Nature Notes March 2020

One morning, around 6am, I saw a wake from something swimming along the edge of the pond, and, looking more closely, saw a muskrat, its head just poking out of the water. I don’t often see muskrats at the pond, but when I do, it’s always this time of year.

March 3 – Purple flowers at the Arboretum

March 4 – Jonquils coming out along Brewer Street; tulip leaves poking through the soil.

March 5 – On our early morning dogwalk, I heard a scrambling at the corner of Brewer and Eliot Streets and looked up to see a raccoon clambering up a tree. Once it got to about 15 feet up, it stopped for a bit, looking down at Maddie and me, then clambered further up. After awhile, it disappeared, possibly going into a hole in the tree trunk. Maddie was oblivious of the entire thing, snuffling at some leaves on the sidewalk. Unlike Toronto, we don’t see raccoons here often.

March 13 – Daffodils starting to bloom across the street from our house.

March 14 – Magnolias starting to bloom at the Arboretum. Everything seems to be out early this year.

March 18 – Crocuses out en masse.

March 21 – Spring is here. Willows just getting eensy-weensy nano-leaves, creating a mist of green surrounding their drooping branches; some fruit trees starting to blossom; forsythia starting to bloom. At Jamaica Pond: a pair of wood ducks; a pair of hooded mergansers; ring-necked ducks; a single mute swan. I expect that the mergansers and ring-necked ducks will be migrating north soon. Some years, a pair of wood ducks breeds at the pond and I get to see the ducklings.

March 22 Scilla blooming at Arboretum; bird feather on the ground.

March 26 – Walking Maddie along Eliot street early one morning, I heard a peculiar little thump, thump, thump noise. When I turned to look, I saw a grey squirrel, with a whole slice of pizza (species unknown) in its mouth, crossing the street, thumping the tip of the slice against the pavement with each leap. It stopped at the other side of the street before taking its treasure behind a fence to eat at an appropriate social distance.

Cherry tree starting to bloom at the Arboretum; our Christmas cactus blooming again in the sunroom. I thought they only bloomed once a year (at Christmas), but it turns out they can bloom again.

March 27 – Mourning doves, robins and blue jays have been at the stone water basin in our back yard over the last couple of weeks, so I thought it was time to clean it out after the winter and get it ready for them to drink and bathe in again. But as I scooped the old water out, I noticed that the bottom was full of stones and small bits of broken concrete, a couple of inches deep. Not sure how they got there – I doubt it was the neighborhood kids as the yard is completely fenced in. A raccoon? And why?

And my friend Alison, who lives in the bush up north in Ontario had this to report:

“I had an adventure today when I was out walking the dogs along the fire tower trail across the road from our house. The two dogs took off into the woods in pursuit of a large animal. They stopped just out of sight, but I could tell from the barks that they weren't moving anymore, so I figured they had treed a bear that had come out of hibernation early. I headed toward them to try and catch them but as I got closer I realized they had been chasing a moose and it was in the middle of an icy pond with the dogs on the edge. So I quickly beat a retreat back to the trail. The moose, followed by the dogs, appeared back on the trail so I looked around for some closely growing trees to hide behind. All the while, I was frantically calling the dogs back to me … Leif finally came to me and I managed to get the leash on him. Loki followed the moose back into the woods, but must have realized he was on his own and turned around. In the end, the moose came back to the trail and headed up toward the road.

The dogs are fine though a bit disappointed that there was no moose meat in their dinner bowls. Leif's muzzle was covered in blood but it turns out he bit his tongue in the excitement. Really, what are they thinking? Do you know how huge those animals are???

So I guess that's it for the off leash walks for a few weeks. I haven't seen a moose here for quite a few years. They used to be fairly common but I think they've been overhunted.” 

March 28 – Early in the morning, walking Maddie, I saw a muskrat again, swimming along the edge of Jamaica Pond, between Eliot Street and the boathouse. As I ran with Maddie to get a better view, it kept swimming ahead of me, then dove and came up again, heading around the docks at the boathouse.  

Around 10am, walked from Ward’s Pond to Leverett Pond, along the Emerald Necklace.  Saw red-winged blackbirds at Ward’s Pond and saw a hairy woodpecker pecking in the woods as I walked towards Leverett Pond.  At Leverett Pond, a pair of wood ducks on one of the small islands.  6 turtles lined up on a log, sunning. A cormorant perched on a snag poking out of the water – when it opened its bill, I could see the blue edge of its mouth in startling contrast to the black feathers on its face.  Red-tailed hawk soaring over the woods.  Heard loud woodpecker drumming but couldn’t find the woodpecker.