September 2020

 Sept 1 - On my bike ride into Cambridge, saw a great blue heron fishing in the Muddy River.  It was still there in nearly the same spot on my way back home.

 

Sept 2 - On my bike ride, saw a turkey in a small Brookline park filled with oak trees.  And a juvenile wood duck in the Muddy River. Wondering how much longer the juveniles are going to  stay around.

 

 

Peppers in the garden ready to pick.

 

 

Sept 3 - Sitting in the back garden in the late afternoon, saw a hawk circling overhead, above a neighbour's yard, coming around 3 or 4 times.  Couldn't identify it though.

Sept 4 - Early morning walk, the pond glass-like, full moon overhead, feeling tranquil.  I think I saw a pair of house wrens, smaller than a sparrow, small tail, held at an upward angle, chirping together in a tree along Eliot St.  

Sept 5 - News headline in the Boston Globe:  "Python is spotted in Jamaica Plain".  Glad I wasn't the one to spot that.  

 

Out for a bike ride in Concord and Carlisle, saw a small vegetable stand in front of a house, complete with pumpkins - fall is knocking at the door.  

Maddie found a very recently dead blue jay on a neighbor's front garden, by the little wall bordering the sidewalk.  Required a lot of urgent sniffing. And what she most wanted was to bring it home in her mouth, but I nixed that, even though I really like birds, too.

Sept 6 - At Broadmoor in S. Natick, walking along a trail by the Charles River, saw two kingfishers zip by, cackling as they went.  They're related to the Australian kookaburra, with its even more elaborate cackle.  The river so shallow from the drought that I can easily see the rocky bottom, just a foot or so beneath the surface of the water.  A canoe comes by, just barely skimming above the rocks.  

In the marsh, the cattails turning to fawn fuzz.  Another sign of fall.   As is the crisp cool air that I love in the mornings and evenings.

 Sept 7  - early morning, at the pond, one of the muskrats dead on the tiny sandy beach next to the boathouse. Was surprised at how sad I felt looking at it. And then saw a second muskrat swimming not too far away.  

 

Saw the turkey family in a front yard on  Eliot St. The young nearly adult size now. And not a bit afraid of Maddie and me. The two juveniles even came walking towards us.

 A personalized tree, complete with perky face at a house on Brewer St.

On the way back to the house, walking along the stone wall by the Jamaicaway, saw a squirrel leap onto a tree trunk and noticed that its teats were enlarged - it must have young tucked away somewhere nearby.  It parked on a branch and squawked at me for a bit.

Sept 8 Morning glories growing over a chain link fence on Eliot St.

Sept 9 - Saw the adult muskrat with a juvenile, a little bigger than half adult size, on the branch in the water by the dock this morning. But it was too dark at 5:50am to take a photo....

Biking into MIT this morning, a dramatic view of the river and downtown, from the BU bridge.

Sept 10 - Walking in the woods by the Chestnut Hill pond, not far from the parking lot, saw a hawk, maybe a juvenile Cooper's hawk, perched on a branch.  When I stopped to look at it, it flew a little way to another branch and I got some  photos.

Sept 11 - Got close up to the albino squirrel along the Muddy River this morning on my bike ride.  It was right by the water, near the new dam that was installed when the US Army Corps of Engineers restored this section of the river a few years ago.  Busy burying a nut.

 Lots of turkeys this afternoon.  At the Arb, a mom and 3 juveniles in the undergrowth near the front entrance to the Arb.  A couple of others, snuffling around near by.  Then, walking Maddie home, saw our neighbourhood mom with her two juveniles in my next door neighbor's front yard, where one, then another, and finally, the last one all lay down for a rest.  I suspect that their lives are not very stressful. They've become so used to the comings and going of the neighborhood that they don't move away, even when I have Maddie with me.  

I went out to run an errand and when I came back, about 1/2 hour later, they were parked in my front yard, the juveniles lying down on top of the stone wall at the front of the yard.

Sept 12 Fall colors really starting in a few trees in the neighborhood.

Saw the albino squirrel again, in pretty much the same spot as yesterday, this time digging up a nut.   Maybe the same nut it was burying yesterday...

Sept 14 - saw two great blue herons this morning on my walk with Maddie.  One fishing in Jamaica Pond, right by the footpath and the other flying silently overhead, as we walked along Brewer St.  

Walking in the Arb this afternoon, at the end of our walk, Maddie wanted to stop by the little creek by the main gate for a drink. While she was snuffling around in the very shallow water, only an inch or two deep,  I saw a flash of bright yellow in the bushes at the edge of the creek:  a goldfinch.  Then several more, flitting around the bushes and a couple on the footpath.  Love their brilliant yellow.

Sept 15-25 I've fallen behind with the nature notes. It's now dark when I take Maddie out in the morning, so harder to take photos.  Every couple of days I've beeen seeing great blue herons fishing, either at Jamaica Pond or in the Muddy river.   One morning I saw one flying low along the Muddy River, looking prehistoric.  I'm continuing to see  the muskrats by the Jamaica Pond boathouse a few times a week.   Often see them swimming not far from the dock. Sometimes one is still in the water, then, I think as it senses me, splashing and diving.  One morning saw a juvenile muskrat perched on the branch stuck at the dock, then an adult appeared next to it.

Sept 17 - Fall colors spreading on the tree from Sept 12.

And beautyberries in my back yard.  The branches are drooping from so many berries.

Sept 21 - Cattails at the marsh at the Arboretum, the brown spikes turning to white fuzz.  Or, as Wikipedia says "Each male (staminate) flower is reduced to a pair of stamens and hairs, and withers once the pollen is shed. Large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike. In larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 2 in) thick. The seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetres (0.008 in) long, and attached to fine hairs. When ripe, the heads disintegrate into a cottony fluff from which the seeds disperse by wind."

 Sept 24 - The 2 juvenile turkeys I've been seeing all summer are pretty much grown up.  Here they are, one early morning with mom.

Sept 25 - Walking Maddie in the afternoon at the Arb, I spotted a monarch butterfly on a bush. As I walked over to get a closer look, a hawk burst out of a tree, just above me, and flew up to a neighboring tree before flying off out of sight.  I thought it was completely gone, but a little further along on my walk, it flew by again, landing on a nearby tree and staying there long enough for me to get a couple of photos.  A Cooper's hawk, I think.

 

 

Sept 26 - Went to see Di and Linda in Westerly, RI.  On the drive, beautiful fall colors in the trees by the highway.  While sitting on their deck, a red-tail hawk flew across the yard, landing briefly in one of their trees, before taking off again. Saw it circling over the neighborhood for a surprisingly long time.  A tired Maddie after we returned home and had dinner.

Sept 29 - seeing more trees turning color here in Jamaica Plain.  This one is across the street from my house.