Winter 2008 Sightings

January 6 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  In the late afternoon as the sun slowly faded, a juvenile Bald eagle glided high over Jamaica Pond, the feathers at the end of its wings curling up against the wind. The eagle settled toward the top of a tall sycamore tree, looking out over the pond. A little Ruddy duck paddled in the water in the midst of a crowd of large male and female Mallard ducks and little, round American coots. The coots dipped repeatedly into the water, head first, only to pop up several feet away. Canada geese paddled in the pond as well, alternately walking over the ice and floating. A lone female Wood duck called out from between the Mallards.

February 3 - Houghs Neck, Quincy (Tom Wilson)  This morning I heard a bunch of very upset crows. I looked up expecting to find a hawk or owl. When I looked to the ground, I saw a Red fox traversing the marsh towards the "crusher," a conservation area. Beautiful bushy tail with a white tip, a wonderful sight.

February 8 - Mattapan (Carly Rocklen)  In the mid-morning, on the peak of a steeply pitched roof alongside busy Blue Hill Ave., three large sea gulls stand next to one another, all facing the same direction. A light snow falls around these big, white and grey birds. The orange color of the building and the white of the snow-laden roof complement the vision. I smile, driving past, caught in the traffic wave and looking upward -

March 7 - Lyman Pond, Westwood (Wendy Muellers)  I wanted to report that I spotted two Great blue herons on the trees that make up the rookery on Lyman Pond in Westwood. It was a great sight to see! I have not had a chance to get down to the pond on foot; the water level is so high! I am hoping to get there. Will report how many herons we see. Last year, there was a pair of Great horned owls nesting in one of the heron's nests. It was so cool to hear the mate hooting from the edge of the pond as we approached the edge of the water. Owl calls always send a twinge up my spine! 

March 7 - Stoughton (Patrician Bluestein)  Time and location:  Around 2PM at a small pond visible from Plain St., before Plain St. ends in Rte. 138 (Town Spa Pizza), on the right side if traveling from Bay Rd./Sharon. I drive along this road on my round-trip to work, 5 days a week. The winter typically provides just a view of ice, some Canada geese standing on it at times. When the ice retreats, Mallard ducks and Canada geese swim around in a few pairs. This past week I almost drove off the road when I caught sight of a long, dark shape curled lazily on an ice floe, then I saw the roundish black head perk up and the creature dive from the ice into the water! The next sighting, it was resting on an even smaller ice section, I could see the long sleek tail, the black shiny fur from head to toe. I believe that I saw a river otter!

Early March - Shepherd's Pond, Canton (Pat Gardner)  I saw a bunch of Common mergansers and a pair of swans out on the water.

March 12 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  A group of Canada geese was out on the pond late this afternoon/early this evening, in the dimming sunlight. Some of the birds floated out on the water; others stood together on a half-submerged rock, preening - rounded beige, white and black bodies visible from my vantage point. A Bufflehead (small duck) floated solo, next to the geese, looking miniscule in comparison - and visible only because of the bright white marking on its black and white head. Two swans floated further out in the lake - quiet, their heads and long necks beneath the water, rumps in the air, feeding. On land, scattered groups of American robins walked over the golf course adjacent to the pond, some alighting in grey, bare-limbed trees. Several robins perched in the European linden outside my office window, calling out. A few hopped across the front lawn, between the old house and the highly-trafficked street. Red-winged blackbirds and grackles called out from perches in the wooded swamp. Others flew overhead - black silhouettes solo or flying in pairs. Mourning doves in soft grays fluttered noisily from the branches of one bare Sugar maple to another. The buds of Spicebush were almost perfect spheres. Witch-hazel shrubs sported what would become yellow, stringy flowers in the spring. The dark green leaves of Striped wintergreen and Garlic mustard lay exposed on the forest floor. The dappled light of the woods reflected off the interrupted stems of Burning bush (Euonymus alatus).

March - Rte. 138, Canton (John Linehan)  Unfortunately, some of my wildlife sightings are of the recently deceased type (road-kills). Last week on Rte. 138 in Canton, in an area where there are wetlands on each side of the street, I saw on consecutive days a fisher and then a mink. This is the same area where two young otters were killed in traffic a couple of years ago, of which I have photos. I have seen a lot of other animals killed in this area and it seems to be an important wildlife corridor. This would be an important area to create a safe wildlife crossing if that were possible. 

Spring & Winter

March 22 - Neponset River Greenway, Dorchester (Carly Rocklen)  We hit the riverside trail at around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon, starting at Central Ave. in Milton. We headed towards Dorchester with the goal of reaching Pope John Paul II Park. It was a beautiful afternoon - in the 40s and blue-skied. The sunlight was warm on our faces. 

     Along the way, songbirds - especially American robins - called out from their stations in the grass and from the shadows of wild-grown shrubs. Desiccated vines of Virginia creeper and Poison ivy clung to the concrete walls beside the path, their little suckered feet parading across painted murals. 

     A male and female of what we took to be Black ducks (they look similar to Mallards but are colored in shades of brown and do not have curled tail feathers) paddled along in the salty water by the marsh at the Granite Ave. bridge. They'd paddle into each miniature inlet of water...and then out again, making their way downstream. 

     Sea gulls flapped and glided over the path and the marsh, squawking. People and their pets walked and jogged past. Crows flew overhead in groups. The dark, elongated shapes of Cormorants flew together directly above the water, heading downstream or up.

     While walking in Pope John Paul II Park, we glimpsed a cluster of boldly colored ducks (black and white) floating, preening and diving in the salty water. These Common mergansers (I highly recommend Googling them, especially their in-flight images) were being pushed downstream en masse by the strong current. They would alternately preen, dive beneath the water to feed (and completely disappear for a while), and shake out their wings. 

     Two other waterbirds, though it's unclear whether they were a species of grebe or loon (they were in winter, non-breeding plumage, and I hadn't brought my binoculars), preened themselves while floating downstream. Occasionally each of the birds would pump its wings hard and meanwhile almost stand upright on the water, then return to preening. The whiteness of their underparts against the darker color of the top of their long necks was striking as they preened. 

     Further downstream, a grey-blue and white-striped, crested Kingfisher flew over the water and landed in a bare deciduous tree. From its perch it called out with a loud rattle. 

     Olive-green, bladder-full seaweed waved beneath the salty water, attached to the rocks and to the jetty, visible from the boardwalk.

March 25 - Sharon (Sue Price)  During the afternoon, I observed either an otter or a fisher (I am leaning towards otter) running around my neighbor's yard. It then dashed back into the adjacent Conservation Commission land, which includes Devil Brook.

March 25 - Houghs Neck, Quincy (Tom Wilson)  Today I see that the Osprey have returned to the First Marsh in Houghs Neck. 

March 30 - Jamaica Pond, Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  On the pond late this afternoon, I watched a large cluster of American coots diving for - and snarfing down - submerged plants. As always, they were being harassed by Mallards which compete for food and follow around the coots to steal food out of their beaks or find the coots' foraging grounds. 

     Next to the coots was a smaller cluster of Ring-necked ducks. They were also diving for food. I didn’t see any plants hanging from their beaks, however. Maybe they eat tiny fish or benthic macroinvertebrates? I’ll have to read up on them. 

     There were 2 little Ruddy ducks paddling around in the midst of the Ring-necked ducks, too. I must say I couldn’t believe that these birds were actually smaller than American coots (coots are small enough!). Here was the size hierarchy: the Ruddy ducks were the smallest of all the waterfowl on the lake, with the Ring-necked ducks coming in as next smallest, and the American coots coming in third. 

     Swimming through all the bobbing and diving mini ducks were pairs of "giant" Mallards. The Mallards were a variety of shades of the normal colors; some were very pale and some darker, while others were hybrids - with varied coloration. 

     Canada geese were also on the lake, being competitive about who gets to float where, and eyeballing me as they paddled past. 

     Cormorants hung out on the mini island in the middle of the waterbody along with a few sea gulls. A few American robins sat around in the trees.

     A couple of boys were throwing stones at the waterfowl and I asked them to "please not hurt the birds." One boy looked pained at this plea from a stranger, as though feeling guilty - and I hoped that would propel him to stop, and maybe not throw the stones at all in the future.

April 2 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  I’m up to my old warm-month routine of wandering in the woods, again, around the lake. 

     The first thing that struck me when I hit the trail this afternoon was that the frogs were singing. Walking just a few more yards up the path, a pair of Green-winged teals (subtle-y-colored ducks) landed in the watery marsh, then began to paddle slowly in and out of inlets in the floating bog. 

     From further up the trail, I spotted five Ring-necked ducks sitting together on a partially submerged rock out in the lake (3 black, white and grey males and 2 speckled-brown females). It was particularly enjoyable to see them here after having spotted the same species in a very urban lake just a couple of days before. The white lines of their beaks are very prominent when standing a distance away. 

     Canada geese (of course!) shared the lake. The remarkable bit about them this time, though, was that one was sitting in the midst of the bog plants - the only visible part of it being its long neck and head. The bird was looking out over the browned vegetation. I’m it was sitting at its nesting site and keeping a look-out for threats. 

     A few sea gulls wheeled over the landscape. At one point I mistook a whitecap on the water (the wind was really whipping things up) for a paddling gull. Walking closer to shore, however, I noted that there were whitecaps all over this portion of the lake. 

     Grackles and Red-winged blackbirds called out from reeds in the marsh, and from the tops of trees ringing the lake. I thought they must be staking out their nesting/breeding territories and advertising for mates at this point in the season. 

     A Red squirrel and I surprised each other. As I was crunching my way up the path, it was in the midst of jumping from a fallen log to a shrub. Once it detected me (and vice versa), the squirrel launched itself for the nearest tree. Once on the tree trunk, it positioned itself to keep me in view. I stood still, watching it, and it stared right back, making loud chirruping noises and stamping its forepaws, its body convulsing. I wondered how far its noise carried (would the rest of the Red squirrels and all the other interesting wildlife up the path now hide?). Then the squirrel (significantly smaller than a Gray squirrel) rhythmically stamped its way down the tree. This was followed by a run up the back of the tree trunk. When I finally started to walk away along the path, I observed that the squirrel continued to watched me closely. I smiled at it. Leaving the site, I briefly considered how aggressive Red squirrels can be toward other species and for a moment imagined the animal launching itself at the back of my head, teeth bared. hah
     The occasional Grey squirrel ran through the fallen leaves on the forest floor, jumping from one inanimate object to the next.
     The old, small leaves of Garlic mustard showed in places along the forest floor. I thought to myself that I should probably pull those up right now, before they suck up a bunch of nutrients from the ground, but I didn’t. Spicebush branches with their evenly spaced pairs of small, spherical green leaf buds passed me by, as did the flattened and elongated brown leaf buds of Witch-hazel shrubs. I noticed the start of wildflower greenery on the forest floor, and knew the multi-part leaves of one species would soon turn a crimsony-brown. The green, thin stems of Euonymus bushes (E. alatus?) shown in the understory and I cringed at the sight of them. 

     In the water-laden marsh either cat-tails or Purple flags were starting - flattened light-green leaves poked up out of the water. Earlier along the trail, in a path-side stream, I think I caught sight of the green sprout of a skunk cabbage.

     American robins wandered over the adjacent golf course (away from the wandering Canada geese) and and flew in waves into the bare Sugar maples. I looked for the white bird I’d seen mixed into the flock the other day, but didn’t find it; I figured it must’ve continued moving north. A few Mourning doves flew out from the maples, and a Purple finch (as opposed to a House finch) sang from the top of a bare tree.

     At another Canton site I visited, a bird I don’t think I've ever seen before was hanging out by the bird feeder. The bird looked like a sparrow, but slightly elongated and thinner. Its flight style was also different - more swoopy, along the lines of a nuthatch. The feathers on either side of its head appeared a bit rough/uneven. 

     At another bird feeder, there were Goldfinches - both males and females. The males are a striking yellow and black. 

     And, in a small, man-made pond, we spotted brown-colored frogs (much smaller than bullfrogs, and even smaller than green frogs), and gelatinous egg masses floating in the water - grey with central black dots. 

     In people's lawns, crocuses, daffodils, and snowdrop flowers are blooming. Tulips are also starting to come up.

April 8 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  Just before dusk, walking along the paved path headed toward the lake, I caught sight of a small nuthatch hopping, head-first, in a spiral down the thick trunk of a Sugar maple. 

