October 2020

 October 1 Biking home from MIT this morning, saw 4 mute swans flying close together, right above and along Memorial Drive by the Charles River, their white feathers gleaming in the low, early morning sun.  And then, just across the river by the BU (Boston University) bridge, a red-tailed hawk circling over Commonwealth Avenue.  In the afternoon, walking Maddie at the Arboretum, trees turning color and the ground covered in fallen leaves.

October 2 Driving to get groceries at Whole Foods, the sunrise over the pond was so spectacular, the air, the clouds, the water, all golden, that I had to stop, park and get out of the car to take a photo.

And on the way back, I saw the albino squirrel on the grassy area by the Parkman monument; I hadn't seen it for a couple of months.

October 3 Walking Maddie at the pond, a cool morning, mist hanging over the water, the full moon above. Saw a juvenile muskrat swimming near the dock.

Walking along Pond Street, past the house of an MIT colleague, admiring his always beautiful garden.  Today, gorgeous purple flowers.

And then, further along on Myrtle St, a tree just barely beginning to turn color, just a hint in a couple of places.

On my bike ride into Cambridge, saw 16 mute swans, including two juveniles, paddling about near the shoreline.

October 4  Walking Maddie, saw at least 4 muskrats at the pond - the most I've ever seen. Two swimming about 100 feet away from the dock, on either side.  One perched on the stone wall below the boathouse, nibbling on something.  It then swam towards the dock. Then two, one adult, one juvenile, futzing around in the water between the boathouse and the dock.

On my bike ride, saw 4 male wood ducks in their elegant breeding plumage, along with a single female, in the little stream along Brookline Ave. that connects Leveritt Pond to the Muddy River.  I love that within a couple of blocks of the very built up Longwood Medical Area, with the big Harvard teaching hospitals and the Harvard Medical School, there are wonderful wood ducks going about their duck business, oblivious of the human frenzy nearby.

A perfect fall day - sunny, blue sky, mid-60s (18C), slight breeze.  Lovely just to be outside.

October 9 There have been sightings of peregrine falcons in Providence RI - the Boston Globe today had an article on raptors in the city..."with an abundance of slow pigeons and fat rats, the city is an all-you-can-eat-buffet for raptors.

 

They're in Boston, too. There's a pair of peregrine falcons that nests on the Customs Tower building most years, and there have been sightings of peregrines on a Boston University dorm on Comm. Ave.  A few years ago, a juvenile peregrine was found on the street in Kendall Square, near MIT, so there must have been a nest on a ledge on one of the nearby buildings.

Turkey trauma on my street.  Just 2 of them together, wandering up and down the street by my house, calling, presumably for the third bird. Much squawking throughout the day: when I do an errand at 7am, before I start class at 10am, again when class is over at 11, then, in mid-afternoon, and again at 7pm.  The third one never showed up.

Oct 18  The tree that was just beginning to turn color on Oct 3 is now in full brilliant color.

 

 

October 21 Maddie getting ready for my zoom class.

There are still a few flowers blooming in the front garden - I was especially impressed by these white ones.

Oct 24 Walking Maddie early, before dawn, the moon lighting up a thinning in the clouds over the pond.

Walking Maddie in the afternoon, the two remaining turkeys, the mom and a juvenile, at the wall at the end of my street - one of the turkeys posing.

Oct 25 This year's Lantern Parade around Jamaica Pond has been cancelled.  Normally, there is live music at the boathouse, young people, older people, hundreds of families with kids dressed in their Hallowe'en costumes, circling the pond after dark, everyone carrying "lanterns" - clear plastic soda bottles decorated with tissue paper, colored with crayons, lit with a candle inside.  Instead, I make do with looking at the lantern parade mural on a wall by the JP center parking lot. 

October 26 More tree color at the Arb, lots of fallen leaves to scuffle (in my case) and snuffle (in Maddie's case) around in.

 

Not too many birds/animals to report in Jamaica Plain this month. But soon, the migrating ducks will arrive at the pond, as they do every year at the beginning of November.

Oct 30 Drizzle as Maddie and I set out for our early morning walk.  Then an hour or two later, turning to snow, which I thought would disappear as the day wore on and grew warmer. But it didn't.  

 

Zebra grass at 8:49am:

 

And at 9:43 am:

 

And at 11:42am:

A heavy, wet snow kept coming for the rest of the day.   

 

October 31 Jamaica Pond, early in the morning, a slight mist over the water, the snow coating the trees -  beautiful.

The leaves still remaining on the trees caught lots of snow, weighing them down, bending them way over - here's the dogwood tree in the front yard.

Out doing errands, I stopped at Jamaica Pond to look for migrating ducks:  saw a pied billed grebe, diving over and over, and a single ruddy duck.  Usually the ruddies come in a flock of 20 or 30 and stay until the pond freezes over... more will probably be coming soon.  I'm now on the lookout for hooded mergansers...

Going for a walk along the Emerald Necklace, loved the sun coming through the trees, the contrast between the dark grey bark of the trees and the dazzling white of the snow, along with golden highlights from the remaining leaves hanging from the branches.  And then at Leverett Pond, wood ducks.

 

And in the afternoon, walking Maddie, saw these ginko leaves on the ground.