Warm day today, nearly 80 in the Boston area. On our evening dog walk it had cooled down a bit, and the Riverway was thick with birds. We saw a half dozen catbirds, three groups of Canada geese with goslings, and a few unidentifiable warblers. And then on the way back I heard my favorite bird song. It was right by the path, so we stopped for a while until we could see him. He sang for a few times more, and at the moment when Alexis pulled her camera out, he flew off.

The view out my office window is getting better every day!

After getting to work at 6 this morning, I was rewarded with my first Baltimore oriole sighting this morning (having heard them the past two evenings). Then, about an hour later, over the heads of a crowd of disinterested parties, my first catbird of the year! Alexis rejoices for catbirds with the same passion that she reviles juncos. And then, just a few minutes ago as I sat on the warm grass in the park with Jim and Charlie, we were buzzed by the swallows that live in the nearby stone bridges. Three firsts of the year in two days! Not bad at all.

I forgot to post this last night. We heard our first oriole of the year! We couldn't see it, but the song was unmistakable. I think the same individuals claim the same territories around us. Orioles seem to each have different songs, and I'm pretty sure I recognized the melody of the one we heard last night. It's a nice feeling, like seeing a friend you haven't seen in months.

Just a few shots to show you what it looks like in my neighborhood these days.
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Charlie and I went to Ward's Pond yesterday. Still too cold for me to go in, but he liked it.
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Another fantabulous Boston spring day out there, and I finally hoisted my beer-belly laden carcass onto my bike to commute like I used to: in pain. I have two matching bruises where my body contacts the saddle, that I would never notice except they make it impossible to sit on the bike properly. Bike shorts, a gel seat, and maybe a nice soft set of Depends for the next ride.

Nonetheless, bicycling remains the best way to move around the city. On a nice day like today I like to keep aware for urban nature in a way that's simply impossible in the cocoon/cage of a car. I took some shots of flowering trees and whatnot, but the best is just feeling the air all around me. Now that the air doesn't feel like a snowcone pressed against my neck.

Jim was neutered last night and seems none the worse for wear. He looks kind of sleepy but not injured or traumatized. I'm against a lot of dog-related legislation, but I wholeheartedly support mandatory spay/neuter for all pets. Well, it would have been be difficult to do for my Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

I'm looking forward to a planned Soylent Screen column. I'm going to compare and contrast Cronenberg's The Fly--NO I'VE NEVER SEEN IT--with a documentary called 'Housefly--An Everyday Monster.' Depending on when they both arrive (not from Netflix for reasons I'll explain in a minute) I'll write it this time or in the next fortnight.

Currently our Netflixes at home are 'Elling' a foreign movie about a friendship between two mentally challenged adults, and 'After the Thin Man' the second and supposedly best of the Thin Man series where Myrna Loy and William Powell play a witty and alcohol-obsessed married couple that solve mysteries between drinks. Both movies will require some mood-getting-into as well as the time, so I'm expecting we'll have these until June.

We just finished (well, I did, Alexis fell asleep during the last 5 minutes) a documentary called, and about HELVETICA. Yes, the typeface. It's actually a great documentary; if I taught a documentary filmmaking course, I'd definitely use it as an example. And yet I feel like I have to rate it three stars, not four, because if I rate it four Netflix will dig up a documentary about Times New Roman or something.

I see today that the callery pears on Netherlands are in full bloom, all of a sudden. I also saw my first Boston chipmunk today (having seen my first exurban chipmunk at the park last weekend) in Franklin Park. Hawthorn trees are sending out bundled leaves, and flowering crabapples have flower buds ready for the big show. Driving by the arboretum I see a riot of flowering trees, mostly magnolias and early cherries. Dandelions and other weeds that have the luck of sunny yards are out and smiling, and wild mustards are hard at work already.

Today it was supposed to come close to 80 degrees, and I almost forgot what that was like. I spent every moment outside squinting with a headache behind my eyes--bring the sunglasses to work, smart guy. I just came in from lounging in the park with the dogs panting as I read the New Yorker. I'll do it. I'll ride my bike to work tomorrow. All the signs point to 'what, you haven't been riding already?!'

I've been giving more serious thought to a 365 urban species book. I have some gaps to fill and much editing to do. Who will publish me? I suppose it doesn't matter--I should create the product first, and then look for a publisher. Anyone who knows the hoops and wishes to guide me through them will be welcome and appreciated. I don't have delusions that I'll get rich, I'd just like to make my book (and maybe some more after that).

These are my goals: publish a book; move to someplace with a shorter winter; enjoy the rest of my life. That's not too bad, right?

Besides the violets, I also noticed that most of the trees have some new greenery--either leaves, buds, or flowers. For the first time this year the green on the ground is definitely more grass than moss. And I saw my first butterflies of the year: a pair of mourning cloaks.

