December 2020

Tuesday, December 1 - On my morning bike ride, there was great commotion, with much flapping and fussing, among a flock of Canada geese grazing on the grass by the boathouse.  When I looked more closely, I saw the two neighbourhood turkeys in the midst of the geese, the larger one chasing the geese around.  On the stream by Brookline Ave, 2 male and one female hooded merganser along with a single male wood duck.  

    There has been talk about dredging and restoring the Muddy River, practically since I arrived in Boston, over 35 years ago.  After many years of fits and starts, a few years ago, work finally began.  The US Army Corps of Engineers restored the area between Fenway Park and the Museum of Fine Arts, opening up a section of the river that had been hidden underground for years and landscaping the newly opened river banks. It's beautiful. And now, in a second phase of the work, they are restoring the portion of the river in the other direction, between Fenway Park and Leverett Pond at Route 9.  Several times when I've biked by recently, there has been a large yellow backhoe right in the stream along Brookline Ave., presumably starting the dredging.  As the stream is narrow, less than 20' across, and at the bottom of a 10' high bank, the backhoe looks like some hulking giant, completely out of place.  And I'm thinking that it's got to be off-putting to the ducks that hang around in the stream.

     In the afternoon, Maddie and I had a longer walk in the Arboretum, going all the way from the house to the South St. gate.  Bussey Brook very full and flowing fast after a heavy rain yesterday.  

Thursday, December  3 - Saw one of the muskrats swimming by the boathouse at the pond on my early morning walk with Maddie.

Friday, December 4  In the morning, a pair of hooded mergansers at Leverett Pond, and in the afternoon, another pair at the small pond off the main road at the Arboretum.  The afternoon was sunny and warm, around 60F, lovely.  And when Maddie and I got back to the house, the two turkeys were on my front garden.  They've gotten so used to us, they barely moved as we walked up the front path next to them.

Saturday, December 5 - Heavy rain today, so we only went around the block on our morning walk.  But even on that short walk there was something of interest: a pigeon wing in a front yard.  I wondered what raptor had got it and gone off with the rest of the bird.

And in my back yard, a single pansy plant still flowering.  I took a photo as the forecast is for heavy, wet snow later on today; I can't imagine that it will survive the day.

I went into my office at MIT this morning to pick up some files.  On the way back home, I stopped at Hall's Pond. The barred owl was there again, perched on the same branch as the last time I saw it a few days ago. 

Sunday December 6 Saw what I thought was a horned grebe, with non-breeding plumage, diving, reappearing further along the shore, and diving again, over and over, near the boathouse early this morning. Hard to tell as it was just getting light out.  Beautiful sunset, walking along the Perkins St side of the pond, saw 3 muskrats swimming and diving near the little island.  Also 20 ring-necked ducks all in a flock nearby.  The ring-necked ducks seem particularly badly named: they have an impossible to miss white band around their bills and a barely perceptible (Cornell's website describes it as "hard to see") chestnut collar on their black necks. 

Monday December 7 It's getting cold for morning bike rides, so I thought I'd go for a brisk walk around the pond with my binoculars, looking for birds.  Saw what I thought was the horned grebe again, diving not far off the shore of the pond along the Parkman Drive side.  Then I saw a couple of birders with telescopes set up looking at it. When I asked if it was a horned grebe, they said no, an eared grebe.  When I got out my phone and compared the non-breeding plumage of the horned and eared grebes, I saw that they were right - an eared grebe! Very exciting!  Silbey says "common along the western Gulf coast; uncommon to rare elsewhere in eastern North America."   I saw several more people with binoculars looking at it as I walked around the pond. One guy told me he'd driven from Littleton, about 35 miles away, to see it.  And it was very cooperative.  It has stayed all week long; my neighbour Mary took a photo the other day.

A single turkey at Steve's house.  Early in the summer there was a Mom and 2 chicks, then, at the beginning of October, down to two turkeys, with lots of squawking consternation the day I saw them missing one, and now, just one turkey.  I assume at some point the young leave the Mom (or maybe the other way around).  But in any case, now, just one turkey by itself.

Thursday December 10 Ward's Pond, just past Jamaica Pond, all frozen over this morning.

Friday December 11 Chilly morning.  At the pond, the Canada geese had frost on their backs, demonstrating both the water repellency of their outer contour feathers, which must have beaded up the morning dew, and the insulation of their down, which prevented their body heat from melting the frost that formed in the chill.

A dozen swans at the pond, skittish, taking off in flight when I stopped to take a photo of them. They flew across the pond and kept going, unlike the resident swans, who tend to do one or two laps around the pond before landing on the water again.  Their necks seemed particularly straight, straighter than those of the usual mute swans, making me wonder if they might be trumpeter swans (the Cornell website describes them as having "long necks, typically held straight both on the water and in flight").

Saw the albino squirrel on the grass near the Parkman monument across from the Pond on the way home from doing errands.  

And the lone pansy in my back garden is still flowering, in spite of the recent snow and freezing temperatures.

Saturday December 12. Went for a morning bike ride to the BU bridge and then over to Hall's Pond. Saw the barred owl again in the same tree, although in a slightly higher branch this time. Wonderful to see it several times in the last few weeks.  On the way back, along Beacon Street, three turkeys flew over the road, landing just in front of me in my lane. Luckily there wasn't any traffic and I was able to simply go around them.  But a little startling early in the morning.  In the stream running along Brookline Ave, a pair of  green-winged teal and 2 pairs of wood ducks.

