Sept 2026 Great Elephant Migration, Garden Landscaping, Eagles

 

Saturday Sept 5 The Great Elephant Migration has come to Boston: a collection of 100 life-sized elephants on the boulevard of Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay. Adults, babies, juveniles, all heading towards the Public Garden. The elephants are made in India, from Lantana camara, to raise funds to remove this invasive shrub; the project is part of a larger international conservation effort. As I chatted with an older couple taking photos, they told me that they saw them when they lived in Thailand. I asked "Wicker elephants?" To which they responded, "No, real ones!"

 Sunday Sept 6 Went up to Plum Island on the North Shore to go birding. The first cool day of fall, with that crispness in the air. Not too much happening on the bird front: great and snowy egrets; greater and lesser yellowlegs; tree swallows; northern harrier; possible dowitchers. But it's glorious there, with the ocean waves rolling onto the beach and the expansive salt marsh behind the dunes.

 A few days later, the Boston Globe had an article on the tree swallows migrating along Plum Island, with an amazing video of thousands and thousands of them (a "birdnado" the article called it). I saw something similar at Plum Island one year, but with fewer birds.

 Tuesday Sept 8-24 A bald eagle has been hanging around the pond for a couple of weeks. Several neighbors have told me they've seen one, and I saw one on the 8th. My neighbor, Mary Horst, saw two perched in a tree together on the 24th and I saw one flying over the pond later that morning.

Mary Horst

There's also been a kingfisher perched on a branch of the dead willow on the island at the pond several mornings.

Beauty berries in my back yard.

Friday Sept 25 I've had landscapers redoing my garden this week.

Front, right side

Front, left side

Back garden

Monday September 28  During a break in a few days of torrential rain, I went to the nearly deserted pond. I was delighted to see an osprey circling over the water, searching for fish. At one point it dove, but came up empty-handed (empty-taloned?). As it flew around, a mature bald eagle headed towards it and chased it away from the pond. The eagle then flew a lap around the perimeter of the pond, as if to say "This is my pond, my fish, and other birds fishing in my pond can get lost."

Tuesday September 29  Walking at the pond this evening, 2 adult eagles perched in the trees by the boathouse.