Nature Notes

Thursday, April 1.  The front yard is starting to burst with spring: a hyacinth blooming and the forsythia just starting to pop out in yellow.   Saw the red-bellied woodpecker in the woods by Leverett Pond. Saturday, April 3.  Critter tracks on the boardwalk at Ward's Pond.  Saw the red-bellied woodpecker again yesterday and today. Sunday, April 4.  As I got out of the car at the parking lot at Ward's Pond, heard the red-bellied woodpecker but couldn't find it in the trees. Did see a downy woodpecker pecking away near the top of a dead branch. At Leverett Pond, a pied-billed grebe, with its head tucked in, just floating, looking like a wood stump poking out of the water. But then it began to slowly swim and briefly swivelled its neck to look where it was going, then tucked its head back in again.  The Canada geese are mostly paired up now, some claiming nesting sites on little islands in Leverett Pond.  Drove to the Chestnut Hill pond and found tw...

Monday, March 1 .  Misty morning with a slight drizzle.  The trees at the top of Moss Hill, just across the Arborway from the house, in the clouds.   The crest of the hill at Larz Anderson Park in the clouds, too. A few common mergansers, mostly females, still at Leverett Pond, along with 2 pairs of hooded mergansers.  Lots of bird song on the morning walk with Maddie - mostly cardinals, blue jays, sparrows. Tuesday, March 2 .  Cold!  16F with a 25mph wind, for a wind chill of -4F first thing this morning, bracing after the last few days of temperatures in the 30s and 40s.  But sun and brilliant blue sky.  At noon, getting out of the car after an errand, saw a pair of red-tailed hawks circling erratically over the houses across the street, buffeted by the wind.  One, the female, noticeably larger than the other - in raptors, the females are larger than males.   Some "cool facts" about red-tailed hawks from the Cornell All About...

Wednesday, Feb 3 Early morning walk at Ward's Pond, all frozen over. Noticed a new  wood duck nesting box, replacing the old, weathered, grey one on the other side of the pond by the little marsh.  One spring, walking there, I laughed at seeing a pair of wood ducks perched on top of the old box, looking for all the world like they had just been to a realtor's open house and were discussing the pros and cons of the box for their eggs.  Wood ducks like to nest over or near water as their ducklings are precocious, leaping out of the nest a day after hatching, stubby little wings frantically held out to slow their descent. The PBS show Nature has an amusing video clip of a wood duckling's leap  here. The Cornell All About Birds website notes that female wood ducks engage in "egg-dumping", laying eggs in another pairs' nest box to be raised by the other female.  Unusually large clutches of nearly 30 eggs have been found in some nest boxes, about triple the aver...