Nature Notes

Sunday April 2 Walking at Fresh Pond in the late afternoon with Susan, we spotted a single  red-throated loon ; I suspect it will soon be migrating to its breeding grounds in the Arctic. Several  ring-necked duck s still around; they'll be gone soon, too.  Also in the spring department, a mute swan sitting on a nest on Little Fresh Pond and an  eastern phoebe , a recent migrant arrival, at Black's Nook.  Tuesday April 4 Tiny nano-leaves on the willows creating a faint haze of green and spring. This evening we went to Boxborough, just west of Boston, to look for  woodcocks doing their strange courtship display. They usually just snuffle along the ground, in woods or in grassy areas at the edge of a wood, eating worms which they find with their long bills.  But in the spring, at dusk, the males display at "singing grounds", starting with almost electric, buzzy "peent" calls, then spiraling upward in flight. As they get high off the ground, the feathers...

Wednesday March 1 On my morning walk with Maddie at the pond, saw a pair of  mute swans take off, coming close to me, with their slow, deep, whooshing wingbeats, and then head up over the trees and away. They're so heavy, 30 pounds (14 kg), that they have to circle around the pond before they can gain enough altitude to get up over the surrounding trees. Later in the afternoon, driving along Parkman Drive beside the pond, saw a couple of women on the footpath pointing up at something in a tree.  One of my neighbors reported seeing two bald eagles at the pond this morning, so I turned the car around, pulled over, and sure enough, there it was: a  bald eagle , looking huge in the tree, its head not quite fully white. Saturday March 4  We had a couple of inches of snow so Maddie is in her little black rubber booties to keep the salt off her paws and prevent ice balls from forming around her paw pads.  I put her booties on first, then get my winter coat, scarf, et...