    A Flicker - one of the louder, larger woodpeckers that sounds a bit like Woody The Woodpecker and is a regular part of the suburban summer soundscape - called out from a perch. I could only see its head from where I stood. The flicker was looking about, scanning the golf course from the shelter of the tree. You'll find these birds scouting around on the ground or swooping between trees. Oftentimes, you'll only hear their loud call.

     A loud, reverbrating chorus of frog song soon greeted me at the intersection of golfcourse, lake, woods and bog. I wondered how the golfers could concentrate in the din - the symphonics of an amphibian mating frenzy. Though boisterously loud, the frogs were invisible, hidden in the dried reeds. 

     Blackbirds rustled in the tops of the bare, tall trees by the lake and in the shorter, marsh-bound shrubs. These grackles and Red-winged blackbirds guarded their territory, biding their time in the cold grayness of early spring until prospective mates flew in.

     Though I anticipated the brightly colored Yellow warblers that would eventually hop around in the shrubs of the bog, none were to be seen yet. 

     Further up the path, in the woods, another flicker pounded its beak into the side of a dead tree, sending out a long-distance call. As I searched for the bird in the puzzle of gray tree trunks, I caught sight of another flicker responding, flying in for a look. However, this flicker paused several times along the way, landing in different woody perches and poking around for insects, and I eventually lost sight of her (?).

     A skunk cabbage has now grown-up in a path-side stream, and the rounded, red-speckled spathe looks nothing like the green, leafy cabbage that will eventually unfold here. At the moment it's a speckled, 3-D, teardrop-shaped plant. I was impressed with how quickly it had grown in the last week - imagine all the cells multiplying in fast-forward! 

     A blanket of very short, 2-leaved plants are wiggling their way up from the dark, moist soil by the streams. Will these eventually be the tall, green plants of Jewelweed with the orange, snap-dragon-like flowers that hummingbirds love?

     By the water, small birch trees and alder shrubs are ornamented with wobbling, red-brown catkins that sway in the wind.  

     The multi-part leaves of Multiflora rose are beginning to unfold....  

April 15 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  I hit the wooded, lakeside trail anticipating newly arrived warblers in the trees and shrubs along the path (birch, swamp azalea, poison sumac, alder and maple). However, I really didn't spot any until I'd reached a ways into the forest. It was about 6:15PM then. Sunlight drenched the tree canopy in a rich yellow. I heard one or two Pine warblers high up in the tree tops and after much looking around finally caught sight of one; it had flown out from a tall White pine and into the bare canopy of a neighboring deciduous tree. (Pine warblers are surprisingly subtly colored birds for the remarkably beautiful, lazy, blurry trill they make. I recommend Googling their images and then looking for these birds in the woods when you hear such a trill. It's intensely rewarding to finally catch sight of one.) 

     A male American goldfinch perched high up on a tree branch in the same area of the forest - its little body an impressively bright shade of yellow, with black wings - fantastic colors against silver twigs and reddened, swelling leaf buds. Grey Tufted titmice called out as they flew in short bursts between trees. Waves of Common grackles and Red-winged blackbirds flew through the woods, some landing in trees in 2s and 3s while others roamed the forest floor, tossing up leaves with their beaks. A loud crew!

     Amidst a soundtrack of Flicker calls and White-breasted nuthatch beeps, American robin chortles, the bizarre, non-melodic vocalizations of Common grackles, and the trills of Pine warblers, I caught sight of a tiny black and white woodpecker - either a Hairy or a Downy - hopping up a tree trunk, pounding the bark for its dinner. A Great blue heron glided and flapped slowly above the woods, heading for the pond. Hidden from my view, Canada geese honked together, out on the water. Gray squirrels bounded through the obstacle course of the forest understory. A chipmunk prowled about the leaf-laden forest floor, looking for dinner, barely visible save for its black stripes. An American robin chased a Blue jay in and out of a labyrinth of junipers - was the robin defending its nest from attack?

     A black cormorant sat upright and very still on a wooden post out in the lake. A swan paddled slowly within the marsh, looking down into the water. 

     Out on the golf course, a blanket of American robins hopped about. At some point I also realized I was hearing a bird call I didn't recognize. I scanned the trees above me, even walking backwards to get a better look. Nothing. Only American robins were visible. Then I realized...perhaps the robins were making a warning call. I'd seen a small hawk (by its coloring, it was either a Sharp-shinned hawk or a Cooper's hawk) sail across the golf course, and at various points glide across the walking path, not 8 feet from me, to perch in trees. Suddenly a petite hawk with hooked beak, golden eye, long, sturdy legs and brown and white speckled plumage - soared across my path and landed low in an ornamental conifer, disappearing from view. Soon after, I heard a feathery commotion and witnessed two fluffy gray birds tumble out of the tree and onto the manicured grass. The hawk swiftly jumped out of the tree after them and landed on the ground. With golfers playing within 20 ft. of this scenario, I watched the predator alternately stand on top of each of the fledglings, shifting its weight from one talon to the other and occasionally looking downward. The robins in the trees around me whistled agitatedly (I admit I was astounded they didn't fly at the hawk to get it away from their babies). After maybe 5 minutes of this grisly scene, the hawk began to tear its meal apart. I was appalled and fascinated. I wondered if the adult robins were experiencing something akin to heartbreak, and then I wondered if they'd produce a new brood this season.

Mid-April - Beaver Brook, Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  About two-dozen large White suckers up to two feet long each were spawning in Beaver Brook, a tributary of the Neponset River. This photo shows splashes made by vibrating fishtails as a female White sucker releases her eggs, flanked by two male suckers releasing milt.

April 21 - Neponset River, Lower Mills (Tom Palmer)  Here is how the river looked as it plunged into the harbor at low tide behind 2 Adams St., Milton, at sundown last night. According to the stream gauge just above Baker Dam, it was flowing at about 80 cubic feet/second, a new minimum (for April 21) and well below the long-term average of 578 cu ft/second. It looked like I could have jumped across if the rocks weren't so slippery. I guess it has indeed been dry lately. Smelt eggs were attached just a foot or two above the low water mark a little further down the channel. There were quite a few. I couldn't tell how many were still underwater.

April 22 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  Squinting through a pair of binoculars, I could see that some of the bog plants are blooming - probably the Leatherleaf - a woody plant with little, durable leaves, and flowers like those on Japanese pieris or blueberry (small, white, dangling and bell-like). It was thrilling to see the bog finally greening up and flowering. 

     The leaves of Wild geranium have appeared by streams. Delicate Sessile bellwort plants are pushing up from the soil and unfurling leaves. Even a few are flowering. A blanket of Mayflower leaves is poking up all over the forest floor. Fuzzy fern fronds are beginning to unfurl. Spicebush shrubs have what look like fluorescent green-yellow pompoms up and down their slender gray branches. 

     I heard a few frogs peep from inside the marsh. Grackles and Red-winged blackbirds flew every which way along the shore of the lake, calling out! A few White-breasted nuthatches hopped up and down tree trunks and swooped out to neighboring trees. A Chipping sparrow twittered by a sandpit in the golf course. 

     Because of another sighting this afternoon, I finally saw the difference between a Hairy and Downy woodpecker! I watched a Hairy woodpecker for a while. Later I caught sight of a Red-bellied woodpecker; this took the cake! This species is loud, brightly colored and pretty big. Another remarkable sighting today was a Great blue heron standing still in the marsh, on the edge of the bog. As soon as I lifted my binoculars to get a better look, it took off to land further away on top of a short, squat spruce tree deeper within the bog. It perched there for a while, looking slowly at its surroundings and resembling a stork or a even a dinosaur. Later the heron took off to land in open water, where it stalked the depths for a while, searching for a meal. An American goldfinch in a maple tree appeared tiny and melodic, singing softly. Tufted titmice bopped about between branches. A pair of Black-capped chickadees hopped right-side-up and upside-down in little shrubs by the edge of the water. American robins wandered all over the golf course and throughout the underbrush of the woods....

April 23 - Blue Hills Reservation, Milton (Carly Rocklen)  Up past the Trailside Museum on the Wolcott Path at 6PM on a sunny, warm day, the woods were like a ghost town. Desolate. Still. Quiet. I thought of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." I was poking around for an hour and a half and I heard and saw very little. Only a Pine warbler trilled every once in a while (invisible in the tree canopy), a woodpecker tapped (again, usually unseen), and the wind moaned through the White pines. A frog chorus occasionally started up and stopped, emanating from a hidden pond. I saw one White-tailed deer, or I should say we saw each other, in a field. The deer was nibbling at the grasses. Some of the wildflowers were beginning to sprout - Canada mayflower leaves and fiddleheads poked up through the fallen leaves on the forest floor, and Trout lilies were blooming along the stream by the parking lot. Other than that, though, there was mostly silence and a tall greyness all around. - I perceived the woods in this fashion probably partly because I've been walking by Ponkapoag Pond for the last month, which is a totally different story. The Red-winged blackbirds and Common grackles are going nuts in the woods by the marsh (loud, flashy) there, American robins have taken over the golf course in droves, and Canada geese are loud as anything on the pond itself. Then of course there are the squirrels running along the forest floor, the American goldfinches singing from above, the Blue jays squawking as they fly between the tree trunks, and the various woodpeckers hammering at trees and swooping through the canopy.

April 26 - Bird Street Conservation Land, Stoughton (Carly Rocklen)  During the Stoughton Earth Day Fair, while a live-animals educational presentation was taking place and the animal-handler was walking a Turkey vulture around to audience members, a Blue jay was hopping within the woods bordering the field, calling out just like a bird of prey. Blue jays are talented mimics - and this individual definitely had me convinced! I was searching the treeline and the sky for a hawk. 

     Earlier in the afternoon, when the animal-handler had taken a Red-tailed hawk from its box and was introducing the bird to the audience, I noticed that circling overhead - far overhead, way high up, just a spot of white with red-orange tail - was a wild Red-tailed hawk, holding almost still in the air currents, looking over the landscape, occasionally flapping its broad, pale wings.

April 28 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen)  At dusk, around the wooded trail ringing the Pond, a light rain fell. All around was the calm hissing of rain hitting the lake water. Raindrops fell on my raincoat and hit the brim of my baseball cap. My feet deliciously sank into the muddy path. Out on the pond and beyond my sightline, Canada geese honked. Red-winged blackbirds called from tree perches within the marsh. American robins whinnied nearby. Ground-hugging colonies of small Wood anemone plants bloomed, their white, delicate flowers partly closed and hanging toward the forest floor. Solitary Sessile bellwort plants were visible in the midst of anemone clusters. Solomon's seal leaves slowly unfurled. A Marsh marigold bloomed next to a rock in a little creek running by the side of the walking path (it looks like a hardy aquatic buttercup). The green hoods of Jack in the pulpits were visible beneath the shrubs of the forest understory. Meanwhile, maple trees, Burning bush (Winged wahoo), Witch-hazel, Highbush blueberry, Garlic mustard and viburnum were beginning to leaf out. 

April 30 - Charles River, Dedham (Carly Rocklen) Early for an appointment, about mid-day, I parked my car in the parking lot and wandered down a grassy slope to the river that flows past the medical campus. I stood by the edge of the Charles River for a while and eventually got comfortable on a rock, looking out over the water and the marshy island. 

     For a while there was silence from the animal world - only the roar of motor vehicles from I-95/I-128, which crosses the Charles River about 1/4-mile downstream. I thought to myself that the noise must have cut down on the wildlife activity here ever since the highway had been built. - Animals probably can't hear each other, their prey, or  potential predators. So, perhaps they've found other places to spend their time.

     After a while, I started to sense wildlife. At first I heard and then caught sight of a Red-winged blackbird sitting in a riverside tree. Then I noticed a couple of Common grackles flying around between branches on the opposite side of the water. Soon a Flicker bolted through the air, headed to a perch upstream. I could clearly see the white flash of color at its tail, despite the bird being relatively far away. American goldfinches called out downstream. 

     Finally, there was significant movement. I turned to see a Great blue heron approaching silently in the water, about 25 yards upstream. It exaggeratedly lifted one long black and yellow leg out of the water at a time - slowly, and then remarkably slowly and smoothly (no splash) placed it back in the water as it crept toward the marsh. It was like a kid imitating slow motion. Certainly it was attempting to sneak up on underwater prey. This heron was crouched further down toward the water than I'd ever seen before; the bottom of its feathered torso almost touched the surface. Suddenly the bird stopped moving forward and straightened up, its head and neck extended as straight as a rod, very tall now. I figured it'd caught me watching it. Then I thought I shouldn't be so self-important as to think it was behaving this way solely because of me. In any case, I remained very still. The wind ruffled the bird's long feathers at the base of its neck. Eventually the heron started searching for prey again, swinging its head slowly from side to side, peering into the water, crouching. At some point I looked away downstream, and when I turned back to look at the heron again it had taken off. I could see its giant wings slowly batting the air, raising its body up from the bend in the river. It turned in mid-air to fly further downstream and resume hunting elsewhere.

