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Acton Nature Watch: Worm Moon 2025

April 5, 2025
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February Sightings

  • Feb. 27: Hungry BEAVERS at Boardwalk Campus graze PUSSY WILLOW tree branches to the stump, consuming all branches of the tree. Last summer, it was a tower of green leaves at least 12’ tall.
  • Feb. 28: Five COYOTES yip, howl, and bark across snow-covered woods of Spring Hill Conservation Area. Thanks to our trail camera technician extraordinaire, Rebecca Harvey, for this stunning video, all linked videos cited, and many more on her “Wildlife of Acton” YouTube channel.
Two colorful ducks on a log that sticks into a pond.
Wood ducks perch on log at Nashoba Brook. Photo: Rebecca Harvey

March Sightings

  • Mar. 1: A MINK climbs up the stony bank of a stream in Spring Hill Conservation Area to peer across still-icy snowy woods nearby. Video by Rebecca Harvey.
  • Mar. 4: RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS join early scouts, adding to the racket of “kong-ker-EE!” territorial calls resounding across the CATTAIL marsh abutting the Boardwalk Campus in West Acton.
  • Mar. 8: PUSSY WILLOW buds start to split and reveal silver catkins on tall trees beside New View Cohousing in West Acton.
  • Mar. 10: A MINK shows off its glistening coat as it wades among shallow greening grass. Photo by Rebecca Harvey.
A very wet mink walks into the water.
Mink at Spring Hill Conservation Area. Photo: Rebecca Harvey
  • Mar. 13: A black variant “GRAY” SQUIRREL frequents Acton Center back yard, coexisting with a RED-TAILED HAWK living in the same yard.
A black gray squirrel on a winter lawn.
Black variant of a gray squirrel in Acton Center. Photo: Leah Whitehouse
  • Mar. 16: A GARTER SNAKE sunbathes in the woods by NARA Park.
  • Mar. 16: An OPOSSUM takes a log bridge route across Nashoba Brook.
  • Mar. 16: Busy vernal pool at Spring Hill Conservation Area hosts abundant breeding amphibians, drawing a GREAT HORNED OWL (on March 16), a BARRED OWL (March 26), a RACCOON (on March 28), and, by daylight, a RED-TAILED HAWK (also on March 28). Apparently all these predators were hoping for a frog dinner.
  • Mar. 16: On this warm, rainy night, Acton’s AMPHIBIAN CROSSING BRIGADE joins Littleton’s to help emergent frogs and salamanders across Fort Pond Road. Several didn’t make it, but brightly-clad volunteers safely escorted these creatures: 78 WOOD FROGS, 12 SPRING PEEPERS, and 6 SALAMANDERS.
A black salamander with blue spots and a long tail walks on the ground.
A Jefferson salamander – A legally protected species listed as Special Concern pursuant to the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Photo: Ian Bergemann
  • Mar. 17: WOOD FROGS make their first audible “quacks” in a vernal pool off Elm Street near Idylwylde Farms.
  • Mar. 19: Hoots of a GREAT HORNED OWL claim territory near Arlington Street.
  • Mar. 20: A PILEATED WOODPECKER chops deep gouges in a WHITE PINE tree in a Concord Road back yard.
A red-headed woodpecker on a tree. There's a very large raw hole that the woodpecker just created.
A pileated woodpecker making very large holes in a Concord Road tree. Photo: Debra Simes
  • Mar. 20: Seven TURKEY VULTURES soar in spirals, tilting and banking often in the gusty March breezes, over the Boardwalk Campus in West Acton.
  • Mar. 20: A COYOTE pauses to ponder whether to get its feet wet on a sunken log in Nashoba Brook.
  • Mar. 20: First SPRING PEEPERS chirp in the small pond at the junction of Arlington and Summer Streets.
  • Mar. 23: Purple SKUNK CABBAGE spathes pierce the leaf litter and open to show the yellow spadix flower near Fort Pond Brook on Arlington Street.
A purple leaf curled around a knobby growth.
Skunk cabbage blooming near Fort Pond Brook. Photo: Jody Harris
  • Mar. 24: HOODED MERGANSERS dip and dive for dinner in Nashoba Brook. Turn up video audio to hear abundant “quacking” of WOOD FROGS. Video by Rebecca Harvey
  • Mar. 25: Three PAINTED TURTLES sunbathe on a log in Fort Pond Brook near the Boardwalk Campus.
  • Mar. 27: AMERICAN ELM, RED MAPLE dander sprinkles sidewalks and driveways as first blossoms unfurl.

THANKS to this month’s Nature Watchers Ian Borgemann, John Goreham, Rebecca Harvey, Jody Harris, Alissa Nichol, Amelia Sagoff, Debra Simes, and Leah Whitehouse!

What to look for in April

This month (Pink Moon), watch for TREE SWALLOWS (back to Acton April 5, 2021 and 2023), MAGNOLIAS blooming (April 8, 2021), BUMBLEBEES flying (April 9, 2023), BROWN TROUT stocked in Fort Pond Brook and other streams around town by Mass Wildlife in April, first seen rippling brook surface when pedestrians or birds approach (April 8, 2024), and SNAPPING TURTLE hatchlings migrating from their nests towards water (April 16, 2023).

Acton Clean-up Week

Want to help beautify our town and protect native creatures? Join Green Acton’s “Acton Clean-up Week,” April 17-27: Pick up litter and recyclables from public areas and remove invasive garlic mustard plants! Learn where to get free bags and sign up here.

Thanks to your generous contributions of sighting reports, photos, and videos, we expect to continue to publish the Acton Nature Watch in future months. Please email us your observations and photos at actonnaturewatch@gmail.com! We are curious about any wild animals, plants, and fungi within our borders. Kudos to Lexington Town Meeting for banning SGARS (Second Generation Anti-coagulant Rodenticides) on Lexington Town Lands! Join the Green Acton Biodiversity Team investigating options for our town. At their Annual Meeting on March 16, the Acton Conservation Trust hosted Jane Newhouse, wildlife rescuer and SGAR expert, to show some special animal friends, discuss the rodenticides, and offer alternatives to using them.

Rob Gogan is a West Acton resident, and compiles the Acton Nature Watch feature.

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