Well, Autumn is here. We’ve gotten a bit of rain since my last column in August. In fact the latest storm we had on Oct. 9th dropped almost 6 inches of rain down at the Pond where I live. The Lagoon is still low and still full of green plant growth, but there is water again over by the Causeway at the bridge and the water is flowing into the Pond at a good clip! The Pond has to come up a lot more before the Lagoon will fill up. Hopefully we will get more rain this fall. For most of the month of September the Lagoon was pretty dry. For this reason, we had dozens of different little sandpiper type birds including the Least Sandpiper, (the smallest at about 6”) the Semipalmated Sandpiper, Golden Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Lesser Yellow Legs, and the Greater Yellow Legs (the tallest at about 14”). I have only seen some of these birds myself, but I have met many birders, especially from Arlington Birds, down around the Lagoon and these are the ones they tell me they have seen. If you run across someone with a tripod and what looks like a short telescope on it, that is usually a birder with a spotting scope! They usually know what is around on any given day and can help you identify birds when you don’t know what it is you are looking at!
Further out back is what we call the Cattail Marsh. A road and the Community Gardens runs along one side of it and the sewer-line trail and Fowle Brook run along the other side. If you walk the sewer-line trail all the way out to the twin bridges, you will see a beaver dam built between the two. This dam has helped keep the water in the Cattail Marsh higher than it would normally have been in this summer’s drought. And it is in this marsh that many long-legged waders have been seen over the last several months. First and foremost we have three Great Blue Herons! They have been seen all over the Pond including the Lagoon and down at Strawberry Cove (by the water treatment plant at the south end of the Pond) but you can usually find at least one (and sometimes two) of these beautiful majestic birds perched on the cement abutment out in the west end of the marsh. It’s one of their favorite places to hang! Another heron you can find here is a Green Heron. We had two of these pretty little birds here, an adult and an older juvenile. You can tell the difference when they face you. The breast of the juvenile has a distinct pattern. For several weeks we had an immature Little Blue Heron. He is all white and almost looks like an Egret. But unlike the egrets, his beak and legs were a dullish gray color. I did not see the two immature Night Crowned Herons that were living here. But a friend of mine got lots of photos of them.
We also have had plenty of swimming water birds! The Pond and the Lagoon always have flocks of Mallard Ducks and Canada Geese. We have a family of Wood Ducks and some Hooded Mergansers. Some other swimming birds that you might mistake for ducks are the Cormorants, which swim with their body almost submerged, and the American Coots. The Coots are all black with a large white beak, red eyes and when they dive for food, they pop back up like a cork! And of course we still have our family of Mute Swans. You can tell the juveniles from the adults as they are still a mottled brown and white.
The Asters are in bloom now. Some of the most common small fall asters are the Heath Aster, (usually white), the Calico Aster (white to pale lavender) and the New England Aster (medium to bright purple). The New England Aster can be found in abundance over by the Community Gardens on the Marsh side of the road. On the garden side of the road you will see the very tall native wild sunflower or Jerusalem Artichoke. This is a small flowered species unlike the giant cultivated sunflowers found in the gardens in August & September.
This fall is not shaping up to be very colorful at Horn Pond. The most brilliant trees usually found here are the Red Maples. Most of the leaves on these trees are just turning brown and dropping. Here and there you can see some reds and oranges of those that are turning. One such tree was a pretty little Red Maple on Arlington Road close to the Edward Foley Memorial. Now that we have had some rain, the trees that usually turn yellow late in the season, like the Birch, Aspen and Hickory might still give us a good show!
October’s full moon, the Hunter’s Moon, has already passed. But watch for November’s Full Beaver Moon on the 14th! And get out and enjoy a nice fall walk around Horn Pond!
Further out back is what we call the Cattail Marsh. A road and the Community Gardens runs along one side of it and the sewer-line trail and Fowle Brook run along the other side. If you walk the sewer-line trail all the way out to the twin bridges, you will see a beaver dam built between the two. This dam has helped keep the water in the Cattail Marsh higher than it would normally have been in this summer’s drought. And it is in this marsh that many long-legged waders have been seen over the last several months. First and foremost we have three Great Blue Herons! They have been seen all over the Pond including the Lagoon and down at Strawberry Cove (by the water treatment plant at the south end of the Pond) but you can usually find at least one (and sometimes two) of these beautiful majestic birds perched on the cement abutment out in the west end of the marsh. It’s one of their favorite places to hang! Another heron you can find here is a Green Heron. We had two of these pretty little birds here, an adult and an older juvenile. You can tell the difference when they face you. The breast of the juvenile has a distinct pattern. For several weeks we had an immature Little Blue Heron. He is all white and almost looks like an Egret. But unlike the egrets, his beak and legs were a dullish gray color. I did not see the two immature Night Crowned Herons that were living here. But a friend of mine got lots of photos of them.
We also have had plenty of swimming water birds! The Pond and the Lagoon always have flocks of Mallard Ducks and Canada Geese. We have a family of Wood Ducks and some Hooded Mergansers. Some other swimming birds that you might mistake for ducks are the Cormorants, which swim with their body almost submerged, and the American Coots. The Coots are all black with a large white beak, red eyes and when they dive for food, they pop back up like a cork! And of course we still have our family of Mute Swans. You can tell the juveniles from the adults as they are still a mottled brown and white.
The Asters are in bloom now. Some of the most common small fall asters are the Heath Aster, (usually white), the Calico Aster (white to pale lavender) and the New England Aster (medium to bright purple). The New England Aster can be found in abundance over by the Community Gardens on the Marsh side of the road. On the garden side of the road you will see the very tall native wild sunflower or Jerusalem Artichoke. This is a small flowered species unlike the giant cultivated sunflowers found in the gardens in August & September.
This fall is not shaping up to be very colorful at Horn Pond. The most brilliant trees usually found here are the Red Maples. Most of the leaves on these trees are just turning brown and dropping. Here and there you can see some reds and oranges of those that are turning. One such tree was a pretty little Red Maple on Arlington Road close to the Edward Foley Memorial. Now that we have had some rain, the trees that usually turn yellow late in the season, like the Birch, Aspen and Hickory might still give us a good show!
October’s full moon, the Hunter’s Moon, has already passed. But watch for November’s Full Beaver Moon on the 14th! And get out and enjoy a nice fall walk around Horn Pond!