May 4 - Jamaica Pond, Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) It was almost dusk, and a pair of Canada geese stood silently on the shore of the pond, black and white necks stretched vertically toward the sky. Positioned down a steep incline, next to the water's edge and beneath a canopy of trees, they were guarding their three babies. The downy, yellow chicks rustled about in the leaves, poking around with their beaks, exploring the groundcover. It's remarkable how much the babies will change in appearance as they develop! Eventually, the adults slipped into the water and the babies popped in after them, following in a little, yellow, downy line. 

May 8 - Canton (Carly Rocklen) Baltimore orioles are back! High in the maple trees along the path that I walk, their voices are exuberant and loud. I gaze upwards, following the voices, and find one oriole within the bright green new leaves, on a slender perch, with black head and luminescent orange body.

May 9 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen) Plant Notes:   Sessile bellwort plants are continuing to bloom and grow bigger, unfurling new leaves and stems. In fact, they're growing taller and larger than I'd believed them to. False Solomon's-seal is growing strong and sturdy, with a miniature terminal cluster of buds beginning to show. A bunch of a Solomon's seal-like plant is also growing - perhaps Twisted stalk or Hairy Solomon's-seal - it has only 1 flower dangling at each point, as opposed to 2. Starflower plants are becoming visible, and the ones along the path in the wooded swamp (as opposed to in the drier woods) are blooming. Some of the Canada mayflowers have very young flower buds appearing. The Wood anemones continue to bloom - in their ground-hugging plant clusters. The Marsh marigold is nowhere to be seen in the path-side brook - what could have happened to it? The purple-striped green Jack-in-the-pulpit hoods are out and about. Garlic mustard is in full bloom, as are the violets. I was amazed by the little white violets growing in the very wet areas - in ditches and in the wooded swamp. What species are these? Purple violets are in bloom along the path. They aren't quite as eye-catching as the white violets, as I tend to see them every year, all over the place. Cattail greens are rising up in the marsh. Poison ivy leaves are growing, shiny and red-green. Highbush blueberry is blooming. The leaves of Wild geranium are growing robust - becoming darker green and more sturdy looking.

May 9 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen) Bird Notes (early evening walk in the rain):   Baltimore orioles called out from perches in the canopy and mid-story of the forest. Certainly they're a major part of the soundscape now. 

     The Kingbirds are back! I could hear and then spot them as I followed the path in the woods; they sound like electricity as they twitter and hover in the air, vibrating their wings to keep in place. They have dark-colored upperparts and light-colored underparts. 

     A mini sandpiper-like bird wandered around the paved path leading through the golf course. The form its wings take when it'd take-off and glide close to the ground to another location was very different from landbirds, definitely more like the little seabirds that run around on the beach. It had white undersides with a brown-speckled chest, and brown back and wings. A petite bird. 

     Chipping sparrows were hanging-out by the golf course's sand pits again. 

     The Wood thrushes and Ovenbirds are back! The Wood thrushes were vocalizing from within the woods - both the deciduous upland and the deciduous wooded swamp. I only heard one Ovenbird call out; it was in the wooded swamp. 

     Catbirds are back. They're impressively quiet. A couple were hanging-out by a stream in the woods, perched in the forest understory. It surprised me how similar they can look to American robins. 

     American robins were everywhere....the golf course, the forest, the wooded swamp. In other news, Blue jays were calling out, Grackles were flying in troupes between the tree trunks, Red-winged blackbirds were gabbing with one another closer to the water, and Tufted titmice and Black-capped chickadees vocalized in the woods. A pair of Canada geese floated/stood together in the water. A cormorant sat on a rock out in the middle of the lake. 

     The most thrilling sight this afternoon:   Maybe 100+ fly-catching birds (swifts? swallows? martins?) swooped low over the lake's surface, scooping up insects. (Was there a midge hatch today?). These birds were focused on the middle of the lake. I couldn't believe how many there were. The closeness with which they got to the water itself during their swooping movements was impressive. They have dark outerparts and white underparts. I strained to see the shape of their tail. I'll have to look them up. Through the midst of these swooping, soaring little birds, a much larger Great blue heron flapped on its way across the lake. Once it'd reached the lake's edge, it curved its path toward the right, following the shore. 

     The European starlings are continuing to care for the young in the nest outside my office window. 

     Early this morning on my way to work, a hawk broke out of the cemetery as I was waiting at a stoplight at a major 3-way intersection. It flapped its way across the thoroughfare and out of sight. I was grinning like an idiot, straining my neck to look after it.

May 9 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) Moving through the kitchen to make coffee
this morning, the window's cracked open, and I hear a new bird of the season. I can't identify it. It lets out a small, sweet noise, hidden in the foliage between 3-deckers and row houses. I imagine it's a warbler. I think back to the warblers I've heard while canoeing the Neponset River and recall a colleague's quick bird ID, producing an excited "parula!" and "black-throated blue!" This morning the new bird is using the few trees in this city neighborhood as shelter, perhaps on its journey north.

     Later, on my way out of the kitchen, pink mug now full of coffee, I hear a Baltimore oriole warbling, hidden in the tree canopy and new as well, this season. I wonder if I'll soon see a dangling nest by the pond here and hear orioles on my weekly jaunts 'round the water?

May 12 - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron) In Stoughton, in the outermost reaches of the Neponset watershed, the catbirds have been the last to join the birds already mentioned. A blackbird tugged stubbornly and persistently at one of my garden strings, trying to break it to add to its nest, I assume. A day later, I found that the string had, indeed, been broken. I saw my first two Jack-in-the-Pulpits two days ago. 

     My neighbor, who claims that her front yard drains into the Taunton (Ames-Long Pond-Quesset Brook) and her back yard into the Neponset (Steep Brook), demonstrates how that out here in the Sharon Uplands, you often only have to walk a few steps to move from one watershed to the next. 

     Yesterday, I saw a heron grab a fish and swallow it. I studied a nest in a large pine that had herons in it last year and to which I had seen a heron fly this year, but saw no activity. The day before, I had met a fisherman who feeds the herons stray fish from his bait or small catches. We discussed whether a bird in the distance was a loon or a cormorant, the former being more likely, as there are a few resident cormorants in the summer, but the head certainly looked black from 100+ yards away. 

     Two nights ago, we had one spring peeper, much closer than the other, and its peep was very loud. It had the volume of the song of a bird, twenty times its size.

     I also read Thoreau's journal online (via The Walden Woods Project) and have been comparing his May of 1860 with our current one. This was today's entry:

May 12. Celandine. Very hot. 2.30 P.M. - 81°.

We seek the shade to sit in for a day or two. The neck-cloth and single coat is too thick; wear a half-thick coat at last [ ? ]. The sugar maple blossoms on the Common resound with bees. Ostrya flower commonly out on Island, how long? Maybe a day or two. First bathe in the river. Quite warm enough. River five and one half plus inches below summer level. Very heavy dew and mist this morning; plowed ground black and moist with it. The earth is so dry it drinks like a sponge.

This was a short one; usually they are much longer. Here is the first part of tomorrow's:

May 13. I observe this morning the dew on the grass in our yard - literally sparkling drops, which thickly stud it. Each dewdrop is a beautiful crystalline sphere just below (within an eighth of an inch more or less) the tip of the blade. Sometimes there are two or three, one beneath the other, the lowest the largest. Each dewdrop takes the form of the planet itself. What an advance is this from the sere, withered, and flattened grass, at most whitened with frost, which we have lately known, to this delicate crystalline drop trembling at the lip of a Fresh green grass-blade. The surface of the globe is thus tremblingly alive. A great many apple trees out, and probably some for two days.

May 13 - Ponkapoag Pond, Canton (Carly Rocklen) At the edge of the marsh, where the paved path known as "Maple Ave." connects with the dirt and gravel trail ringing the water, there are very tall oak trees with new, bright-green leaves. 

     Flitting between the young oak leaf and flower clusters were a variety of delicate (and some brightly colored) warblers early this evening, as well as Baltimore orioles, a couple of Red-winged blackbirds and a Blue-gray gnatcatcher or two. The warblers appeared to be feeding in the leaf/flower clusters - on insects? on the leaves, flowers, sap and pollen? 

     Yellow warblers have come back to the area this spring, and they flew between nearby shrubs along the swamp's edge, calling out sweetly from perches.

May 14 - Pettees Pond, Walpole (Sean Burchesky) I was over in Pettees Pond today and I thought, just out of curiosity, that I should check the Wood duck box. So, I stuck my camera into the hole (without disturbing her) and I got this shot. This proves that the boxes are being used. I think that it would really boost the Wood duck population on the lake if four to five new boxes were added around the pond. In about three years, when the Wood ducklings are mature and need a nesting place, more boxes will be needed. I am pretty sure that Wood ducks are an Endangered Species. (NOTE from NepRWA: It appears that the Wood duck is not considered an Endangered Species in MA. However, various organizations, including MassWildlife, have been working to conserve the Wood duck and raise its once-abundant population levels.) 

May 14 - Ponkapoag Bog, Canton (Carly Rocklen) Along the thick planks of wood, between the shrubbery (and usually above water!) I slowly made my way through the bog. As I walked, I kept my eyes trained on the dark-colored, tea-like water lapping up against the boardwalk. A Kingfisher flew by, out of sight; I recognized its distinctive call. It was about 7PM now and the outdoors was getting quieter. Certainly at the start of my walk, almost 3 hours before, the birds were a lot noisier and visible around the pond! 

     Further and further into the bog I walked, gingerly testing the planks before stepping out, making sure I wouldn't dip tooo far into the water. All the while, I kept an eye out for the pitcher plants a colleague had mentioned she'd seen. It was pretty far out on the boardwalk before I found one. The plant looked weathered. Despite its condition, however, I felt thrilled at catching sight of a carnivorous bog plant. I hoped to see a sundew as well, but ultimately didn't catch sight of any. 

     In addition to the pitcher plants, there were the tiny leaves of cranberry plants, the bell-like white flowers of Ericaceae plants, and the hummocks of sphagnum moss around cedar trees. I decided that this wasn't quite the best season to visit Ponkapoag Bog, as the sphagnum hummocks are not yet a brilliant emerald green or red. - I also decided that next time around I'll wear waterproof boots so I can wander farther out on the boardwalk! I'm anticipating walking in the fall and seeing the bog cotton and the changing colors of leatherleaf.

May 16 - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron) A week ago, the buds and keys on the red maple were spectacular; warblers are also back. Here is an excerpt of what Thoreau wrote in his journal on this date in 1860 (credit: The Walden Woods Project):

May 16.P.M. - To Copan and Beek Stow's

     9, P.M. -56°, with a cold east wind. Many people have fires again. Near Peter's I see a small creeper hopping along the branches of the oaks and pines, ever turning this way and that as it hops, making various angles with the bough; then flies across (drawing) to another bough, or to the base of another tree, and traces that up, zigzag and prying into the crevices.

     Think how thoroughly the trees are thus explored by various birds. You can hardly sit near one for five minutes now, but either a woodpecker or creeper comes and examines its bark rapidly, or a warbler - a summer yellowbird, for example - makes a pretty thorough exploration about all its expanding leafets, even to the topmost twig. The whole North American forest is being thus explored for insect food now by several hundred (?) species of birds. Each is visited by many kinds, and thus the equilibrium of the insect and vegetable kingdom is preserved . Perhaps I may say that each opening bud is thus visited before it has fully expanded.

     The golden robin (oriole) utters from time to time a hoarse or grating cr-r-ack . The creepers are very common now.

     Now that the warblers are here in such numbers is the very time on another account to study them, for the leafbuds are generally but just expanding, and if you look toward the light you can see every bird that flits through a small grove, but a few weeks hence the leaves will conceal them....

