Hello everyone,
Some people wanted me to put up pictures from the New Year Day hike and another map. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures. With 60 people, I had my hands full leading everyone through the conservation area. Thanks to Dave and Steve for helping out! I’m so glad we got to the fairy shrimp vernal pool!
Next Hike I’m leading will be a tracking hike into the Marble Brook area of North west Northampton. Its a Valentines Day hike on Sunday, February 12th from 2-4. We’ll meet at the turn around parking area at Sylvester and Chesterfield Roads. If we have time, we’ll get over to the Serafin Property as well, it is in the process of being preserved by Nonotuck and Kestrel Land Trusts. We have a chance of tracking bobcat, coyote, porcupine, fisher. I’ve even tracked a bear back there in the middle of winter! See you soon…
Click on the picture or the map to make it bigger to download.
Well, like last summer, I’m here on Cape Cod, but this time, I’m here for the whole summer. Coming up, seals of Truro, a video study of the songs of song sparrows in Provincetown, and a tour of the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary. Maybe even a tour of the Nature Conservancy’s sanctuary in Cape May! First up, a quick video of the seals in Truro!
A hardy band of hikers celebrated the New Year by taking a hike through the Sawmill Hills Conservation area in Florence, Massachusetts (Sponsored by Valley Land Fund). It was a comfortable day and everyone was in high spirits to explore the beauty of nature on the first day of 2011. The Conservation Area has wonderful hiking trails. Here is the trail guide put together by the “Friends of Sawmill Hills”. Click on either to enlarge and print:
Today, we saw porcupine habitat, vernal pools, coyote scat, and blooming lichen called British soldiers! Lichen are really two organisms (a fungus and algae) living together to form one new organism. The British soldiers are the fungus named Cladonia cristatella and the algae named Trebouxia erici. The green stem is the fungus and the red that makes the tale-tell British soldier is from the algae. Click on any pic to enlarge:
British Soldiers
A slide down the hill.. A walk through a hemlock grove.
Here is a video I made a couple of years ago about the Sawmill Hills:
Did you know that the wild turkey had vanished from Massachusetts by the 1850′s? The repatriation and their success in the 70′s and 80′s was due primarily to one man, Jim Cardoza from Mass Wildlife. He’s also the black bear expert for our state! I was able to get these great shots from the house of my friends Marla and Steve in Hadley, Mass. I had a cup of coffee and watched these beautiful birds, can there be a better morning than that?!
Have a great Thanksgiving, and remember the turkey!
Friends and Family of Terry Blunt gathered today at the Sugar Loaf Overview to celebrate his life. Looking down on the Valley he loved so much, people shared their memories of him: his sense of humor, his love of beagles, his love of wilderness and open space. Incredibly, Terry was a partner in preserving literally thousands of acres of farmland, wild habitat, and land buffering and protecting the Connecticut River.
John Muir wrote:
The enemies of wildness are invincible and they are everywhere,
but the fight must go on.
For every acre you gain,
10,000 trees and flowers
and all the other forest people
and the unborn generations
will rise up and call you blessed!
Terry was truly blessed, as we all were for having him with us here in the Valley.
The Valley that Terry loved so much was an appropriate backdrop for a memorial celebrating his life’s work. He worked tirelessly to protect farmland and habitat.
In part, thanks to Terry’s work, a marshy, wetland at Mass Audubon’s Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary known as Ned’s Ditch was preserved for all the generations to come. He hadn’t been to Ned’s Ditch for twenty years so I invited him to hike through hip deep water and muck to spend a day sitting in a bird blind with mosquitoes and nats. He jumped at the chance! I had the pleasure of spending a day with Terry talking about wildlife and the incredible beauty in nature. What started as 3 Great Blue Heron nests, twenty years ago when Terry helped preserve the area, has grown today to a rookery with over 50 nests. His legacy will live forever.
Take a look at all the fun activities I had at Mass Audubon’s Discovery Day at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary! John Green led a nature walk, Blanche Derby educated people on what you can eat in the wild, and Tom Ricardi showed us his Birds of Prey! He even released a rehabilitated great horned owl back to the wild, incredible!
Hello everyone,
Mass Audubon is running a great program all day on Saturday, October 16th called Discovery Day. Explore the Sanctuary, learn about nature and join local wildlife rehabilitator Tom Ricardi as he presents his incredible flock. For more information visit Arcadia’s website or give them a call at 413-584-3009 or 800-710-4550.
Many of you probably don’t know that Mass Audubon actually has 5, yes, 5 wildlife sanctuaries in the Connecticut River Valley. Take a look at the video I put together introducing the 5 wonderful sanctuaries:
During the week, I worry.
I worry about the usual: my job, my mortgage, my future.
I worry about my blood pressure!
I’m waiting.
And then it happens.
For a brief moment I am transported to another world,
Where breath is so much more important than thought.
Where simple and awesome live together.
Where the present is always a flower,
leading,
unknowingly,
to a vacation in Mexico.
John
And Mary Oliver writes:
Don’t bother me.
I’ve just
been born.
The butterfly’s loping flight
carries it through the country of the leaves…
for long delicious moments it is perfect
lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk
of some ordinary flower.
excerpted from the book, “Blue Pastures”, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995.
Next Hike I’m leading will be a tracking hike into the Marble Brook area of North west Northampton. Its a Valentines Day hike on Sunday, February 12th from 2-4. We’ll meet at the turn around parking area at Sylvester and Chesterfield Roads. If we have time, we’ll get over to the Serafin Property as well, it is in the process of being preserved by Nonotuck and Kestrel Land Trusts. We have a chance of tracking bobcat, coyote, porcupine, fisher. I’ve even tracked a bear back there in the middle of winter! See you soon…
Click on the picture or the map to make it bigger to download.
