No story — late summer is its own justification.
Tagged: Blue Hills Reservation, bumblebee, Fowl Meadow, Goldenrod
Travels with Musti
Dogs, nature, photography, and the meaning of life, with apologies to J.S.
Posts tagged “Fowl Meadow”
Invasive species seem to have (forgive me) invaded the public consciousness lately. Asian carp are poised to invade the Great Lakes, while local officials trumpet their successful battle against the Asian long-horned beetle in Boston. My tendency to skepticism tempers my response to such news, good or bad; I’m reluctant to believe that the sky is falling, and in cases where it really is, I’m dubious that humans can do much about it. I also try to remain open to being wrong, so I was intrigued when my friend Jenn Forman-Orth, an invasive plant ecologist at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, invited me to a “biocontrol release” aimed at combatting an invasive plant called mile-a-minute weed. Jenn, along with Ale Echandi of the…
This is a blue-gray gnatcatcher. And here’s a recording of his call notes: There’s a robin singing in the background; the gnatcatcher’s vocalizations are the worried-sounding scolds. So he’s not the fanciest or most attention-getting bird around. He weighs around 6 grams, hangs out in treetops, moving constantly, and can’t sing worth a damn (from a biased, robin-centric standpoint), but he’s actually a fairly common bird. Once you tune in to his vocalizations, you start to notice gnatcatchers all around, especially in wet woods. Since this spring’s migration started in earnest a couple of weeks ago, I scarcely remember a walk we’ve taken when I haven’t heard at least one gnatcatcher. The problem is that, until recently, I had no…
Tagged: bird, Blue Hills Reservation, Blue-gray gnatcatcher, breeding, Fowl Meadow, lichen, nest, spring