     I pass a young red maple whose keys hang down three inches or more and appear to be nearly ripe. This, being in a favorable light (on one side from the sun) and being of a high color, - a pink scarlet, -- is a very beautiful object, more so than when in flower. Masses of double samarae unequally disposed along the branches, trembling in the wind. Like the flower of the shad-bush, so this handsome fruit is seen for the most part now against bare twigs, it is so much in advance of its own and of other leaves. The peduncles gracefully rise a little before they curve downward. They are only a little darker shade than the samarae. There are sometimes three samarae together. Sun goes down red .

Our red maple keys in 2008 have already passed this stage. They were spectacular a week ago. At no other time of year do leaves and fruit change so much from one week to the next. In 1860, they had already experienced several very hot days, but were also in the midst of a drought, leaving their leafing out about a week behind ours.

May 16 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) This morning, at the intersection of a side road and main drag, across from the old Forest Hills Cemetery and adjacent to wooded Franklin Park, I slowly joined a line of traffic at a 3-way intersection and stoplight. As I approached the que in my car, a large Red-tailed hawk glided low and fast across the street at almost car-level, entering a small plot of wooded land. The hawk sailed between the trees at about 6 feet off the ground, wings outstretched, eyes searching the "forest" floor. Then it arc-ed upwards into a tree, where I could no longer see it. I imagined what its diet here might be - mice, rats, voles, shrews, chipmunks, squirrels, clueless birds....

May 17 - Bio Blitz @ Signal Hill Reservation, Canton Approximately 30 people gathered together this morning at the new Signal Hill park to record as many species as they could find. They created a transect from the cat-tail marsh, across the disturbed field containing many exotic, invasive plant species, over the rock outcrop, to the top of Signal Hill, and down through the woods to the Neponset River. Here are the species that were spotted: 

     Birds: Red-winged blackbird, Mallard, Great blue heron, Tufted titmouse, Blue jay, Magnolia warbler, Yellow warbler, Bobolink, Gray catbird, Common yellowthroat, Baltimore oriole, Song sparrow, Rose-breasted grosbeak, Black-capped chickadee, Common grackle (Eastern grackle), Ovenbird, American robin, Warbling vireo, and Mourning dove.

     Herbaceous Plants: Spring azure, Sensitive fern, Bracken fern, Marsh fern, Pennsylvania sedge, Deer-tongue, Red fescue, Canada or Flat-stemmed bluegrass, Woodland bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, Little bluestem, Common British soldiers, and Haircap moss.

     Woody Plants: Red maple, Silver maple, Gray birch, Downy birch, Pignut hickory, American chestnut, American beech, Black huckleberry, Witch-hazel, Eastern red cedar, Black gum, White pine, Trembling aspen, Fire cherry, Black cherry, Chokecherry, White oak, Scarlet oak, Scrub oak, Pin oak, Red oak, Black oak, Common buckthorn, Glossy alder buckthorn, Black raspberry, Highbush blackberry, Sassafras, Meadowsweet, Poison ivy, Eastern hemlock, Highbush blueberry, Lowbush blueberry, and Arrowwood viburnum.

     Wildflowers:  Common ragweed, Wood anemone, Wild columbine, Wild sarsaparilla, Woodland Jack-in-the-pulpit, Mugwort, Wintercress, Striped pipsissewa (Spotted wintergreen), Bastard toadflax, Whitlow-grass, Northern blue flag, Butter-and-eggs (Common toadflax), Purple loosestrife, Canada mayflower, Alfalfa, Virginia creeper, English plantain, Common plantain, Solomon's seal, Japanese knotweed, Bittersweet nightshade, Common chickweed, Common dandelion, White clover, Common cat-tail, Sessile-leaf bellwort, Common mullein, Thyme-leaf speedwell, Common blue violet.

     Additional plants: Serviceberry species, Crabgrass species, Strawberry species, St. John's-wort species, Honeysuckle species, Crabapple species, Evening-primroses, Wood-sorrels, Knotweeds, Cinquefoils, Willows, Elderberry, Greenbriers, Goldenrods, Vetches, and Grape vines.

     Insects: Eastern tent caterpillar moth, Winter moth, and Velvet mites.

     Event pictures (thank you to Wendy Ingram, Paul Lauenstein and Ed Bristol!):  1) Bio Blitz site; 2) Boston on the horizon,  2) Examining species by the Neponset River; 3) Neponset River; 4) Considering Groundcover; 5) Identifying species by the stone wall: 1 &  2; 6) Distinguishing species.

     NepRWA and The Trustees of Reservations organized the Bio Blitz. 

Mid-May - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron)

     I had seen the heron take off and circle back toward its nest, but I had stopped watching before the loud squawk came. After the heron flew away, a hawk (Red-tail-sized) emerged at the very top of the pine branches, and sat there for a couple of minutes before a smaller bird - possibly a kingbird - began diving at it. (Its head was significantly more brown than its body.) Suddenly the hawk took off, dipped beneath the other side of the pines, and disappeared. 

     Five minutes later I could see a hawk circling far above. I couldn't make out a Red-tail, even using binoculars, but it was some Buteo/raptor, way up there.
     There are two heron nests in two White pines on an island within 100 yards of this "hawk tree." Possibly the hawk had threatened one of the heron nests, earlier, and maybe taken a young one, or the heron had taken an impulsive shot at the hawk's nest or just the hawk, in retribution. (Or maybe the heron just did not like the fact that the hawk was nearby.) 

     Most of the time there is at least one adult heron on each nest, but sometimes both fly off when we approach in the kayak far below.
     The next day:   I saw a couple of orioles and a blackbird team up to drive a crow from the yard next door, and I saw a robin chasing a squirrel along the ground from the yard of a neighbor on the other side. I couldn’t tell whether the squirrel had managed to steal eggs from the robin's nest. 

     An oriole whacked hard against the picture window, making one of the dogs bark. 

     A female cardinal continues her tappings at our back window.

     After I'd finished setting a 15-foot cedar trunk in my yard to support some grape and bittersweet vines, just as I walked away, a kingbird immediately appeared on the wild roses beside it. It must not have been ready for perching yet, though, because after a brief inspection, it flew away. 

May 21 - Jamaica Pond, Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) A walk at dusk along the paved path ringing the Pond brought sightings of a mother Mallard and her 10 very young babies floating in the water by the treed shore, and a group of Canada geese with 2 young goslings grazing by the water's edge. The Mallard babies were startling in their size - I'm sure one could have sat, fully ensconced, in a tiny teacup. In comparison, the goslings were five or six times as tall as the Mallard ducklings, and certainly more robust in appearance. The goslings had very stubby little wings and were covered in a grey fuzz. The mallard ducklings, on the other hand, were covered in fuzz of yellow and dark brown.

     Unfortunately, there were also groups of male adult Mallards flying around the pond, attacking female adult mallards and dragging them away from their babies.

May 23 - Milton (Walter Jonas) We live at the end of Capen St. in Milton, and our deck faces towards the river, which is obscured now by the trees, but last Sunday, we were having lunch on the deck when we heard what sounded like fire crackers, except that the last three of probably a dozen had a very different sound, as if the "fire crackers" were pointed from Ryan Playground, on River St. in Mattapan, toward the river (and, of course, us). We then heard a squeal of tires, and some shouting. Several minutes later we heard the horn of a police car. Then the sound of fire engine and ambulance. Then many police cars, with their siren. Then a dog barking, perhaps a police dog searching for shells. The next day, I actually saw something, an article in the Globe describing a shooting at Ryan Playground, which was then closed so the kids could not play there, with yellow police tape strung around, and telling that the victim had driven himself to Carney hospital in his BMW or Mercedes or something like that. Not exactly the kind of wild life that any of us wants to have in our backyard, or anywhere else, but unfortunately, the reality of River St. on Memorial Day weekend in the middle of the day in 2008. 

     However, for some reason, this year there have been a lot of catbirds around in the woods, in addition to the usual pair of cardinals, bunches of woodpeckers, nuthatches, finches, starlings, robins, and every so often a hawk is floating in the sky, or an egret is rising from the river, along with, of course, all the Canada geese. The coyote have seemed to have taken a vacation some place else, and we have not seen any deer or turkey for more than a year, but I hope they come back.

May 23 - Burma Rd. Path, Blue Hills Reservation, Milton (Carly Rocklen) I went for an early evening walk along this wide dirt path between emergent marsh and wooded swamp. Here are some of my most memorable bird sightings: 

     I saw a Rose-breasted grosbeak call from the top of a tree, soon joined by a wren, both silhouetted in the oncoming darkness. Veeries called from within the woods, their downward spiraling song particularly distinctive. They seemed to be located mostly in the vicinity of what one might call a "wolf tree" - a lone standing, very wide, fully developed old tree (in this case, dead). This now-wooded area must once have been a clearing where the tree had had a large amount of space in which to grow. An Eastern towhee was also active here, perching on branches in the understory. Meanwhile small groups of ducks flew overhead; I could hear them quacking and caught sight of their bodies speeding overhead like bullets, above the tree canopy. 

     Several White-tailed deer looked askance at me from further up the trail - 

     Shrubs in the willow family were covered in white, fuzzy clusters. Other shrubs also were decorated with small white, delicate flowers.

     A Nighthawk cruised low over the marshland, picking-off flying insects with its large mouth. The white markings under its tomahawk-like wings shone brightly in the darkening environment. At times, with its wings arranged in a V, it would swing around the periphery of the marsh within the treed border, hunting its insect prey. Chimney swifts flitted through the sky above the wetlands, catching insects too. 

     Red-winged blackbirds called out from perches in the marshland and woods. A Kingbird sang from the shrubbery. A small yellow-and-olive-green warbler silently hopped around in the midst of a bush. Waxwings called out in soft, buzzy voices. [I caught sight of two newly arrived in a small shrub in the marshland. They look like Northern cardinals that have been painted according to a different palette - one using watercolors in earth tones, with a little joyous yellow or orange (depending on the individual) appointed at the end of the tail.] 

May 24 - Burma Rd. Path, Blue Hills Reservation, Milton (Carly Rocklen) Here is a quick list of the birds we spotted while walking the wide dirt path from the parking lot at Paul's Bridge, through an emergent marshland, a wooded swamp, deciduous upland woods and wet-meadow, to the old highway spur at I-95, on a Saturday morning. 

     A Rose-breasted grosbeak sang from high up in a tall, leafless cottonwood tree in a wide expanse of marshland. American goldfinches and Yellow warblers flitted between small trees and shrubs in the marsh, flashing bright yellow. (The Yellow warblers were apt to sing out loud in the open, opening wide their slender beaks and belting it out.) Grackles flew between the taller trees. American robins bobbed between shrubs. The occasional Blue jay swung across the sky above, calling. There was one small bird - gray, with subtle darker markings on its chest - that I did not recognize the looks of, but whose voice brought back memories of another bird species (the same?) that I'd commonly hear while doing fieldwork on an island off of Georgia, 11 years ago. We saw a Blue-gray gnatcatcher bounce into a tree in the wooded swamp, alongside the path. A couple of Tufted titmice swooped into a shrub. A particular warbler species sang out frequently from various parts of the path (very difficult to describe its voice, and I haven't yet found the perfect visual match in a bird identification guide). Baltimore orioles sang loudly and clearly throughout the vegetation bordering the path. (We'd catch sight of their brilliant orange and black markings as they flew between trees.) Common yellowthroats hopped within the shrubbery and flew between small trees in the marsh. They also sang from within the wooded upland area. Meanwhile, Sensitive ferns grew up strong and light-green throughout the marsh. Purple loosestrife plants are also starting to leaf-up. 

May 27 & 22 - Norwood (Marjorie Huse) A Killdeer pair with one young in field behind Jack Madden Ford on Route 1. A pair of Catbirds has been enjoying my birdbath, splashing vigorously.

May 28 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein) I saw 3 Cedar waxwings along Gavins Pond Road today.

May 28 - Ponkapoag Pond, Blue Hills Reservation, Canton (Carly Rocklen) Just past 6:30PM, I watched a mother Wood duck and her brood of very tiny, downy ducklings float slowly together in a bunch (babies tailing Mom) along the edge of the bog. As soon as I was spotted, they rapid-fire paddled into the foliage and became invisible. I waited a while to see if they'd emerge, but the flying insects were too aggressive and I moved on down the path.

     Soon after I spotted a muskrat perched in a waterside bush, busy with something though I'm not sure what - nibbling the branches? the foliage? gathering materials? As soon as I was seen, it plopped the very short distance to the ground, and its furry little body slid into the water and paddled away - wet fur on its crown and its tail were all that was exposed at the water's surface.

