Mystic River Scouting Mission
May. 16th, 2005 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanWell, it's much colder than it should be, but it is just about peak spring birding here in Boston. In the past week I've seen six species of birds that I never have before. If you aren't a birder, I should say that adding six birds to my lifelist in one week isn't too out of the ordinary for big someone like me: a beginner just starting to make breakthroughs. There's a group of birds called warblers that all look similar, are hard to see usually, and are only in the area for a short time. Four of my six new birds are warblers.
I posted about last Wednesday's walk in Mount Auburn Cemetery, but I didn't give the follow-up on my afternoon in the Mystic River Reservation. I took the T to Wellington Station in Medford (Population Density 6500 people/sq. mile) and set out, mapless, to find the Mystic River.
The area around Wellington station is a hellish sprawl of highways, office parks, construction and more highways. No one walks to or from there: you park there and take the subway into Boston, or you catch a bus from there to somewhere else. I left the station and tried to figure out my way to the river--even though I lead nature walks, I don't have a great sense of direction. I cut through a parking lot to a weedy, trash-strewn earthen ridge.
My hunch payed off; it was a river bank. The river down the steep bank, I later realized, was the Malden River, which converges with the Mystic nearby. The bank was thick with sumac and other weedy saplings, and the edge of the river was artificially lined with big edgy stones. I walked along the edge of the parking lot, looking for a more welcoming way to the river. I passed an encampment improvised with tarps and detritus, down below.
Soon enough, I found a dirt service road at the back of the parking lot, that led from the station maintenance area down below and parallel to the train tracks. To continue, I would probably have to trespass, if I wasn't already. The tarp campsite told me that this was a relatively unpatrolled area, but on the other hand, trespassing on a squatter's territory might be more dangerous than on the transit authority's land. I decided to risk it. Almost immediately, I saw a bird that I had never seen before.
The small songbird flew across the path into an eye-level branch in a cottonwood tree. I peered at it hard with my binoculars, and knew it was unfamiliar to me. I mentally noted some field markings: streaked breast, narrow pointed bill, plain unbarred wings, no eyering, and a yellow eyebrow. Just as I brought my camera out, it darted out of sight.
Later I looked through my field guide, and determined that it was a Northern Waterthrush which, despite its name, is a kind of warbler.
Along the way I saw my first ducklings of the year, buffeted by waves caused by a passing boat.
The rough path passed under the train tracks and emerged as a riverside office park, full of workers on their breaks. Among other things they were ignoring was a downy woodpecker busying itself on a Phragmites reed.
Eventually I had to cross a highway, and then found the Mystic River Reservation. Most of it is very landscaped and maintained (boring!) but it includes some detours along small muddy streams and swampy areas, and an observation tower. After about an hour and a half I crossed over into Somerville--my goal.
Somerville is a fascination for me because it is the most densely populated city in the country (population density about 19,000 people per square mile--for reference, Boston is about 12,000 per sq. mile). Since my project(s) is(are) about urban nature, I feel like the most densely populated city deserves to be investigated. The northern border of Somerville is the Mystic River, but ironically, in our tiny metropolis with excellent public transportation, there's no easy way to get there (without your own car). There are city buses, and I shouldn't count them out, but there's something comforting about the stability of the trains. The tracks are always there, you always know another one is coming, you are out of the weather, and the majority of the stations are quite safe and crime-free. Anything goes when you're waiting for a bus.
Nonetheless, the long walk to Somerville along the River has convinced me to start the next Urban Nature Walk in Somerville. We can meet at a parking lot for the Reservation, take a quick detour to see the cool mural, and then go check out the nature of Somerville.
Cross Posted to The Urban Pantheist,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
birdlovers, b0st0n
I posted about last Wednesday's walk in Mount Auburn Cemetery, but I didn't give the follow-up on my afternoon in the Mystic River Reservation. I took the T to Wellington Station in Medford (Population Density 6500 people/sq. mile) and set out, mapless, to find the Mystic River.
The area around Wellington station is a hellish sprawl of highways, office parks, construction and more highways. No one walks to or from there: you park there and take the subway into Boston, or you catch a bus from there to somewhere else. I left the station and tried to figure out my way to the river--even though I lead nature walks, I don't have a great sense of direction. I cut through a parking lot to a weedy, trash-strewn earthen ridge.
My hunch payed off; it was a river bank. The river down the steep bank, I later realized, was the Malden River, which converges with the Mystic nearby. The bank was thick with sumac and other weedy saplings, and the edge of the river was artificially lined with big edgy stones. I walked along the edge of the parking lot, looking for a more welcoming way to the river. I passed an encampment improvised with tarps and detritus, down below. Soon enough, I found a dirt service road at the back of the parking lot, that led from the station maintenance area down below and parallel to the train tracks. To continue, I would probably have to trespass, if I wasn't already. The tarp campsite told me that this was a relatively unpatrolled area, but on the other hand, trespassing on a squatter's territory might be more dangerous than on the transit authority's land. I decided to risk it. Almost immediately, I saw a bird that I had never seen before.
The small songbird flew across the path into an eye-level branch in a cottonwood tree. I peered at it hard with my binoculars, and knew it was unfamiliar to me. I mentally noted some field markings: streaked breast, narrow pointed bill, plain unbarred wings, no eyering, and a yellow eyebrow. Just as I brought my camera out, it darted out of sight.
Later I looked through my field guide, and determined that it was a Northern Waterthrush which, despite its name, is a kind of warbler.Along the way I saw my first ducklings of the year, buffeted by waves caused by a passing boat.
The rough path passed under the train tracks and emerged as a riverside office park, full of workers on their breaks. Among other things they were ignoring was a downy woodpecker busying itself on a Phragmites reed.
Eventually I had to cross a highway, and then found the Mystic River Reservation. Most of it is very landscaped and maintained (boring!) but it includes some detours along small muddy streams and swampy areas, and an observation tower. After about an hour and a half I crossed over into Somerville--my goal.
Somerville is a fascination for me because it is the most densely populated city in the country (population density about 19,000 people per square mile--for reference, Boston is about 12,000 per sq. mile). Since my project(s) is(are) about urban nature, I feel like the most densely populated city deserves to be investigated. The northern border of Somerville is the Mystic River, but ironically, in our tiny metropolis with excellent public transportation, there's no easy way to get there (without your own car). There are city buses, and I shouldn't count them out, but there's something comforting about the stability of the trains. The tracks are always there, you always know another one is coming, you are out of the weather, and the majority of the stations are quite safe and crime-free. Anything goes when you're waiting for a bus.
Nonetheless, the long walk to Somerville along the River has convinced me to start the next Urban Nature Walk in Somerville. We can meet at a parking lot for the Reservation, take a quick detour to see the cool mural, and then go check out the nature of Somerville.
Cross Posted to The Urban Pantheist,
birdlovers, b0st0n