Sunday December 13 At Leverett Pond a Dad and his young son out birding pointed out a black-crowned night heron perched in a tree overhanging the water.   Also a single male hooded merganser and several ring-necked ducks swimming near the small islands.

Thursday December 17 Big snowstorm last night and throughout the day today, about a foot in Boston.

Friday December 18  A neighbor sends around a nearly daily parks update, sometimes with photos of local wildlife.  Today, there was this, from Nature's Zeitgeist blog:  "I rambled around Jamaica Pond on a winter walk today and met one of the pond's albino squirrels feasting on beech nuts and acorns. Three were born in a litter this spring and two are still thriving. They will experience their first big snowstorm tonight!  For more details on the biology and lore of albino squirrels, click this link on the Friends of Jamaica Pond website: albino squirrels".

 Saturday December 19 Lots of birds at the pond this morning: a couple of dozen hooded mergansers, ruddy ducks, ring-necked ducks, one male common merganser, a coot. And the eared grebe is still there - I've seen it every time I've gone to the pond since it first arrived.

A photo of the snow at the pond.

 

Sunday December 20 Even more ducks this morning: several dozen hooded mergansers; ruddy ducks; maybe a dozen ring-necked ducks. The eared grebe still there. Today a single female common merganser (where did yesterday's male go?). When I talked to some birders with a spotting scope set up, they told me that shortly before, about 150 common mergansers flew in, landed, stayed 10 minutes and then took off again. Rats... I would have liked to have seen that. Hundreds of Canada geese migrating through. A pair of downy woodpeckers, the female on a tree trunk, just a few feet away, right in front of me, the male going from branch to branch higher up in a neighboring tree, both easy to see, very cooperative.

The turkey that frequents my neighbors' Chris and Steve's house (because Steve feeds it corn) was not happy about the snow. Here it is, wading through the snowbank next to their house.

Wednesday Dec 23 We've had a few warmer days, melting the snow. The moose on the back yard table was completely covered for several days, but is now poking through again. Tomorrow and Friday, Christmas Day, forecast to be in the 50s, with rain and wind. Ugh...

 

Walking around Jamaica Pond at 3pm, lots of birds on the water. For me, the highlight was a flock of about 50 hooded mergansers, in three groups near each other. One group, near an iced-over bay, diving in rapid sequence, one after another, over and over. A ring-billed gull lurking nearby, harassing them as they bobbed up, trying to steal whatever the hoodies caught.

 

Also a great blue heron, looking a bit forlorn, standing on the ice by a drainage grate.

The eared grebe is still there, a couple of dozen ruddy ducks, maybe a dozen ring-necked ducks.

On the way back to the house, noticed the copper rabbit weather vane on Steve and Chris (the rabbit guys) garage, frosted with snow. At one point, they had something like 70 rabbits in the garage. We used to see them hopping around the (fenced in) yard in the summertime. And occasionally Steve would appear out of the house with a rabbit under his arm, off to run an errand.

Thursday, December 24 Went to Hall's Pond to look for the barred owl, but didn't see it.  There was a great blue heron on the bank of the pond, head tucked in, long neck scrunched to almost nothing.  And dramatic dark clouds with a glimpse of sun on the snow.
 

Friday, December 25 Ridiculous Christmas weather - 60F, 40mph wind in the night and heavy rain most of the day. The snow nearly all gone by the end of the day.  And the one last pansy still hanging in there, even after a foot of snow last week.

Saturday, December 26  On our morning walk, the turkey was posing on Chris and Steve's fence, waiting for Steve to feed it.  At the pond, 3 swans flying over the water, their wings gleaming in the morning sun.  About 15 hoodies still there, swimming and diving together, also ruddy ducks, ring-necked ducks.  And the eared grebe continues.

Sunday December 28 Went to Broadmoor, a Mass Audubon sanctuary in South Natick, about 15 miles west of Jamaica Plain.  Beautiful sunny day, brilliant blue sky.  

Walked along the marsh, then along the edge of a field, once an orchard.  Across the field, saw bluebirds flitting about from one bush to another.  Ice crystals interspersed in the frozen soil.

On a path through the woods, wondered if there had been coyotes about, from the large feathers and patches of fur I saw scattered along the way.  The feathers were large, some nearly a foot long - I wondered what could have gotten such a large bird, other than a coyote. And the tufts of fur, in two different spots, were 2 or 3 inches long, so again, not from a small rodent.

Wednesday December 30  Beautiful golden full moon over the pond when I walked Maddie in the morning.

 Later in the morning, went for a walk in the Arb on my own and saw this mini-teepee that someone had created. I particularly liked the logs lain across the entryway.  I checked to see if there was anything placed inside, but didn't see anything.

I ran into a guy walking his dog and stopped to say hello.  He said that he'd seen coyotes in the Arb a couple of days ago. And a fisher cat on Bussey Hill in the Arb a few weeks ago.

Thursday December 31 Walking in the Arb, saw this little patch of fur, reddish, black and white at the tip. Wondered if it was from a fox.