     Further along the path, I watched as three teenaged boys fished from a canoe alongside the bog. Their fishing lines glinted in the sunlight, and the canoe floated quietly in the water. The boys themselves were quiet and relaxed. Lit in the warm yellow tones of the late-afternoon sun, they could have been the subject of a painting created 200 years ago.

May 28 - Stoughton - And, Nest Exploring w/Thoreau (Dwight Mac Kerron) Hi Carly, Sounds as if you have had some good rambles, but maybe not quite as challenging as Henry David Thoreau's in May of 1860, when he is climbing tall trees to explore hawk and squirrel nests. He is guided by a Concord man who is something of a hawk-killer. 

     Yesterday, with binoculars, I saw young herons poking their heads up in one of two nests. - Dwight

Henry David Thoreau's journal entry (credit: The Walden Woods Project):

May 29. (1860)
P. M. - After hawks with (Jacob) Farmer to Easterbrooks Country.

He tells me of a sterile bayberry bush between his house and Abel Davis, opposite a ledge in the road, say half a dozen rods off in the field, on the left, by a brook.

Hearing a warbling vireo, he asked me what it was, and said that a man who lived with him thought it said, "Now I have caught it, O how it is sweet!" I am sure only of the last words, or perhaps, "Quick as I catch
him I eat him. O it is very sweet."

Saw male and female wood tortoise in a meadow in front of his house, - only a little brook anywhere near. They are the most of a land turtle except the box turtle .

We proceeded [to] the Cooper's hawk nest' in an oak and pine wood (Clark's) north of Ponkawtasset. I found a fragment [of] one of the eggs which he had thrown out. Farmer's egg, by the way, was a dull or dirty white, i.. e. a rough white with large dirty spots, perhaps in the grain, but not surely, of a regular oval form and a little larger than his marsh hawk's egg. I climbed to the nest, some thirty to thirty-five feet high in a white pine, against the main stem. It was a mass of bark-fibre and sticks about two and a half feet long by eighteen inches wide and sixteen high. The lower and main portion was a solid mass of fine bark-fibre such as a red squirrel uses. This was surrounded and surmounted by a quantity of dead twigs of pine and oak, etc., generally the size of a pipe-stem or less. The concavity was very slight, not more than an inch and a half, and there was nothing soft for a lining, the barkfibres being several inches beneath the twigs, but the bottom was floored for a diameter of six inches or more with flakes of white oak and pitch pine bark one to two inches long each, a good handful of them, and on this the eggs had lain. We saw nothing of the hawk. This was a dozen rods south of the oak meadow wall.

Saw, in a shaded swamp beyond, the Stellaria borealis, still out, - large, broadish leaves .

Some eighteen feet high in a white pine in a swamp in the oak meadow lot, I climbed to a red squirrel's nest. The young were two-thirds grown, yet feeble and not so red as they will be. One ran out and along a limb, and finally made off into another tree. This was a mass of rubbish covered with sticks, such as I commonly see (against the main stem) but not so large as a gray squirrel's.

We next proceeded to the marsh hawk's nest from which the eggs were taken a fortnight ago and the female shot.' It was in a long and narrow Cassandra swamp northwest of the lime-kiln and some thirty rods from the road, on the side of a small and more open area some two rods across, where were few if any bushes and more [ ? ] sedge with the cassandra. The nest was on a low tussock, and about eighteen inches across, made of dead birch twigs around and a pitch pine plume or two, and sedge grass at bottom, with a small cavity in the middle.

The female was shot and eggs taken on the 16th; yet here was the male, hovering anxiously over the spot and neighborhood and scolding at us. Betraying himself from time to time by that peculiar clacking note reminding you of a pigeon woodpecker. We thought it likely that he had already got another mate and a new nest near by. He would not quite withdraw though fired at, but still would return and circle near us. They are said to find a new mate very soon.

In a tall pine wood on a hill, say southwest of this, or northwest of Boaz's Lower Meadow, I climbed to a nest high in a white pine, apparently a crow's just completed, as it were on a squirrel's nest for a foundation, but finished above in a deep concave form, of twigs which had been gnawed off by the squirrel.

In another white pine near by, some thirty feet up it, I found a gray squirrel's nest, with young about as big as the red squirrels were, but yet blind. This was a large mass of twigs, leaves, bark-fibre, etc., with a mass of loose twigs on the top of it, which was conical. Perhaps the twigs are piled on the warmer part of the nest to prevent a hawk from pulling it to pieces.

I have thus found three squirrels' nests this year, two gray and one red, in these masses of twigs and leaves and bark exposed in the tree-tops and not in a hollow tree, and methinks this is the rule and not the exception.

Farmer says that he finds the nests or holes or forms of the gray rabbit in holes about a foot or a foot and a half deep, made sideways into or under a tussock, especially amid the sweet-fern, in rather low but rather open ground. Has found seven young in one. Has found twenty-four eggs in a quail's nest.

In many places in the woods where we walk to-day we notice the now tender branches of the brakes eaten off, almost in every case, though they may be eighteen or more inches from the ground. This was evidently
done by a rabbit or a woodchuck.

The wild asparagus beyond Hunt's Bridge will apparently open in two days.' (Front of Whiting's shop, the 30th.)

C. has seen to-day an orange-breasted bird which may be the female (?) Blackburnian warbler.

The leaves now conceal the warblers, etc., considerably. You can see them best in white oaks, etc., not maples and birches.

I hear that there was some frost last night on Hildreth's plain; not here.

On the 28th, the latest trees and shrubs start thus in order of leafing :'- June 3d . The deciduous trees which look late are, in order of
lateness, bayberry latest, button-bush, poison-dogwood, black ash,
buttonwood (mountain rhus, Vaccinium dumosum, and Holbrook aspen not being seen) . The locust is pretty green . The first three look (lead at a little distance, but the bayberry showed growth (including flower-buds) before button-bush .

I hear from vireos (probably red-eyes) in woods a fine harsh note, perhaps when angry with each other.

May 29 & 30 - Blue Hills Reservation (Carly Rocklen) On my ventures through the wetlands of Fowl Meadow and Brookwood Farm, while looking for Purple loosestrife and Galerucella beetles, I stumbled upon a highly distinctive egg case at each of the sites, attached to last year's grass stalks. From perusing website photo's, I now believe it's that of a Praying mantis. 

May 30 - Neponset River Greenway (Anne Schmalz) I am enjoying your trailside observations very much and would like to call your viewers' attention to the spring round of posters I have put up in the kiosks along the Neponset Greenway from Port Norfolk to Lower Mills and along the Blackwell Footpath in the Bussey Meadow of the Arnold Arboretum. I have been doing this for about 5 years, with seasonal changes of posters. I have made some mistakes in ID along the way and as an amateur artist and naturalist am learning all the time. If anyone has suggestions on topics I might cover, I'd welcome them. My mission is to get people to stop and look at what is around them in these urban wilds. I am a volunteer with the Boston Natural Areas Network and the Arboretum Park Conservancy.

May 30 - Fowl Meadow, Blue Hills Reservation, Milton (Carly Rocklen) On a mission for work, I trekked through the Fowl Meadow wetland on a sunny weekday morning, looking for the newly greening exotic, invasive weed Purple loosestrife. Clipboard in hand, I brushed through tall clumps of grass and sedges and between cattails, passed tall, dense stands of Phragmites, and skirted colonies of the scrubby Spiraea (Meadowsweet? Steeplebush?), while wandering in the shadows of small groves of aspen. I felt my shoes sink into hidden muddy patches and sloshed unexpectedly through shallow standing water. And, what was the most beautiful thing I saw while out there, besides the shaking leaves of the aspen? In a wetter section of the wet-meadow - nestled between sedges - the flowers of the Blue flag iris.

May 30 - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron) As I was working in the garden this morning, putting in the peppers and eggplant, a swirl of three or four tussling robins flew right over my head, making those squabbling noises and close enough to make me duck. Three dark things plopped onto the driveway, which turned out to be wet earth, composed of soil, small pieces of leaves, very fine leaf stems, moss, and a tiny caterpillar. For the earth to be as wet as it was, I assumed it had come from the small stream out back, 100 yards away, where a spring-fed culvert drains into the pond. 

     I then went down to the stream, and watched two robins fly in. When they flew away soon after, at least one of them had a big dark gob of material in its beak, assumedly the same stuff which fell in the driveway. 

     At my granddaughter's class in Sharon, where I was the mystery reader today, I heard of a nest outside Mrs. Pugach's window which already has young robins. Apparently, however, there is at least one nest still under construction in Stoughton!  

     Why the robins were fighting and building at the same time remains a robin secret. - Maybe a mud-carrying robin violated the flyover space of another pair? 

     The kindergarten students enjoyed seeing the mud which the robins dropped, and I left it with them to analyze.

May 30 - Canton (Carly Rocklen) Beneath a shrub ringing a small, dammed pond at Brookwood Farm in the Blue Hills Reservation was this: angle 1 and angle 2. Do you recognize it? I believe it's One-eyed cancerroot! This is a parasitic plant that doesn't use chlorophyll to make its food. It's striking in appearance. Learn more: here and here.

June 4 - Henry David Thoreau's Journal Entry for this Date (Dwight Mac Kerron) 

Henry David Thoreau - June 4, 1860 

Credit: The Walden Woods Project

...The black-poll warblers (Sylvia striata) appear to have left, and some other warblers, if not generally, with this first clear and bright and warm, peculiarly June weather, immediately after the May rain. About a month ago, after the strong and cold winds of March and April and the (in common years) rain and high water, the ducks, etc., left us for the north. Now there is a similar departure of the warblers, on the expansion of the leaves and advent of yet warmer weather. Their season with us, those that go further, is when the buds are bursting, till the leaves are about expanded; and probably they follow these phenomena northward till they get to their breeding-places, flying from tree to tree, to the next tree which contains their insect prey.

...A catbird has her nest in our grove. We cast out strips of white cotton cloth, all of which she picked up and used. I saw a bird flying across the street with so long a strip of cloth, or the like, the other day, and so slowly, that at first I thought it was a little boy's kite with a long tail. The catbird sings less now, while its mate is sitting, or maybe taking care of her young, and probably this is the case with robins and birds generally.

...I hear that the nest of that marsh hawk which we saw on the 29th has since been found with five eggs in it. So that bird (male), whose mate was killed on the 16th of May, has since got a new mate and five eggs laid.

One asks me to-day when it is that the leaves are fully expanded, so that the trees and woods look dark and heavy with leaves. I answered that there were leaves on many if not on most trees already fully expanded, but that there were not many on a tree, the shoots having grown only some three inches, but by and by they will have grown a foot or two and there will be ten times as many leaves. Each tree (or most trees) now holds out many little twigs, some three inches long, with two or three fully expanded leaves on it, between us and the sun, making already a grateful but thin shade, like a coarse sieve, so open that we see the fluttering of each leaf in its shadow; but in a week or more the twigs will have so extended themselves, and the number of fully expanded leaves be so increased, that the trees will look heavy and dark with foliage and the shadow be dark and opaque, - a gelid shade.

June 6 - Westwood (Wendy Muellers) I have to share the wonderful sounds and sights in my yard in Westwood! 

     We are lucky enough to be hosting a family of orioles. The orioles are feverishly feeding a brood. I can hear mom and dad calling to each other all day long (I picture them saying, "I've got a caterpillar - be right there" or, "I'm coming, just a minute!"). I have a feeder, grape jelly and oranges in my garden, but mom and dad ignore all of this, and go for fat green caterpillars in the garden instead! 

     The babies have just started making sounds when mom or dad show up with food. The nest is getting quite noisy! The family is very lucky, because they survived a visit from a hawk last weekend. I heard Blue jays sounding their alarm call, and ran outside to see the hawk taking off from the branch where the oriole nest was. The Blue jays seemed to succeed in deterring the hawk.

     I also feed hummingbirds, and I have seen quite a bit of activity this week. When the rainwater diluted the feeder, the hummers went to my front yard where the Walkers Low blue flowers seemed to fit the bill for dinner! In fact, one evening I stood right next to the plants, and I got a close-up of a male hummer feeding! He would hover and chirp at each flower (as if he was telling me that I was too close, but he was starving, so he was taking his chances!).

     I am having so much fun watching all of the activity! My husband was lucky enough to see a male pheasant strutting down Pheasant Hill St. (obviously the bird knew he was in the right place). We are very lucky to have such sights and sounds in our own neighborhood!

