Nature Notes

 Sept 1 - On my bike ride into Cambridge, saw a great blue heron fishing in the Muddy River.  It was still there in nearly the same spot on my way back home.   Sept 2 - On my bike ride, saw a turkey in a small Brookline park filled with oak trees.  And a juvenile wood duck in the Muddy River. Wondering how much longer the juveniles are going to  stay around.     Peppers in the garden ready to pick.     Sept 3 - Sitting in the back garden in the late afternoon, saw a hawk circling overhead, above a neighbour's yard, coming around 3 or 4 times.  Couldn't identify it though. Sept 4 - Early morning walk, the pond glass-like, full moon overhead, feeling tranquil.  I think I saw a pair of house wrens, smaller than a sparrow, small tail, held at an upward angle, chirping together in a tree along Eliot St.   Sept 5 - News headline in the Boston Globe:  "Python is spotted in Jamaica Plain".  Glad I wasn't the one to spot ...

August 4 - Early morning walk with Maddie, the turkeys at the same house I usually  see them at.  They're getting considerably bigger. Walking around Ward's Pond, in the gully north of Jamaica Pond, saw a lone juvenile wood duck on the tiny, sandy, not really a beach, area by the path to the parking lot. August 5 - Back at Ward's Pond to look for the wood duck, saw an adult female with 3 juveniles, all on the same sandy bank again, busily preening themselves the entire time I watched them, and still at it after I walked around the pond (admittedly, only a 10 minute walk... it's a small pond).  Lovely to see them. Also a nuthatch on a nearby tree trunk. Big storm here yesterday, around dinner time. Huge tree limb came down near where the wood ducks were.           Walking in the Arboretum after dinner, flowers on the banks of the Bussey Brook.             And another huge tree down, not just a limb, but the ...