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 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....

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.

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 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 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 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 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, interesting tendrils and leaves, 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 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 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. 

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 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.

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. 

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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. 

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.

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!

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

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

Mid-May - Stoughton (Dwight Mac Kerron) On an afternoon kayak trip on Ames Pond a few days ago, we heard a very loud squawk, which turned out to be from a Great blue heron. The heron dove into the tops of a group of 70-foot White pines. (I had been told there had been a Red-tailed hawk's nest here in previous years, and that one year the hawks had to eject a pair of owls to reclaim it.) 

     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 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 &