Early June - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) As I walked slowly along the sidewalk of the Jamaicaway, I noticed that the iridescent blue-on-black of the shoulders and head of a slender grackle walking jerkily through the green grass of a front lawn beautifully complemented the pink in the flowers of the rhododendron bush behind it.

Early-to Mid-June - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) On walks around Jamaica Pond, we've spotted all kinds of plants and wildlife. On every walk we see multiple duck families - single adult Mallard females with many babies. The broods are of very different ages. Some ducklings could fit into a tiny tea cup, while others are about the size of 2.5 coffee mugs, placed side by side. Some of the ducklings are looking more and more like adults these days, though still with a majority of down as opposed to adult-like feathers. 

     We see the Canada goose family with two goslings of the same age, and one offspring that is significantly younger. Usually they're grazing the grass by the water. In my opinion, the family probably adopted the younger gosling. I'm curious what initiated this. Was the younger gosling rejected by its family? If so, why? 

     I've been hearing the mystery warbling bird. I'm wondering if it's the "Warbling vireo" I hear people mention having seen. 

     The surface of the pond is covered in yellow-green  - pollen? If so, from what species of plant? Mallard ducks - young and old alike - excitedly sip this yellow-green, watery stew. This general area has begun to smell badly; is there fermentation going on?
     On walks along the streets, we've seen that: Peonies have passed their peak. Their petals are falling off, and some are fruiting. Roses are in their heyday - all varieties, including some with variegated petals. Honeysuckle vines along fencing are flowering. The white and yellow flowers smell remarkably good while the orange and pink ones, though eye-catching, don't smell very much. Lupine has passed its peak. Pansies and marigolds continue to bloom. Trees are fully leafed out - except for the "Giraffe trees," as my Mom calls them - the Sycamore trees. It looks like they've been attacked by insects. I've seen hardly any leaves on the trees I pass on a daily basis. Some species of irises (ornamental - with yellow and pale blue flowers) have stopped blooming. Others are continuing to bloom (these have small, bright blue flowers). Impatiens continue to bloom.

June 11 - Sharon (Dwight Mac Kerron) While windsurfing on Lake Massapoag in Sharon, I saw an osprey, or I am 90% sure it was an osprey. In the past, I have had an osprey flying directly over me as I was windsurfing, but this one did not get quite close enough for me to make an absolute identification. Often the bird was between me and the sun, but once I saw a flash of a tell-tale white underside. It sure looked like an osprey from the front flying profile, but I have never seen one do the incredible tuck-winged dive and disappear completely under the water as yesterday’s bird did. Earlier, I had seen two cormorants floating along the western shore, but this large bird did not have the rapid wing beats of a cormorant.
     On the home front, this spring, knock on wood, the rabbits and woodchucks have left my gardens alone, but we have a raccoon, who is raiding a back outer room in the night-time. It enters it through a hole in the concrete and stone foundation which our cats use, but may now have to be sealed. 

     The raccoon has gotten accustomed to tipping over or chewing into the dog and cat food bags stored in that room and it will take drastic measures to deter him/her/them. I had previously thought that a wild cat in the neighborhood had been the culprit, but last night my wife saw the raccoon, staring up at her, paying little attention to the dogs barking on the other side of the door. 

     Earlier, I had gone into the room when a bag tipped over, and I found only one of our cats there. I now believe that the raccoon sometimes comes into the room with the cats there, and the cats just move to the other end of the room.

June 12 - Neponset River (Carly Rocklen) On this sunny, 80+ degree day, a few NepRWA Staff members & Board of Directors took a canoe trip along the Neponset River. 

     We started the trip in the late morning, at Paul's Bridge (intersection of Neponset Valley Pkwy. and Brush Hill Rd. in Milton - Blue Hills Reservation). From the canoe launch, we paddled upstream (southerly), heading slowly through the undeveloped floodplain of Fowl Meadow (with emergent marsh, wet-meadow, wooded swamp and uplands beyond the berms on the riverbanks). While paddling through Fowl Meadow, we passed through Milton, Readville, Dedham and Canton. We also passed beneath the I-95 bridge, continuing south. 

     When we'd almost reached the Signal Hill canoe launch, we stopped our canoes in the water for a lunch break. Some of us ate our sandwiches while floating on the river and some of us clambered out onto the riverbank for a respite from the canoe seats. Following lunch, we started up again - paddling downstream (northerly) toward Paul's Bridge. What a fantastic way to spend a sunny weekday, with temp.'s in the 80s! As one of us said during the trip, it's an amazing experience to pass right alongside highly trafficked roads and highways, yet to be surrounded by trees, birds, dappled sunlight and water; on that river, we're in another world. 

     Here are some of the sights from our trip:

-  A Belted kingfisher flapped once over our caravan of canoes, and later again just upstream of us, heading away from our noisy, splashing crowd.
-  A brown-speckled female duck waddled up the riverbank, in the dappled light and shelter of the undergrowth.
-  A delicate white heron or egret flapped overhead in the mid-distance, heading toward the west
-  Many a Yellow warbler sounded in the brush along the riverbanks.
-  Common yellowthroats also called out from riverbank trees and shrubbery.
-  We heard a few hidden Rose-breasted grosbeaks in the riverside trees.
-  I caught sight of one grey and white, small bird in the foliage, but couldn't ID it. I thought to myself, "Hm, Gnatcatcher? Flycatcher? Phoebe? Kingbird? Hm."
-  Grackles and Red-winged blackbirds were everywhere - flying, calling out, hopping between branches.
-  A coworker spotted a small turtle in the water. He said it wasn't a Snapping turtle.
-  Yellow, spherical flowers were blooming on the pond lilies.
-  The white flowers of viburnum shrubs (these particular plants have shiny, highly serrated leaves), were blooming along the banks of the river, as were the dogwood shrubs (different than the Flowering dogwoods people have in their yards), right alongside them.
-  I heard several individuals call out of the mystery warbling bird species that I've been hearing all over the place, these days - in suburban areas, in urban areas, etc. I'm suspicious that it's the "Warbling vireo" I've been hearing people mention, but I won't know until I take a listen to the birding CD set I just picked up. I'm excited to try it out!
-  A baby bird rested its downy head on the edge of a nest made of orange-y twigs, in a Silver maple branch overhanging the water. When our canoe passed beneath the maple bough, the bird's pale fuzzy head with closed, bulging eyes and pale-yellow beak was visible - for just a second.

Thanks to the MA DCR for their generosity in lending us canoes for the day.

June 16 - Dorchester (Liz MacNeil) A kingbird, oriole and family of young starlings have eaten most of my cherries!  A couple of the latter also discovered the wild strawberries I use as ground cover. There's a small flock of wild turkeys (3 hens, one cock) in Savin Hill. I don't have a photo but will see if my friend, Bill, can send his.

June 16 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) During an early evening walk around Jamaica Pond, I finally came to understand that there is more than one muskrat that swims here. How did I come to this magical conclusion (I'd been curious about this for months)?

     Last night I spotted two muskrats approach one another as they paddled across the pond. What a neat scene. While swimming, only their faces, ears, the tops of their head (wet fur and all) and their strong, paddling tails are visible. So, basically I saw two furry bumps and snakelike paddling tails approach one another in the mid-distance - a mirror image. I kept very still, meanwhile, at the pond's edge. 

     After a while I also spotted the location of their underwater burrow entrance. As I watched multiple muskrats pass to and from this area, I wondered how many individuals shared this home and what it was like inside.... Damp? Wet mud walls? Dry mud walls? A bed of dried grasses? Shellfish shells? Muskrats in separate rooms? Muskrats in one hollow?

     At another point during the walk, a small turtle (not a Snapping turtle) floated in the water, head exposed. It was maybe 8 feet from shore. The pale colors of its shell design were visible at the water's surface. I pointed out the turtle to a young father and his infant daughter. They'd stopped along the path to look at a family of Mallard ducks.

     Later I caught sight of a very large turtle - maybe a foot in diameter across its belly, 1 1/3 feet long, and 3/4 of a foot deep, floating in the water, head exposed. I could see the color variation of its body - pale belly, pale chest and dark upper shell. Its legs appeared bowed and powerful. It floated perhaps 10 feet away from a pair of fisherman casting from the shore. Eventually the turtle completely submerged and swam away, toward the center of the lake. 

     I only recently finished reading David M. Carroll's Self-Portrait With Turtles: A Memoir - and so these turtle sightings were exquisitely satisfying.

June 18 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen) Samaras - those winged, green (or red), feather-like objects that fall to the ground from maple trees, fluttering in the wind like mini helicopters - now dot the sidewalks around town. As a kid, our Mom taught us to separate the wings and then open up each of them and apply the sticky parts to our noses. We'd walk around like this, proud and laughing. I tried this the other day, and it still feels great.

June - Massachusetts & Connecticut (Carly Rocklen) Earlier this month, did you happen to notice the trees at the sides of the highway, with cascading white flowers? These are Black locust trees. The flowers smell wonderful, as I recall. - I miss having them in my neighborhood.

Summer

June 21 - Brookline (Carly Rocklen) I smiled at the "peents" of a few Nighthawks cruising the evening sky for bugs just over the buildings of Coolidge Corner, invisible to hurrying pedestrians on the ground.

June 22 - North Shore (Carly Rocklen) Driving along the highway in the early evening, I caught sight of a wild turkey perched in a bleached-looking dead tree in the midst of a flooded woods....

June 25 - Norwood (Carly Rocklen) Caught in a line of exceedingly sluggish morning traffic on Route 1 north, we were in the midst of transporting our bottled water-sampling results to the NepRWA office when at the side of the road, in the grass (and quite alive!) we spotted an adult wild turkey with a gaggle of babies ("poults").

June 29 - Plum Island (Carly Rocklen) During a field trip out of the Neponset River Watershed and north to Newburyport, and onto Plum Island...on a Sunday afternoon, just before a thunderstorm hit:

Common yellow-throats darted between branches and called out within the shrubbery and small trees of a woods bordering a cattail/Purple loosestrife/Phragmites marshland. A couple of Mockingbirds presented wing-flapping courtship displays from the tops of the tallest (and relatively speaking, not very tall) trees in the vegetated old sand dunes behind the current beach. A couple of Eastern towhees tilted their heads back and opened their beaks wide to call out from the tops of junipers in the old sand dunes, and from within the woods bordering the marsh. A muskrat paddled through open water, grasping a cluster of leaves in its mouth, which it then deposited out of sight, traveling back through the water and then along a watery path through a stand of reeds. We spotted what appeared to be a couple of beaver-hewn small tree trunks in a swampy area near the footpath. Chickadees hopped about in the shrubs and small trees, and a few American robins were scattered through the landscape, getting into tussles with one another. 

     Two ducks of a species I didn't recognize rocked along in the salty waves preceding the storm. Small groups of delicate terns flapped over the open water. Sea gulls winged over the landscape. Many a duck (too far away and in difficult lighting for ID'ing) was present on the sandy banks of a waterway coiling through the salt marsh. White egret-/heron-like birds stalked through the open water and occasionally flapped overhead. An osprey appeared to be perched in a nest on an osprey-nesting platform. Goldfinches flew about, occasionally solo and more often in small groups. Small flocks of waxwings fed on the fruit of a cherry tree and perched in trees in the company of goldfinches. 

     From an observation tower, we spotted a willet by its prominent black and white wing pattern, as it flew over the marsh toward the beach. The willet landed on one of the handrails of a boardwalk. 

     A Brown thrasher (my first sighting here in New England) was perched at the top of a clump of shrubbery on the old beach dunes, singing away in repetitive phrases. 

     Leaves of Poison ivy appeared broad and strong, and some of the Purple loosestrife plants were flowering. Interestingly, there were also Galerucella sp. larvae feeding on the Purple loosestrife, with eggs visible on the leaves. I wondered at the location of the nearest Galerucella release site! Galerucella beetles are released in wetlands that are infested with the exotic, invasive plant Purple loosestrife, in the hope of controlling and reducing this weed population to allow native vegetation to flourish and improve wildlife habitat. Pink beach roses were in bloom, as were sumac shrubs, and purple vetch, and the yellow, leggy St. Johnswort. 

