The Acton Nature Watch is a compendium of sights seen by folks around town. The nature watch notes are not always complete sentences – they just give you, the reader, an idea of some of the residents in town that we only see if we stop and look.
November:
A BALD EAGLE soars over Willow Street towards Heath Hen Brook Meadow Conservation Area…[the same?] eagle circles high over Pratts Brook Conservation Area near Parker Village Condominiums… BARRED OWLS call loudly to each other and respond in Pratts Brook… This month Rebecca Harvey’s amazing Wildlife of Acton videos also capture beaver, bobcat, coyote, fisher, great blue heron, mink, muskrat, opossum, otters, pileated woodpecker, raccoons, snake, and weasel.
December:
A GREAT HORNED OWL hoots atop a tall WHITE PINE tree in Mount Hope Cemetery for about 20 minutes… a BEAVER busily chews plant stems and leaves alongside Fort Pond Brook, even though a quiet human observer watches from three feet away on Boardwalk Campus Bridge in West Acton… River rodents also prune a PUSSY WILLOW severely, leaving a lone trunk among a dozen stumplets… On a weekend afternoon a few days later, [the same?] beaver smacks its tail on the water, dives under the ice, and emerges to swim upstream under the bridge in the open central channel of the brook… Diners at West Acton bird feeders this month include black-capped chickadee, blue jay, blue bird, Carolina wren, downy woodpecker, house finch, house sparrow, mourning doves, northern cardinal, red-bellied woodpecker, robin, slate-winged junco, tufted titmouse, and white-throated nuthatch.
Thanks to this month’s Acton Nature Watchers Frann Addison, John Goreham, Rebecca Harvey, David Havilek, and Lee Ketelson!
I hope to publish more issues of the Acton Nature Watch in the future. Acton residents are curious about wild animals, plants, and fungi within our borders.
Rob Gogan is a West Acton resident.