December 2023

Saturday December 2 Spotted a red-tailed hawk land in one of the trees along the Arborway, in the back of my back yard. It stayed long enough for me to get this video with my spotting scope.

Wednesday December 6 On our walk through the Arb this afternoon, Susan and I saw half a dozen or so wasp nests. The pattern on the outside of this one appealed to us.

Saturday December 9 On my morning walk with Maddie saw two muskrats swimming on the boat-house side of the pond and then three more, parked on downed logs, looking like chocolate spheres, by the bank on the opposite shore, munching on something. I've never seen so many before.

The sunrise across the pond was spectacular.

Tuesday December 12 Walking at Cutler Park in Newton with Susan and our friend, Ellen, we spotted this wasp nest that had fallen from the tree and broken open. Neat to see the honeycomb cells with their regular hexagonal geometry. I studied the mechanics of engineering honeycombs for many years, so I'm always tickled to see bee and wasp honeycombs.

On our way back to the parking lot, walking along the trail by the pond, I heard a belted kingfisher cackling. Took a minute to find it, perched at the end of a branch over the water. Then it dove down into some reeds and swooped up again, landing back on the same branch, with a fish in its bill. We watched as it thrashed the fish back and forth, over and over, more than seemed necessary to make sure it was dead. Looking through the binoculars, it looked like the fish might have been too big for the kingfisher to swallow whole. We watched it waving the fish back and forth for a bit before continuing on our way.

A little further along, right by the parking lot, we saw signs of recent beaver activity: several trees cut down, with fresh wood chips on the ground at the base of the trunk. Nearby, a beaver lodge.

Wednesday December 13 Walking around Jamaica Pond, saw the raft of around 70 hooded mergansers. Susan noticed that in amongst the group were some larger birds: 3 male common mergansers. Lovely to see with their shiny greenish-black heads and gleaming white bodies. And on the way back to the house, saw the screech owl in the hole in the tree at the end of my street.

Sunday December 17-24 I've been seeing from between about 12-20 ring-necked ducks, a few wood ducks and a single male hooded merganser at Leverett Pond. Walking around Jamaica Pond in the mornings, I'm often seeing muskrats swimming along the edge of the pond and perched on downed trees half-submerged in the pond. One morning my friend Andrea said she spotted 8! I see the screech owl in its hole in the tree at the end of my street occasionally, usually dozing in the sun.

Friday December 29 My friend Alison, who lives near Haliburton, Ontario, sent this photo of a long-tail duck from the wildlife rehab center she volunteers at. I've seen them in the water, at a distance, but this closeup is especially gorgeous.

Alison Curtis

Saturday December 30 Walking Maddie around the block in the afternoon I ran into a guy who says he just saw a bald eagle at the pond. Neat! I went later on to look, but couldn't find it - maybe it had flown off.

Sunday December 31 Happy New Year from Maddie and me! (My friend Beth took the photo while she was dogsitting a few days ago.)