July 2 - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron)  We canoed out to check the heron nests. One had two young herons, grown considerably since a month ago, with an adult perched above them. The other nest, the one built just this year, had an adult perched near it, but no young ones. It looks as if this new nest, which I took to have been built by some of last year's brood of herons, will not be productive this year. A number of barn swallows skimmed over the water and white and yellow half-opened blossoms of lily pads dotted the water all around us. In many places, the density of the lily pads slowed us considerably.
     On this date in 1860, Thoreau goes back to check the marsh hawk's nest they had visited earlier:

July 3. - To Holbrook's meadow and Turnpike to try springs.

Looked for the marsh hawk's nest (of June 16th, q. v.) in the Great Meadows. It was in the very midst of the sweet-gale (which is three feet high), occupying an opening only a foot or two across. We had much difficulty in finding it again, but at last nearly stumbled on to a young hawk. There was one as big as my fist, resting on the bare, flat nest in the sun, with a great head, staring eyes, and open gaping or panting mouth, yet mere down, grayish-white down, as yet; but I detected another which had crawled a foot one side amid the bushes for shade or safety, more than half as large again, with small feathers and a yet more angry, hawk-like look. How naturally anger sits on the young hawk's bead! It was 3.30 and the old birds were gone and saw us not. Meanwhile their callow young lie panting under the sweet-gale and rose bushes in the swamp, waiting for their parents to fetch them food.

June is an up-country month, landscape is most like that of a more mountainous region, full of freshness, with the scent of ferns by the wayside.

Early July - New England (Carly Rocklen)  Have you noticed the scraggly-looking plants with powder-blue flowers that are blooming by the sides of the road, of late? This is chicory, and it's been used to produce a coffee substitute for years and years. Or, have you seen the white flowers that grow in the shape of a shield, also visible from the road? This is Queen Anne's lace. It's in the same family as the carrot on your dinner plate!

July 7- Canton/Milton (Carly Rocklen)  In a marshy field at old Brookwood Farm, by the foot of the Blue Hills, the exotic, invasive plant Purple loosestrife has begun to bloom. 

     Though its spires of purple-pink flowers may be eye-catching, these leggy plants grow to dominate wetlands, out-competing local, native plants for space, nutrients and sunlight - and stressing-out diverse local wildlife that has evolved over the years to depend upon native species for food and shelter. Purple loosestrife, which originated outside of this continent and was brought here accidentally in ship ballast water, and later for decoration, does not have the natural predators here in New England that it has in Eurasia. 

     To put yourself in the shoes of wildlife affected by Purple loosestrife-dominated wetlands, imagine your family -- who, for the sake of argument, is confined to your particular neighborhood, or even your plot of land, because of surrounding mountains -- eating fast-food for nearly every meal instead of various fruits and veggies including perhaps local Highbush blueberries, Cranberries and Blackberries, just because a fast-food joint was constructed on your harvesting grounds. 

     NepRWA and the MA DCR-Blue Hills are working together on a wetland restoration project to reduce Purple loosestrife in local wetlands.

     Within the wet-meadow at Brookwood Farm, I also looked around me and saw a fantastic Carex species at my feet. And, just at eye-level, were stark and beautiful cattails. 

July 13- Neponset River Greenway (Joyce Hempstead)  On one of my regular trail walks along the Dorchester/Milton trolley line from Granite Ave. drawbridge to Lower Mills and Central Ave., I noticed plenty of Swamp milkweed (the pink-flowering milkweed), its more intense relative, Butterfly weed (bright orange, Asclepias tuberosa); Lavender bee balm, Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) -- just beginning to bloom; of course Purple loosestrife, but along the path it appears only sporadically, making it easy to forget its harmful potential. The blackberries that grow near the trolley overpass were producing some ripe berries. I haven't seen Evening primrose (Oenothera erythrosepala, I think) this year (or last year). Two years ago the tall, wild stalks, laden with yellow blooms, were plentiful at the Lower Mills trolley stop next to the Adams St. overpass, blooming throughout July and August.

July 14- Mattapan (Carly Rocklen and Emily Tran)  Paralleling the north bank of the Neponset River, this afternoon, we wandered the trail system at Mattapan's Ryan Playground, and caught sight of newly blooming Jewelweed (the Jewelweed flower looks similar to garden snapdragons from this angle), St. Johnswort, the interesting tendrils and leaves of Wild cucumber, and calming vistas of the River. Did you know that Jewelweed's been used to combat the itchiness of a Poison ivy rash, and St. Johnswort has been used to combat depression?

July 17- Milton (Carly Rocklen and Emily Tran)  As we walked along the grassy Burma Rd. path that parallels the Neponset River in Fowl Meadow, we looked down to see a small turtle that had paused before us. We gathered that the cold-blooded creature was warming itself in the mid-day sun. Two leeches were hitching a ride on the rear of its shell. Shortly thereafter we caught sight of a butterfly that had alighted on a willow shrub, shaded by the surrounding underbrush. It slowly opened and closed its wings. We continued up the path and soon noticed green, luscious globes on wild grape vines hanging round and heavy in the shade. Across Rte. 138, at Brookwood Farm, we watched a butterfly explore a spire of Purple loosestrife flowers.

July 18- Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron)  A pair of catbirds in our yard have been providing some entertainment lately. They accompany me and the cats into the garden and often, anywhere else we go on the property. Some birds give a call that is clearly, "Cat! Cat! Beware!" but these catbirds sometimes seem more to just chatter away in our presence. It may be a warning call or a call of concern, but it is getting so familiar that it is starting to sound like one of the family. The dogs watch with jealous disgust from where they are tied under the arbor. Occasionally the cats sprawl affectionately while I weed in the garden, not a good thing when it is among the onions or the garlic, but they seem to cause little real damage. Today one of the catbirds perched on a garden fork which was stuck in the soil, as one of the cats approached to within just a few feet, before the catbird flew off and even then it only went a few feet away. There are also a few brilliant goldfinches around. When the sunflowers blossom in a month, there will be plenty more of them. A dark (not a ruby-throat) hummingbird has been visiting the flowers on the hanging plants in the yard.

July 18- Boston (Carly Rocklen)  Have you noticed the electric drone coming from the trees, the last couple of weeks? Cicadas are here! Absolutely a marker of summer, here in New England. Learn about cicadas in Massachusetts, and read what MassAudubon has to say.

July 21- Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  This evening at about 8:30, as I was taking my last stream gauge reading, I saw fireflies blinking yellow in the darkening woods near Beaver Brook in Sharon.

July 21- Canton (Carly Rocklen)  Walking the path around the perimeter of Ponkapoag Pond early this evening, I noticed that Buttonbush shrubs are blooming and fruiting. The graceful and fragrant flowers of the Swamp azalea also dot the earthen dam, where neighboring Viburnum shrubs are fruiting along with grape vines. The exotic, invasive shrub Buckthorn is fruiting, too - its ripening berries are a variety of colors, at this point. And, speaking of exotic, invasive plant species -- the flowery spikes of Purple loosestrife are looking robust and bright throughout the freshwater marsh. The white flowers of native Spiraea plants appear rather fuzzy and small; I'm looking forward to seeing which insects feed on them (currently they're a mystery to me). Asters are getting ready to bloom, along with Goldenrods and Sweet pepperbush, and Pickerelweed is offering up blue-purple spires of flowers at the water's surface.

July 23 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  Have you noticed the sound of crickets? They've certainly come out around Jamaica Pond during the last week! Last night, around 7:30PM, they created a background symphony of very calming night music. To me, the sounds of crickets have always signaled the waning of summer and the arrival of fall (bittersweet indicator). Did you know that the frequency of their calls is related to the temperature outdoors, as well as their species?

July 29 - Canton and Quincy (Carly Rocklen)  On a multi-town search for Purple loosestrife, beneath the hot July sun, we wandered past a field of delicate Queen Anne's lace at Pequitside Farm in Canton, and later we passed clusters of vibrant, tall Yellow coneflowers within the wildflower mix of Squantum Point Park in Quincy.

August 1 - Canton, Milton and Readville (Carly Rocklen)  Within the Fowl Meadow wetland of the Blue Hills Reservation, milkweed is blooming in the wet-meadow, and local insects (bumblebees, honeybees, other) are having a feast on its nectar and pollen! Goldenrod also shines nearby - especially at Brookwood Farm - and is being visited by many an insect as well (beetles and others). Eupatorium species are in bloom, too - you may recognize them as "Joe-Pye weed", for instance (tall plants with pink flowers that can look rather string-y at times). Blue vervain is tall and graceful in the wet-meadows. Pink and white Spiraea species are in bloom and act as landing pads and larders for a variety of insects. Purple loosestrife is in bloom, too, and it's being fed upon by a variety of insects, as well. Dogwood and viburnum shrubs are fruiting, as are some milkweed plants. Thistle, Queen Anne's lace, Tansies and Chicory are in bloom.... Groundnut flowers peek from the shrubs they're climbing....

August 21 - Canton (Carly Rocklen)  I wandered through abandoned golf course greens at Ponkapoag, early this evening. Walked over expanses of spring-y grass (because of accumulated grass blades and peat?) and shallow standing water, sank into shallow, rich mud, my shoulders brushed past tall clusters of Wool grass, ankles passed through the white, pink, and everything-in-between blooms of smartweed, enjoyed the varied shapes and bright green of sedges and rushes. After passing into a darkened, tree-bough-hung path, I broke out into a sunny field and scared up a White-tailed deer, which bolted across the field, into a bordering swathe of evergreens, snorting, white tail raised and bright against the dark blue-green of conifers. I caught sight of a hummingbird, fluttering high up along a tree trunk, examining a vine that wrapped around the bark. I wondered if the fast moving bird earlier had been feeding on the Sweet pepperbush or perhaps on the Jewelweed that covers the ground below. The sunlight warmed me - a rich yellow, early evening light. Sunlight shone through the broad green leaves of grape vines, reminiscent of stained glass. Two hawks called back and forth to each other from separate and ever changing perches in tall, bare trees. Every now and again one of the birds would flap its way across the green to the other side to join its companion. I couldn't be sure if they were Red tails. - On my way out I was enveloped by the sweet scent of Sweet pepperbush, and I passed along a broad dirt path.

August 25 - Milton (Carly Rocklen)  Within the Fowl Meadow floodplain along the Neponset River...I wandered the Burma Rd. footpath. Marsh and wet-meadow bordered either side of the path, and as I walked forward, catching sight of beautiful, pink walls of Joe-Pye weed, heavy blue bouquets of blue dogwood fruits, the vibrant yellow clusters of goldenrods, the fuzzy, white spires of Narrow-leaved meadowsweet flowers, and the towering feathery tops of Phragmites, I spotted something else quite astonishing. Ants and aphids gathered in a cluster on the leaf of a Trembling aspen tree. The ants were most likely feeding on the honeydew produced by the aphids, meanwhile protecting the aphids from danger.

September 15 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  Today I found a Snapping turtle hatchling about one inch long near Gavins Pond in Sharon. Also, here's a photo of the Unicorn caterpillar seen near Beaver Brook in Sharon on August 26. For more info. about the caterpillar, visit this webpage.

September 15 - Neponset River Watershed & Beyond (Carly Rocklen)  Fall's approaching! Walking the dirt path around the south side of Ponkapoag Pond, you can see that the leaves of the Pickerelweed are yellowing in the shallows, the leaves of Water-willow are reddening at the edge of the pond, the tall flower spires of Purple loosestrife plants have stopped blooming, and the globose, translucent red and gold berries of False Solomon's seal are getting closer to ripe. Asters are in their blooming heyday - some have big, white flowers (size is relative!) in bunches, others have solo blossoms, while others still are sprouting delicate, tiny-petaled blooms along branches. A variety of shapes and sizes of bright yellow goldenrod species decorate nearly every step along the path. Flickers swoop between trees on the golf course. Elsewhere, impressively feathered Wild turkeys strut the manicured expanses of lawn along Route 9 in Brookline, and they jump in noisy bursts between branches in a tall oak tree in the suburbs of southcentral Connecticut. Canada geese flap overhead in V's, swinging around ponds and lakes. The Galerucella beetles that NepRWA and the DCR are releasing to control Purple loosestrife have hit the quieter part of their life cycle; we see hardly any these days, during our visits to the field sites. Mushrooms are popping up. About a month back, at the canoe launch on Truman Highway in Hyde Park, an immense white blob was half-way visible in the woods. So I clambered in to get a better look - over greenbrier, between shrubs, past tree trunks, over rocks, through a blanket of small greenery, and found an enormous fungus; my adult-size hand looked miniature next to it. Just under a foot-and-a-half long by about a foot wide. Have you seen any of these, this year?

