Beaver Slide

We have an active beaver lodge in the Concord River just before the last bench (the one with the Loosestrife Sign) as you walk around the Lower Impoundment.

Evidently the beavers have been gathering smartweed in the impoundment and dragging it to a cache near their lodge. They drop enough of it along the way to "pave" their path over the dike.

Mowing

Once a year I trim the edges of the trails with an all terrain mower. This keeps brush and poison ivy from establishing a hold. Today I used, for the first time, the older of the two refuge mowers. This one seems more powerful than the other and it has a differential locking device that makes it easier to get out of tough spots.

DR All Terrain Mower

I did manage to get smacked in the lip with a stone that ricocheted off a fallen tree

This week the Marsh Rose Mallow started to bloom and the Evening Primrose which started a week or two ago is really starting to make a show.

 Marsh Rose Mallow

Evening Primrose

Muddy Trail

For three years I've been frustrated by a muddy section of the old Reformatory Branch Railroad bed that passes Great Meadows. This trail is now known as the Bay Circuit Trail and run 200 miles from Plum Island on the North Shore to Duxbury on the South Shore.

A storm drain from Butternut Circle dumps it's water on the trail.

The ditches on either side of the trail are clogged with debris.

On Friday Walter Schafer, Terry and Laurie Gleason, and Francesca Belouin joined me in trying to fix some of the problems.

We cleaned some of the ditches, built a bridge and made a french drain.

And got a little muddy.

Bird Census at Great Meadow

Once a week I do a bird census at Great Meadows. Usually I have help from one to three other people. We start about an hour after sunrise and travel 2.3 miles around the refuge in an electric truck. 

Location:     Great Meadows NWR--Concord Unit
Observation date:     6/9/11
Notes:     Census by NWR Volunteers David Swain and Alan Bragg. Least Bittern seen by other parties, opposite Poison Ivy Bench.
Number of species:     49

Canada Goose     40
Mute Swan     2
Wood Duck     9     Mother with 4 ducklings near Concord Riverside entrance
Mallard     3
Hooded Merganser     2
Double-crested Cormorant     4
Great Blue Heron     6
Turkey Vulture     3
Red-tailed Hawk     2
Common Moorhen     1     Poison Ivy Bench, upper impoundment
Killdeer     1
Mourning Dove     4
Chimney Swift     1
Belted Kingfisher     1
Red-bellied Woodpecker     2
Downy Woodpecker     2
Hairy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker     1
Eastern Wood-Pewee     3     One by entrance and two on maintenance road (1 on nest)
Willow Flycatcher     3     Tower and Holt
Eastern Phoebe     1     restroom area
Great Crested Flycatcher     2     rail trail and boat-landing
Eastern Kingbird     3
Warbling Vireo     15     2 young in nest in parking lot aspen
Blue Jay     4
American Crow     2
Tree Swallow     9
Barn Swallow     2
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Tufted Titmouse     6
White-breasted Nuthatch     4
Brown Creeper     2     2 at Concord Bedford boundary marker on Timber Trail
Marsh Wren     12     Very conservative count
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     4
Wood Thrush     1     On nest, Edge Trail
American Robin     12
Gray Catbird     2
Pine Warbler     1     Timber Trail
Common Yellowthroat     3
Chipping Sparrow     2
Song Sparrow     12
Swamp Sparrow     3
Scarlet Tanager     1     Timber Trail by bench
Northern Cardinal     2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak     1     Railroad bed
Red-winged Blackbird     100
Common Grackle     60
Baltimore Oriole     2
American Goldfinch     5

Arrowwood

Today I located 9 groupings of Arrowwood plants at Great Meadows NWR.

Arrowwood was easy to find since it is full bloom.

Two snapping turtles were laying eggs by the lower water control structure. This is the same place where eggs were laid and dug up by predators last week

At 11 I took Ruth for a one week check up for her new left eye lens (cataract removed). She said it's hard to get used to seeing so much. She has a folding intraocular lens which allows her to focus both near to far and anywhere in between.

Great Meadows Morning

1. Used the backpack blower to clean the Maintenance Shop floor and the driveway to the restrooms.
2. Met Larry Warfield and looked for common moorhen COMO at the Poison Ivy Bench, american robin AMRO in the maple just past the Observation Deck, eastern wood-pewee EAWP on nest along Maintenance Road, brown creeper BRCR singing near Concord/Bedford boundary marker and wood thrush WOTH feeding babies at nest on Edge Trail.
3. Lunch of sardines and Wassa.
4. Washed electric truck as temperature soared into 80s
5. Played with Blogger
6. Arranged for Eurovan A/C repair.
7. Sprayed water on our new concrete sidewalk poured last Thursday by Martin Pulliam with help from his brother Jonathan.
8. My sore throat has transformed itself into a cough deep in my chest.