few schooly sized striped bass (all of which were returned to the water, alive). The largest fish was approximately 22 inches long. As low tide approached, I headed back to the launch. While pulling my canoe out, I spotted a horseshoe crab stuck in the rocks next to the launch. I carefully removed it, snapped a couple of pictures and sent it on its way back to the estuary. What a great day!

August 1 - Willett Pond, Walpole. (Cris Grady) I wasn't able to get a picture of this, but Wednesday evening, August 1st, Paul and I saw 2 birds perched in a dead tree along with 5 Cormorants. The birds looked like immature night-herons - they were brown and similar in size and appearance to the picture in the Audubon book of New England Birds. This is the first time I've caught sight of them in the 12 years I've lived here. I also saw Osprey earlier this year than ever before. Probably one month earlier than in previous years. Kingfishers are just as noisy and timely as always!

Fall

October 22 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) The red berries of Winterberry shrubs are still a brilliant red, shining between leaves at my side and higher along the side of the path. Small songbirds flit between Sweetpepper bushes, Alder, Swamp azalea and young Red maple trees, some even landing on the leaf-laden, muddy ground beside the marsh, and lowering their beaks to the water. Canada geese float on the pond, just off to the side of the White-cedar bog. Maybe 3 or 4 geese start calling out at a time, and then segment by segment, the 60+ flock of birds takes off - flying low over the trees ringing the pond, toward the golf course. There are so many fewer lilypads now than there were in the summer. The water level being as low as it is, their yellow-green stems are visible to me sitting on a nearby rock, curved and long. The circular lilypad leaves alternate yellow and green across the water. Small fish dart between submerged stems and the aquatic plants that resemble green test tube cleaners. These fish are almost transparent, with a black stripe running horizontally down their side and black dots speckling their upper body. Whose youngsters are these? A Blue jay sweeps over the water toward the woods, with something round in its beak. An Osprey glides into a branch of a tall, waters-edge tree...and swoops out almost immediately. Four ducks (two male/female pairs) float together, in and out of the Canada geese crowd, near to the sandy shore and then away again, into the hollows of the bog and out....

Mid-October - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton. (Carly Rocklen) Here are observations from this month's walks along a wooded path around the edge of Ponkapoag Pond to a seat on a flattish rock by the side of the water: Bright red, round berries are scattered up the stems of Winterberry shrubs in a wooded wetland. The miniature, circular leaves of Duckweed are spread densely like a blanket, over the watery surface of a straight and narrow muskrat (?) path through the marsh reeds. The de-fruited tips of what was a purple-blue cluster of fruits on a Viburnum shrub stand out against the plant's shiny leaves. The lifeless, grey stalks of this past season's Garlic mustard colonies are visible in small stands among berry canes and the slender gray trunks of Spicebush shrubs. Small bursts of color emanate from solitary Goldenrod plants at the edge of the path. Unfamiliar vocalizations rise into the air from unknown ducks taking off from the pond's surface, out of my line of sight. I catch a glimpse of pairs of Mallard ducks, bobbing their heads and then dipping into the water, alternated with foraging for submerged food. Aquatic creatures break the water's surface, producing rings of small waves. There is the subtle splashing of a human swimmer slowly crossing the pond. A large water beetle bounces up to the water's surface, crawls over a lilypad, and dives below. Maple trees - some are a bloom of canary yellow, others are aflame in carrot-orange and salmon-red. In the soft smudge of light from a setting sun, a handful of Warblers and Dark-eyed juncos preen and hop from branch to branch in a stand of Buckthorn shrubs by the edge of the water. 

November 1-14 - Weld Pond, Dedham. (Polly Pierce) At Weld Pond in Dedham, we see lots of interesting wildlife. A flock of 20 or so Wood ducks recently came through. The pond has 3-4 Wood duck boxes and a burgeoning population both traveling through and nesting. Hooded mergansers came through, 4-5 in number. Two herons have been prowling the much diminished edges of the pond. It is probably 3-4 feet down, and lots of new shallows present lovely fishing for them. It is interesting to see where the ancient streams and trees were in this "man-made" pond of about 100 years. Stumps are still visible where woodland had been flooded and which the severe drought has revealed. Two Red-tailed hawks were having quite a conversation above me yesterday, and a young owl (Screech owl, I think) was scared out of its day-time roost last week by a pair of Crows.

November 11 - Jamaica Pond, Jamaica Plain. (Carly Rocklen) During a Sunday afternoon walk around Jamaica Pond, we spotted clusters of dainty gulls with white and black spotted tail feathers standing by the edge of the water. Mixed into the avian crowd were Ruddy ducks, American coots, Mallards, Mute swans and Pigeons. The Ruddy ducks would be on the surface of the water for a quick sec, and then with a splash dive under the water to forage, re-emerging a few feet away. Ruddy ducks are very small; they look to be about 1/3 of the size of the Mallards. "Mini-ducks." Ruddy ducks and American coots are about the same size - what tiny waterfowl. On the far side of the pond, the much larger Canada geese floated in an extensive group while a smaller posse of maybe 7 geese wandered the mowed grass along the pathway, grazing. A fish appeared in the shallow water - almost completely still except for an occasional fin flick. Birds, walkers and fishermen alike made use of the unusually wide strip of exposed pond bottom around the pond's edge. A dead fish lay exposed (a trout?) - with little, curved teeth visible on the edges of its open mouth. A dead gull floated in the water, as we walked past. I advised a young boy to stop throwing rocks at a threesome of floating American coots. I think it's key to prevent people from injuring wildlife and to encourage children toward understanding wild animals as opposed to harassing them. Learn more about Boston's wildlife. 

November - Readville, Hyde Park. (Mary Cassidy)  

It’s A Great Pumpkin - No Patch Required 

Winter

December 25 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  It was in the low 40s today, and we took a walk around Jamaica Pond, watching flocks of mixed waterfowl (Mallard ducks, a female Wood duck, Canada geese, American coots and sea gulls) paddle through slim-pickings of open water between sheets of ice. Two abandoned sleds lay icily entombed on the lake's surface; we wondered at the stories behind them. 

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