September 17 - Canton (Carly Rocklen)  Guess whose berries are now red and full, and will remain so through the snow and ice of winter? The Winterberry shrubs, growing along the green dot path of Ponakapoag Pond. Look for these bushes across from the bog, at the southwestern edge of the pond. You'll recognize the berries from winter floral arrangements. And, the birds will recognize them as dinner!

Fall & Winter

October 8 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  Check out this enormous Praying mantis I found in my raspberry patch today. It's about five inches long.

October 8 - Canton (Carly Rocklen)  Now along the moist forest floor in Fowl Meadow - fallen Red maple leaves. And, wrapping around the trunks of trees beside the Burma Rd. footpath - the changing leaves of Virginia creeper. 

October 9 - Sharon (Faith Berkland)  After the NepRWA volunteer activity, my brother and I drove home our usual route, and on Massapoag Ave. in Sharon (the road that leads to Borderland State Park), I had to stop the car because a mink ran in front of us and stopped, looked around and then ran the rest of the way across! It was no more than 10' in front of the car. Very exciting, and we wouldn't have seen it had we not gone. Just thought you'd be interested.

October 9 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  Early afternoon sunlight kissed the shells of three small turtles sunning themselves by the edge of Jamaica Pond. Narrow yellow stripes extended the length of their necks, and red stripes spanned the length of their front legs. Their shells were bordered with patches of red. As one of the turtles slid into the water and then re-emerged, attempting to re-position itself on the half-submerged tree branch, I could see the fall leaf-like appearance of its belly plate; it was tan-orange in color, brightening to yellow along the edges and divided by a grid of contrastingly colored lines. While balanced on a rock, one of the turtles kept its rear legs extended behind it, held aloft in the air, out of the water. 

October 10 - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron)  Each season has its moments, but this time in October would be my favorite, if I had to pick one. The tupelo and red maples are nearing spectacular color around the pond after a couple nights of light frost.     

     In the woods, the yellows of the sassafras, yellow birch and witch hazel are deepening, but many of the witch hazel leaves have ugly black spots.

     In the woods on two consecutive days, we could see flocks of blackbirds flying low and hear their distinctive gurglings. This morning, a flock of hundreds of clamoring blackbirds made a brief appearance at our house, tearing at the dogwood, bittersweet, and cedar berries for a few chaotic minutes. I could hear many of them alighting on our roof. But soon they were gone, leaving the berries for a smaller flock of robins, which has been around for some time. I think that the blackbirds are waiting for a cold north wind they can fly up into and get a boost in their long trip south. I wonder how much their decision to take off is triggered by wind speed and direction, as well as the temperature.

     On the cold nights when I expect a frost, I cover the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant with one very large tarp, and use a long windsurfing mast to hoist up a couple of sheets of plastic to protect the tall arbor of morning glories. When things get killed even under their protection, the growing season is officially over, even though the kale, broccoli, chard, and a few of the herbs will keep chugging along, often into December.

     Gotta go, the blackbirds just returned.

Blackbirds II:

     This time, I watched them feed and they were ignoring the cedars and the bittersweet, apparently concentrating on bright red berries on the dogwood. The large tree near our house has already lost all of the hundreds, if not thousands of the brilliant berries it had a couple days ago. This time, one part of the flock found a dogwood that was partially hidden behind grapevines and 20-50 of them concentrated on a space that could not have been more than a couple yards square. One minute you could see a lot of the red berries, the next minute, hardly any, and the whole space was predominantly black with birds. The were some purple pokeweed berries nearby, but I could not tell if they took any of those. The rose hips were still mostly green and they were also ignored.

     Again, they have moved on, but the frantic whirling energy of that mass of loud, feeding birds is amazing while it lasts.

October 15 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  The return of fall waterfowl on local lakes is exciting. American coots and small diving ducks, along with 2 pairs of swans, have returned to Jamaica Pond over the last several weeks. I'm anticipating the return of the single Northern pintail male and the female Wood duck, too, along with a variety of other species. They'll help spice up life on the pond! Mallards, Canada geese, seagulls and cormorants dominated the water, during the summer.

October 18-20 - Thoreau's 1853 Journal Entries (Sent by Dwight Mac Kerron)  

Oct. 18. (1853) With Sophia (his sister) boated to Fair Haven where she made a sketch.

    The red maples have been bare a good while. In the sun and this clear air, their bare ashy branches even sparkle like silver. The woods are losing their bright colors. The muskrat-houses are more sharpened now. How like some black rocks that stand in the river are these muskrat-houses! They are singularly conspicuous for the dwellings of animals.

     I find any boat all covered - the bottom and seats - with the yellow leaves of the golden willow under which it is moored, and if I empty it, it is full again to-morrow.' Some white oaks are salmon-red, some lighter and drier. The black oaks are a greenish yellow . Poplars (grandidentata) clear, rich yellow. 

     The river is quite low now, lower than for many weeks, and accordingly the white lily pads have their stems too long, and they rise above the water four or live inches and are looped over and downward to the sunken pad with its face down. They make a singular appearance. Returning late, we see a double shadow of ourselves and boat, one, the true, quite black, the other directly above it and very faint, on the willows and high bank.

Oct. 19. Wednesday. Paddled E. Hoar and Mrs. King up the North Branch.

     A seed of wild oat left on.
     The leaves have fallen so plentifully that they quite conceal the water along the shore, and rustle pleasantly when the wave which the boat creates strikes them. On Sunday last, I could hardly find the Corner Spring, and suspected even it had dried up, for it was completely concealed by fresh-fallen leaves, and when I swept them aside and revealed it, it was like striking the earth for a new spring. 

     At Beek Stow's, surveying, thinking to step upon a leafy shore from a rail, I got into water more than a foot deep and had to wring my stockings out; but this is anticipating.'

Oct. 20. 

     How pleasant to walk over beds of these fresh, crisp, and rustling fallen leaves, - young hyson, green tea, clean, crisp, and wholesome! How beautiful they go to their graves! How gently lay themselves down and turn to mould! - painted of a thousand hues and fit to make the beds of us living. So they troop to their graves, light and frisky. They put on no weeds. Merrily they go scampering over the earth, selecting their graves, whispering all through the woods about it." They that waved so loftily, how contentedly they return to dust again and are laid low, resigned to lie and decay at the foot of the tree and afford nourishment to new generations of their kind, as well as to flutter on high! How they are mixed up, all species - oak and maple and chestnut and birch! They are about to add a leaf's breadth to the depth of the soil. We are all the richer for their decay. Nature is not cluttered with them. She is a perfect husbandman; she stores them all.
     While I was wringing my wet stockings (he had accidentally stepped on leaves which concealed the water beneath them), sitting by the side of Beck Stow's, I heard a rush of wings, looked up, and saw three dusky ducks swiftly circling over the small water. They rounded far away, but soon returned and settled within about four rods. They first survey the spot. Wonder they did not see me. At first they are suspicious, hold up their heads and sail about. Do they not see me through the thin border of leafless bushes.' At last one dips his bill, and they begin to feed amid the pads. I suddenly rise, and [they] instantly dive as at a flash, then at once rise again and all go off, with a low wiry note.

October 20 - Fowl Meadow (Martha McDonough) These are a few pictures that I took along the river in Fowl Meadow. It was such a wonderful feeling simply being there that day!   Picture 1.   Picture 2.   Picture 3.   Picture 4.

October 21 - Canton & Norwood (Carly Rocklen)  See some of the wildlife traces I've encountered in a couple of wetlands, by scrolling down toward the bottom of this page.

October 31 - Fowl Meadow (Carly Rocklen)  See pictures from a sunset walk!

October - Blue Hills Reservation (Martha McDonough)  Yes, I, too, am ever so happy that the entire Blue Hills Reservation is at my doorstep. See pictures: Hilltop Pond. Ponkapoag's quaking bog. Carnivorous Pitcher plants.

November 1 - Norwood (Brian Gunning) While canoeing on Neponset River near the Rt. 1 Norwood launch I saw a family of red tail fox (a mother and 2 cubs if that is the correct parlance) and later by the airport I saw a mature whitetail deer with a good rack drinking from the river. Wish I had a camera.

November 4 - Norwood (Carly Rocklen)  Wild cucumber is a very neat looking plant: check-out its fruit. I found it during a walk at Endean Park, along Hawes Brook. (Check-out one of its flowers from the summer.)

November 14 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  I saw a big red-tail hawk devouring its prey on a branch in my back yard in Sharon this morning.

Late November - Canton (Carly Rocklen)  A small flock of five Eastern bluebirds has been flitting between the trees on the Ponkapoag Golf Course. What beautiful, soft songs they sing.

Late November - Sharon (Faith Berkland)  We have encountered a tom turkey who is extremely territorial about Mansfield Street around where it intersects Tracey Lane in Sharon, MA.  Somewhat before Thanksgiving my brother and I were walking the street to avoid hunters on our usual walk under the high tension lines and spotted a turkey.  I kept walking but my brother wanted to get closer seeing how tame it was.  As he did so the turkey decided to turn on us and chased us, me screaming, up the street until we finally turned on it and it decided to retreat.  It has been on the street ever since, I saw it chase my car a couple of times.  Maybe it will simmer down once he is comfortable that he will be allowed to claim his territory.

December 9-11 - Hyde Park (Carylbeth Thomas and Jacobus Van-Loon) You bet we have turkeys! We've always seen them around here for the past several years, and in the late fall and spring both. We mostly have seen them in Stoney Brook Preservation, where we are privileged to live right next to, and sometimes more in our neighborhood as well. So this past week we have seen them out in full force (or rather our chocolate lab is always the first to know they are around and alerts us quite loudly) right in our yard! We saw them three mornings in a row (Dec 9-11) between 6-7AM, happily pecking away in our yard and the neighbors as well, and then wandering on down the street to other yards. We live on a dead end street off of another dead end on top of a hill across from the park in Hyde Park (a very lovely place to be), so they feel safe on our very quiet street it appears, despite the canine alarm system - didn't even seem to phase them. We saw 5 turkeys each day! Pretty cool indeed. We have local hawks here all the time and see them pretty much daily, as well as random spottings of deer, fox and occasional coyote on a fairly consistent basis. Lucky us, eh?

December 12 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  I saw ten Snow geese from the Arctic in the Ward's Berry Farm field beside Heights Elementary School this morning. They were all white with black wing tips. I also saw two buck deer with nice antlers at two different locations in Sharon this morning. Can you discern the White-tailed buck beside Billings Brook in this photo? This photo was taken Friday morning along Beaver Brook near Sandy Ridge Circle in Sharon. Can you see the buck deer on the dirt road through the trees? Amazing how he blends in. Too bad I don't have a telephoto lens.

December 13 - Mattapan (Carly Rocklen)  Wild turkeys are roaming the grounds of the MassAudubon Boston Nature Center between Morton St. and Walk Hill Rd. in Mattapan! I highly recommend visiting to take a look. The turkeys are feeding on the dropped bird seed at the bird feeders. They frequently wander close enough to the nature center's windows as well, so it's easy to keep sheltered while watching them move around. The birds also wander around the property and even rest in the garden. On Saturday there were 3 large birds! It's remarkable how much their feet resemble miniature dinosaur feet. See pictures.

December 15 - Hyde Park (Carylbeth Thomas)  Hi again. Well, a rather unpleasant "sighting" today. My other dog found a large deer carcass this AM in Stony Brook (the lower end in Hyde Park near the Bajko skating rink and Kelly fields). It was quite fresh and about half eaten - so it appears that the coyotes are doing their "job" as it were. My neighbor saw a single coyote in our yard (across from the reservation) either Thursday or Friday night as well - not unusual though - we see them often here. So it was exciting, but in a slightly different way than we are accustomed to or the recent turkeys! (See Carylbeth's wildlife sighting on Dec. 9-11, below.)

December 20 - Jamaica Plain (Carly Rocklen)  Just outside the Neponset River Watershed, I took a walk around Jamaica Pond during the snow storm on Saturday morning. Who should be on the pond, but resting Canada geese and Hooded mergansers. There was also a Ruddy duck, American coots, cormorants and Mallards, but my fingers were too cold, the snowfall too much, and the camera too slow to take more photo's on this chilly day!

December 26 - Sharon (Paul Lauenstein)  I saw a flock of at least a dozen Snow buntings gleaning seeds on the dirt road beside the soccer fields near Gavins Pond in Sharon on Friday, Dec. 26 at about 1:00 p.m.