We walked the dogs around Leverett Pond today and it felt like an honest to goodness spring day. And thanks to my new hand-me-down camera, which Alexis used to take all the best 365 urban species photos, I was able to record some of it. Pictured above, I'm fairly certain, is a male palm warbler.

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politics -- The latest ammo against Barack Obama is the charge that he is 'elitist.' This baffles me on so many different levels, but I'll keep it brief. In fact, I'll copy from merrydian, who saw Jon Stewart's take on it: If you are trying to be president, and you don't think you're better than other people on some level, what the hell are you doing? On the other hand, wasn't just a couple weeks ago that we were worried that Obama was an anti-white-church-going ignorant black racist? In what world do these two charges mesh, except that of desperate character assassination?

we've had a bumpkin pretending that he didn't think he was better than other people for the past 8 years running roughshod over the constitution and putting more and more money into the hands of the actual elite. i'm ready for an administration of people that actually sound intelligent, if elite, to change a few things.

this week i co-teach, or help teach--it's not really clear which--a keeper training class on pest control. it's not a ton of pressure, but i'm a little nervous. the person who has been teaching it is eager to pass it on, and i'm pretty sure i'll be teaching it very differently when i get the responsibility myself. i'd like to approach it from a natural history perspective--what in an animal's evolution makes it a pest? but i think the emphasis will be on policy enforcement for a reluctant staff. we'll see, it could cover a lot of ground.

spring struggles to exist in boston. according to accuweather it's 25 degrees f right now. i'd like to get back to riding my bike to work, but i'm just not as adventurous as i once was. plus it's hard to imagine waking up even earlier. or cutting into my precious lj time.

i'm reading a book called 'pit bull placebo' which is about how pitbulls are treated in the media, with a history of dog attack stories from the late 1800's to now. it's not very well written, and it's clearly preaching to the choir, but it has a lot of good factoids in it. i'll make a post just about this book when i'm done.

my obama icon is from a poster by shepard fairey, of 'andre the giant has a posse' fame.
http://obeygiant.com/

The weather forecast for today has been gloriously incorrect. After some pre-dawn thundershowers, the day has cleared up, and by eleven the sun was out and it was jacket-carrying weather. Alexis and I took the dogs on the 'long loop' of The Riverway.

We saw a basking turtle--unfortunately a probably nonnative pond slider--but it was great to see our first turtles of the year. We also saw a black-crowned night-heron, and a huge flock of cedar waxwings. On our way back to the house we saw a kingfisher flying up the river. We also saw some carp activity, which we've noticed a few times over the past week or so. At home a downy woodpecker has finally found our suet cage.

First nice day of the year.

First spring brunch at Flann's. It was cold and drizzly out, but Alex, Alexis and I had a nice time.
I saw my first open daffodils on the way.

Over last weekend I saw my first turkey vulture of the year, and on Monday one flew over the zoo low enough for me to see the pink skin on its head. Also on the weekend, we were trying to pick out an unfamiliar bird song from a cacophony, but lost it in the cardinals, robins, titmice, chickadees, mourning doves, and blue jays that were all calling at once.

Song sparrows have been singing (and pretending to be red-winged blackbirds) and I saw one yesterday join the house sparrows in stealing food from the Keas. Also yesterday I walked from the punchclock across the maintenance yard to the tune of about 50 grackles in a tree, scranking and kleeking together, probably chattering about how much nicer the weather was down south.

In short, the birds think it is Spring, as does the calendar. It will take a few weeks to convince the plants, who are wisely huddled up, knowing that another snow and several more frosts are not just likely but guaranteed. Hardy cultivated plants like crocuses and snowdrops (and hybrid witch hazels) have been blooming for a while, and the daffodil sprouts are up all over. You can't blame people for planting these bulbs and other early bloomers. There aren't any insects awake to pollinate them, but it sure is nice to see some color in the landscape.

miz_geek posted pictures of skunk cabbage, the first conspicuous native flower to pop up in New England. It comes with its own heater, so that the few small bugs that are out have a warm place to hang out and help out with plant sex. I haven't seen any skunk cabbage blooms myself, but that's because I haven't been looking. Likewise, the Boston Birders google group has been reporting red-winged blackbirds (males only, of course) for a while now. I just haven't been actively birding--being a passive birder is more my speed. They also have been reporting armies of woodcocks, but again, these birders are deliberately going to likely spots at likely times (dusk) to find them and maybe watch their bizarre breeding displays. That's something that I should add to my "things to do before leaving New England" list.

Happy Vernal Equinox everyone! If it were up to me it would be xmas, new years, and earth day wrapped up into one, and we'd all get the week off. Enjoy it in whatever way seems best to you; may I suggest going outside and listening to bird song?

