Nature Notes

Rain and more rain.  This July Boston had the most rainy days ever, 24, dropping just over 10" for the month.  In spite of the rain, I managed to get out a fair bit, walking and on the bike. July 2, running an errand, on my way back from Watertown, stopped at a traffic light, I noticed two nests tucked under the hoods over the lights.  I had to pull over to get a photo (in the rain). As I did an adult robin flew onto the top nest to feed the babies: you can see its tail in the red light.  So cool! July 4 on my morning walk with Maddie, saw an osprey fly right past me, along the shore of the pond, maybe 30' away.  Really exciting to see it fly by so close up.  But after a few seconds, I lost it, obscured by the trees.  I thought that was it, it was gone, but when we got to the boathouse, I was surprised to see it perched atop the mast of one of the dinghies. Later on that morning, walking at Leverett Pond, saw one of the guys fishing pull a huge carp ou...

Every summer the Massachusetts College of Art and Design has an outdoor student sculpture exhibit along the bank of the Muddy River, near the Longwood T stop.  One of my favorites this year is this ginormous bug. The poppies in my front garden were lovely in early June. And the tree in the front yard was covered with blossom; this is the view from my bedroom window.  In mid-June, I spotted a female wood duck with her ducklings on the bank of Leverett Pond, near the bike path. The sun sparkling on the Charles River early one morning, from the BU bridge. On an early morning walk I saw 4 swans flying, circling the pond to get enough height to fly over the treetops.  I could hear the swoosh of their wings as they flew past me a minute or two later. I liked this feather I spotted on the ground on a walk in Concord. At an event at the Boston Nature Center, one of the staff brought a great horned owl - fantastic to see it up close, with its complex delicate feather coloring. Big...

The highlight of May was the grey screech owl that I saw almost daily in one of the trees on the Arborway, near the traffic rotary at the end of my street, hanging out in the hole in the middle of a rotted branch that had been pruned earlier in the spring.  It was a delight every time I saw it, sometimes standing still, sometimes turning its head.  I loved seeing its feathers, mottled grey and white, with streaks of black, perfectly camouflaged against the bark of the tree.  And it was amazing how it just stayed there, day after day, in spite of the three lanes of traffic which got heavier and heavier as more and more people got vaccinated, the pandemic waned and people returned to their usual routines.  Then, in the middle of the month, the grey one was joined by a smaller, reddish one, probably a male (in raptors, the females are larger than the males).  Screech owls nest in tree cavities and I wondered if the pair had nested there.  At the beginning of J...

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...