August 2021

August 1 Walking Maddie this morning, I spotted a turkey feather on the ground. As I looked more closely, getting ready to take a photo, I was surprised to see a blue iridescence visible when I looked at one particular angle. I'd never noticed the blue in turkeys before. But now, looking online, I see quite a few photos of turkeys with a bluish haziness over the back feathers.

August 2. Ok, so this isn't exactly natural history, but I had to take a photo of my neighbour's Triumph. In the late 1930s, when my father was courting my mother, he would take her out on his Triumph motorbike, away from the sooty dinginess of their coal-mining town, Ashington, out into the beautiful, green hills of the Northumbrian countryside. At some suitable spot they would stop for him to go fly fishing while she picked wildflowers. My parents talked about "the Triumph" with great fondness well into their old age. And I smile every time I see one.

August 3 At the boathouse with Maddie this morning, I saw a great blue heron perched on the boom of one of the dinghies. They always look like they're really not designed for perching with those long, spindly legs. I was just about to leave, when I noticed a second heron standing on the gunwale of the boat.

August 6 This tree is the first in our neighbourhood to start turning color each year. I can't believe it's already started.

Went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem with friends to see the "In American Waters" exhibit. Some wonderful seascapes. I was most delighted by the "Digital Wave" by Clifford Ross - I'm including a short segment of it to give you an idea of what it was like.

August 7 Went to the Arboretum with my colleague John Ochsendorf. As we walked by the Leventritt garden, I pointed out the bonsai house and John wanted to go see it. This bonsai, a compact Hinoki cypress from Japan, was started in 1799.

August 8 I often hear and see a group of a dozen or more sparrows who seem to own the end of a hedge around the corner from Prince St. They're often parked there or sometimes are flitting in and out. But this morning, no sparrows. Instead, a small hawk, I think a Cooper's, perched right on top of the hedge at the spot where the sparrows like to hang out. It stayed for a few moments before taking off, flying up into the nearby trees.

Drove out to Wachusett Meadows, a Mass Audubon sanctuary about 50 miles west of Boston, adjacent to Mt. Wachusettt state park. Shortly after I turned off the highway, I saw a few dozen turkey vultures circling overhead; I'm guessing they'd congregated towards the smell of a nearby carcass. Loved seeing them swirling around each other, big and black, wings spread out.

At the sanctuary, walked through the woods to Otter Pond - lovely little pond. Jeannie and I once saw an otter swimming right towards us, coming right up to the bank near where we were standing, then dive and head off again. No otter today, but a beaver lodge has appeared since we were last here.

August 10 Wonderful variety of birds today, all in the city. Early morning walk with Maddie, a great blue heron flew low, just a few feet above the water, across Jamaica Pond, its huge wings beating in a slow, deliberate way, the bird moving surprisingly fast. Then on my morning bike ride to MIT, saw two adult female turkeys with 5 juveniles, all pecking at the grass on the side of the street. In the evening, looking out my bathroom window, saw a hawk, maybe a sharp-shinned, perched on a dead branch at the top of a tree along the Arborway. And, waking in the night, heard the whinnying of a screech owl.

August 11 Loved these small, delicate blue flowers at the end of a driveway on our morning walk.

Playing around with the new Merlin Sound ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which uses artificial intelligence to identify bird songs. It's incredibly easy to use, just open the app, click on "Sound ID", then click on the microphone icon and start recording. The app spits out bird IDs as you go along. Amazingly satisfying! This morning, biking by Leverett Pond, hearing lots of bird song, I stopped to try it out: robin, rose-breasted grosbeak, cardinal, downy woodpecker.

August 13. In the space of a week, the tree is getting even more of its fall colors. Even though it's not fall at all: we're in the midst of a heat wave, temperatures in the mid-90s, heat index in the low 100s.

In the afternoon went for a drive along Rt 16 through Wellesley and Natick. I always love seeing glimpses of the Charles River along this drive. This view is from the little park in South Natick.

I was surprised to see this sign at one of the pullouts for a canoe put in. Yikes!

August 14 The hibiscus in my front garden is now out in full bloom.

August 16 Walking around Jamaica Pond with Dale, we saw a green heron along the Perkins St side of the pond, hunched over, fishing. And just past it, a great blue heron perched on a downed branch.

August 16 I loved the sky and clouds in this 6am picture at Jamaica Pond. Maddie didn't seem to notice.

August 20. The tree is looking more and more like it's not just the colors changing with the seasons, but that it's dying.

In contrast, everywhere else I see the greenest, lushest August I can ever remember. Possibly due to the 10" of rain we got in July, along with regular rain every few days since then. Here's the Arb...

Reading a new bird book, What is a Bird? An Exploration of Anatomy, Physiology, Behavior and Ecology, I saw this photo of fantastic street art of a Haast's eagle in Dunedin, New Zealand.

At first, I thought this was a sculpture, but my NZ friend Mike, who is from Dunedin, told me that it's a mural - the artist, DALeast, specializes in murals that look like metal sculptures. You can see more of his art at:

https://www.daleast.com/

The Haast's eagle was the largest to have ever lived, with females weighing up to 33 lb and males up to 26 lb. (For comparison, the largest bald eagles weigh about 14 lb.) They hunted moas, giant, flightless birds that were up to 12' high and weighed up to 510 lb. But when the moas were hunted to extinction by the first Maori, around 1400, the Haast's eagle became extinct, too.

August 21 Predictions of hurricane Henri hitting New England, getting the meteorologists all excited. But the pond today remarkably placid.

August 22 Henri downgraded to a tropical storm, the pond looking greyer, but still pretty calm. In the end, we got rain and a little wind, but nothing much more than a typical rainstorm.

August 26 Our morning walks now start right around sunrise; this photo at 5:59am this morning. Love how still it is, with the reflection of the clouds, pink in the water.

After walking Maddie and having breakfast, I went off on my bike ride. Riding along Jamaica Pond, I saw an osprey flying over the pond, then descending to the water. Instead of approaching the water with its talons extended out front, to catch a fish, it was going right into the water, belly first, like a belly flop. It took a bit of flailing and flapping while still in the water to become airborne again. It did this over and over, perhaps half a dozen times, flying a short distance between each belly flop. I wondered if it was a juvenile, still figuring out how to fish.

August 27. Walking Maddie this morning, saw 5 female mergansers, I think common mergansers, at the edge of the pond near the path, right near Eliot Street. Surprising, as I don't normally see mergansers here until the end of October or beginning of November. They paddled along the edge of the pond for a bit, then flew low over the water, with fast, strong wingbeats, to the other side of the pond. I was tempted to walk around to where they landed to get a better look, but had a zoom call to go to.

Really hot and humid today so I didn't go back to the pond until this evening. Walked around it, looking for the mergansers, to no avail. But I did see a black crowned night heron flying across the pond, then landing at the top of a dead tree trunk overhanging the pond. It was still there when I got around to that side of the pond and I got a good look at it through my binoculars (photo). On the way there, saw a great blue heron fly low over the water to land on a downed tree trunk along the edge of the pond. And a green heron fly over to the little island. I think they may have all been settling in to roost for the night as it was dusk, with the sun was already down.

August 29 Visiting Di and Linda in Westerly, Rhode Island, went for a bike ride this morning. Was amazed to see around 50 egrets (snowy egrets and great egrets) and great blue herons at a marsh near the shore. Seeing them all together, we realized just how much smaller the snowies are than the great egrets. It was wonderful.