On Sunday we went to Elm Bank Reservation, in Wellesley Mass (Just outside of the rt. 95 loop that more or less defines the perimeter of Metro Boston). It's a collection of formerly privately held land that has been set aside to be used as open space. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society has buildings and greenhouses there, there are soccer fields and canoe landings, but a lot of it just looks like forest. Here Alexis stands among some impressive white pines.( Read more... )

Walking the dogs on the island (the dry part of the swamp across the street) I heard a male red-wing blackbird calling.

Freakish weather we're having. But it's pretty typical of March, I suppose.

For whatever reason (I haven't been paying attention to detailed forecasts) the blizzards that dumped on Ohio didn't do the same here. We had steady soaking drizzle all day yesterday, culminating in evening downpours. It was cold and nasty to be outside. 5 degrees colder and it would have been ice and snow. Then, when we took the dogs out around 8:00, the rain had more or less stopped, and the air felt warm around us. It was probably in the low 50's, but since it had felt so cold when the sun was out, it felt downright tropical.

We took the dogs across the street to a relatively protected piece of park: we call it "The Island" because it's bordered by the Muddy river on one side and a swampy area on the other; When it floods, the swampy side turns into another river. So we let Jim off leash, and then Charlie, and they ran around and played in the floodwater and stuff. At one point I was holding Maggie's leash and she pulled and pulled to get into the water intil my sneakers (I left my boots at work) were completely submerged. The water was cold at first, but once I got back onto land my body heat warmed up the water in my shoes, and it wasn't too uncomfortable.

We went in before the big winds were supposed to kick up (30-50 mph) and missed all that. We could hear it from inside.

This morning (hey look it's ten o'clock already!) I took Jim out and it's brightly sunny and below freezing out, with enough wind to make it feel like 4 degrees F according to accuweather. We'll go for a brisk walk out with the dogs later, and I bet Alexis will take some beautiful pictures out there in the sunshine.

Even a New Englander can be forgiven for mistaking the beginning of March for spring. Steady overnight rains and mild temperatures--we broke 60 again today--mean that only the most stubborn snowbanks remain. When the sun came out today, there was even some green in the grass to soak it up. I saw a blooming crocus in the Children's zoo area, and in front of the Tropical Forest building I saw my first earthworm of the year, a thin youngster pulling itself across the wet pavement.

I forgot to mention that last week, on whatever day that was that was 60 degrees (maybe Monday?) we saw a bat over the Riverway as we walked the dogs.

The Boston Birders newsgroup is reporting the return of certain spring birds: a red-winged blackbird here, a turkey vulture flyover there. I haven't seen any myself, but I did notice the goldfinches brightening up, and I haven't seen a junco (Alexis' hated symbol of winter) in some time now.

The little lady was giddy today, as she came out of her work at lunchtime and smelled the air. When it's warm and wet enough, a potent cocktail of Streptomyces bacteria, volatile oils from plants, and various substances that had been locked in the ice, make a pleasant odor we associate with spring rains. The extra minutes of sunlight tacked on to the beginning and ending of the day are a nice mood lightener, too.

I drove by Jamaica pond several times today. Yesterday it was covered in ice. This morning, the coating of ice was dark gray, like a reflection of the rain clouds above. At lunch time, the surface of the ice was roughening. On the way home the ice was gone, as the day's warmth had driven it back to water, and the rising wind made the pond surface choppy, and pushed the remaining slush to one side.

The weather is changing again, as it does. I left work carrying my coat. When I got home, I wanted to put it back on. It's supposed to get back down to freezing over night. The long range forecast has the temp hovering in the 30s and 40s for the next 10 days, but we'll enjoy what we have right now.

Okay, so spring has been officially over for a couple weeks now. I catalogued the species from the beginning of the year to March 20th here. From March 21 to July 2nd, here's the breakdown:

Plants: 50
Slime Molds: 1
Fungi: 7
Annelids: 1
Mollusks: 2
Arthropods: 14
Fishes: 2
Amphibians: 1
Reptiles: 4
Birds: 16
Mammals: 6


This represents a big increase in plants covered (makes sense, in spring), a decrease in birds (the migration is over), and an increase in all other animals (more activity in spring). The decrease in fungi is interesting, and it's nice to see new animal taxa (and one new Kingdom) added to the list.

This coming week will be Beach Week! Transitioning in later this evening (with a species found in urban streets as well as urban beaches) and continuing with species observed on our Urban Nature Walk to Castle Island in South Boston. Cheaters can preview the photos and make guesses here: http://cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com/526095.html

During spring it was much easier to find species to photograph and write about. I actually feel a little bad that some of my favorite plants are going to be skipped, because more interesting animals and fungi are going to displace them (in the project) this summer. Sorry if I skip your favorite--but you can suggest one I've missed, or might miss, if you want. I'm a people pleaser--tell me what you want to see and I'll try to do it.