Nature Walks & More: What’s New on the South Shore

The new dock (and my new paddle board) at Peter Igo Park in Brant Rock.

I’ve been writing this nature column for almost twenty years now. Thank you for reading it!

It seems that there is always something new to report – conservation land acquisitions, trail development, unusual occurrences like last year’s snowy owl “irruption.” While many of these topics are worthy of complete articles, and it’s likely I will follow up on them later in the year, I’d like to take this opportunity to get caught up on some noteworthy happenings from this past year.

• This summer Mass Audubon’s North River Wildlife Sanctuary (2000 Main Street, Marshfield) opened a new sensory trail. Designed for people who may not be able to enjoy a typical walk in the woods, the half-mile loop is ADA-compliant -- lined smoothly with gravel for easier walking or wheeling. It includes a post-and-rope guided trail, tactile displays for people with impaired vision, and signage in both large print and braille. Visitors are encouraged to use all of their senses to experience the outdoors – such as listening for birdsong, noticing the various scents in the air, or touching the bark of a tree.

• Also in Marshfield, good news for paddlers! The construction of a new dock at Peter Igo Park is complete. This means that kayakers, canoeists, rowers, and stand up paddle boarders, among others, now have easy access to the Green Harbor River (parking too). Check out this recently rehabilitated 17-acre park at the intersection of Dyke Road (Route 139) and Marshall Ave.

• “The Pathway” in Norwell is a project that has been unfolding over the past few years. A network of paved cycling/walking trails, sidewalks and boardwalks, The Pathway provides an alternative to crossing town via Route 123. If you park near the Norwell Middle School (328 Main Street), you can travel more than a mile in either direction – west to the high school or east to the Norris Reservation.

• There are a few conservation properties clustered together in Scituate’s West End, including the Bates Lane Conservation Area and the Litchfield Preserve. I had planned to write about this area for this month’s column, but the guided walk I’d signed up for was cancelled due to heavy snow and falling branches. I do hope to get there soon, so please stay tuned! These properties are located on Thomas Clapp Road. To park, look for a sign for Bates Lane and the Carl Pipes Memorial Trail. A second parking area is located at the Mount Hope Improvement Society building. There are a number of well-marked trails, plus the occasional wooden bench, a boardwalk style bridge, and a landmark known as Tepee Rock.

• In Plymouth, the Wildlands Trust has so much to offer. This past year the organization relocated its headquarters to the Davis-Douglas Farm and expanded its Halfway Pond Conservation Are to 418 acres. Nearby are the Six Ponds Preserve, the Emery Preserve, the Shifting Lots Preserve, and the South Triangle Pond Conservation Area. I’m hoping to explore several of these properties in the coming months, and I’ll report back to you with details. In the meantime, you can explore them on your own. Visit wildlandstrust.org for visitor information.

by Kezia Bacon

February 2016

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 20 years of Nature (Human and Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com

The Northern Flicker

A flicker. Photo by Sandy Bacon.

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“The flicker’s here!”

This is a common announcement in our home in wintertime, usually followed by, “Do you see it? . . . Wait, don’t move, you’ll scare it away!”

The Northern Flicker (Colpates auratus), a type of woodpecker, is a beautiful bird: grayish brown with fine detailing in black and white on its breast and red on its face, plus a long chisel-like bill. Unlike other woodpeckers native to this area, its wings flash yellow wen in flight. The flicker’s name comes from one of the sounds it makes, “Flicka flicka flicka!” I never really paid much attention to the species that visited our feeder until my bird-enthusiast parents pointed out the flicker that visited regularly. Until then, my experience of woodpeckers was limited to Woody, the maniacally-laughing classic cartoon.

The woodpecker is a member of the family Picidae, which is present in nearly every region around the globe, with the exception of the poles, as well as Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Madagascar. There are seven different species that breed in Massachusetts: the Northern Flicker, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and five additional woodpeckers each differentiated by a descriptor relating to its feathers: Downy, Hairy, Pileated, Red-bellied, and Red-headed.

