Nature Notes February 2020

February 2020

Often I walked along the Emerald Necklace, past several ponds, carrying my binoculars, doing a little bird watching along the way.   At Leverett Pond, I often saw Wood Ducks, sheltering under an overhanging bush near one of the small islands.  For a couple of weeks, there was a group of 4 or 5 Common Mergansers, the males with their shimmering white feathers and black highlights, the females with their Mohawk style feathers standing erect along the crest of their heads.  Often, a pair of hooded mergansers at Jamaica Pond.

One day, on the way home, I saw a bird flying across the little Willow Pond, landing on a tree branch about 10 feet above the pond – a Kingfisher, holding a small fish in its bill, perpendicular to it. I watched the bird twirl the fish around to align it with its bill, swallow it, and finally, repeatedly open and close its bill, as if to say “Ahh, that was good”.  I was surprised to see the Kingfisher, as they fish in freshwater ponds and streams which usually freeze over in the winter, forcing them to migrate south.  But this year, being so mild, this bird stayed.

Walking at Jamaica Pond: for most of the winter, dozens of ring-necked ducks and ruddy ducks and about a dozen wood ducks and about a dozen hooded mergansers stayed at the pond.

Feb 7 – Snow drops starting to bloom in a neighbor’s front yard on Prince St. Incredibly early in the season!

February 10 – Heather starting to bloom on Holbrook St, near the Eliot School.  My mother loved heather, especially seeing it covering the hillsides in Northumberland, where she was from, where she loved to go “rambling” as the English say.

February 12 – More witch hazel at the Arboretum, in the Leventritt garden, with its climbing vines on the steel trellises in the background.

February 21 – Walking in the Arboretum, just about to leave by the main gate, when a woman pointed out to me a hawk perched in a tree, right beside the main roadway through the Arb. It stayed there while I took a few photos with my iPhone.

February 23 – Saw a heart shaped rock, painted red, in someone’s front yard near the Eliot School.  The next day, hearts chalked onto the sidewalk in front of the Ellen Swallow Richards house on Eliot Street.