Our local woodpeckers thrive in the forest, typically making the trunks and branches of trees their homes. They inhabit all varieties of woodlands – coniferous, deciduous, mixed – as well as forested swamps, orchards, and open spaces such a golf courses, cemeteries, city parks and suburban yards. They prefer areas with mature trees with trunks that are large in diameter.

The woodpecker is a small-to-medium sized bird, measuring from 7-15 inches in length. Its primary color is a pattern of brown, black and white. Males of all seven varieties have bright red facial markings, crowns or crests.

The legs of the woodpecker are short and strong. Sharp claws – two pointing forward and two pointing backward -- ensure a strong grip on tree limbs and trunks. Because of these adaptations, a woodpecker can walk vertically up a tree! Stiff, pointed tail feathers – protruding at just the right angle to serve as a balance prop – are another feature that make the woodpecker well-suited to life in the trees.

The bill of a woodpecker is very strong – strong enough to withstand lifetime of pecking. The woodpecker’s primary source of sustenance is insects. While on the hunt for its next meal, it will peck at a tree and pull off the bark. Some suspect that the woodpecker may actually hear the bugs in the bark before it begins mining for them. Beetles, ants, grubs, termites, spiders, and caterpillars are all on the menu. A long, barbed, sticky tongue provides an additional tool for extracting them. The woodpecker will also eat sap, berries, nuts and seeds.

One might wonder how such a small head and neck could withstand a lifetime of repeated impact. The woodpecker is well-adapted to pecking. Its brain is small, and positioned in such as way as the impact is minimized. Its eyes and nostrils also have protective mechanisms built in. And its neck is very strong. All of that pecking actually helps to keep the bill sharp!

The woodpecker not only uses its bill for foraging, but for communication as well. In the spring, you may hear a woodpecker drumming on a tree, a wooden structure, or even a metal object like a gutter or downspout, in order to attract a mate.

Pecking is also essential for the excavation of a new home. The woodpecker roosts and nests in the small holes that it bores into trees, usually a new one each year. It will carve out an entrance ranging from 1.25 to 4.5 inches, then line the bottom of the nest with the resulting woodchips. The female lays around 4 to 6 eggs, which are incubated for 11-18 days, a responsibility shared by both members of a mating pair. Feeding is a family affair as well. After 3-4 weeks, the fledglings are ready to leave the nest.

Woodpeckers usually travel in pairs, but they’re not known to flock. Most of our local woodpeckers live here year-round, but the flicker and the sapsucker are migratory.

The flickers here at our house are probably attracted by the suet we hang. They will also forage on the ground for insects, although I suspect that our resident turkey flock may have already mined that territory for all it’s worth!

Unfortunately, woodpeckers can do serious damage. They come by their name honestly. We’ve had a number of shingles replaced on the sides of our house, due to holes pecked by our feathered friends. Luckily, our current flicker in residence has taken on a different project – enlarging the entrance to one of our bird houses.

If you have a woodpecker problem, Mass Wildlife offers a few recommendations for how to deal with it. Noise will often drive a woodpecker away, so you can yell or clap at it, or play loud music from an open window. Spraying it with a hose will also help, but you have to be consistent. Woodpeckers are attracted to dark and/or natural-stained wood, but they don’t seem to like shiny stuff all that much. Mass Wildlife says to hang high-reflective Mylar tape over an area frequented by woodpeckers, . . . or if that’s too high tech, even aluminum pie plates can help. There are also helium-filled Mylar balloons with owl-like eyes that can help scare them off – just be sure not to hang them near power lines. You can also use plastic sheeting or fruit netting.

If you’re interested in birds, check out this week’s Water Watch Lecture Series, “Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock,” Wednesday, February 3^rd at 7:30pm at the South Shore Natural Science Center. For more information, visit http://www.nsrwa.org/nsrwa-events/.

Sources:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dfg/dfw/wildlife/wildlife-living/living-with-woodpeckers.pdf

http://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/birds/woodpeckers/woodpecker-species-in-massachusetts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodpecker

by Kezia Bacon

January 2016

Kezia Bacon's articles appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 19 years of Nature (Human and Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com