By Aaron Brooke Jenkyn
It is hard to know in what season I am writing this column – when exactly did winter end and spring begin? Is summer really here? Even those of us who have been in New England for a long time have begun to doubt our seasonal intuition. It seems like the only thing that was “on time” this year was the arrival of black flies for Mother’s Day! During the pockets of sunshine and warmer days, some of you braved the black flies, got outside and sent in reports of what you found.
In early March, Mary and John Zentis had a visit from a young opossum. They watched for about five minutes as it snacked on apples that had fallen from the tree near their deck.
That same month, Judy and Bob McCarthy had a special visit from a pileated woodpecker. The McCarthys have planted trees in honor of each of their seven grandchildren, and, on this day, the pileated woodpecker was eating the dried fruit from their granddaughter phoebe’s ornamental crab.
In early April, Caren Calafati saw a beautiful bald eagle fly up from the direction of Trail 8, which passes below her house at the end of Brookridge Drive. It flew in very close to her house so there was no mistaking it. She said she had heard Brookridge was in the raptor area of Eastman, and she often sees hawks perched in trees, but this sighting of the eagle was a true surprise!
When Amy Hoffman wrote in on April 16, we had just had three inches of snow the day before, and I was convinced spring would never come. Amy’s optimistic note made me feel a bit better – she reported that, the day after the big snow, a wood thrush appeared in her yard – a sure sign of spring.
On April 12, Judy McCarthy commented that she missed her backyard birds after taking down the feeders for the summer but was delighted to welcome a large flock of dark-eyed juncos that helped clean up the leftover seed on the ground. Judy also reported that on that day she saw her first mourning cloak butterfly on Allen’s drive. They are often the first butterflies to be seen in the spring because they winter-over under tree bark as full-sized adults, no metamorphosis. They emerge sometime in the first warm days of spring, looking to eat rotting fruit or to drink tree sap. Normally you would start to look for them in late march but this year was a little different.
Liz Forshay was the first of many people to report that the loons were back on the lake not long after ice out in late April.
In early May, Isabel, Molly and Sam Bober were visiting with friends Brittany and Henry Pye near the 17th hole when they spotted a young fox family playing on the fairway. Ruth Gorley later confirmed that a fox family was living there again this year.
Jamie Walsh came across two pairs of wood ducks by the polishing ponds on clearwater drive. Jamie noted that there are often hooded mergansers, mallards and, of course, Canada geese on the ponds. If you look carefully, you can also find painted turtles and snapping turtles in and around the water and many bird species flying overhead. closer to home, Jamie has a blue jay that has built a nest 10 feet off his deck.
Around May 7 or 8, Garth and Cindy Rand had two male indigo buntings in their yard and, a few days later, a rose-breasted grosbeak. A colorful spring for the Rands!
On May 9, Ruth Gorley called in to report that the purple martins were back, flying over the pond at the 17th hole. She commented that she has really noticed an increase in insects, birds and other species around the pond the past two years and has enjoyed watching that area come back to life. She credits Course Superintendent Michael Gornnert and his team at Eastman Golf Links for their efforts to manage the course using environmentally friendly landscaping techniques.
While paddling in West Cove on Mothers’ Day, Rhonda and Milt Weinstein heard, then saw, a pair of courting Baltimore orioles. On May 17, Milt wrote about the orioles again: “We woke up this morning to the song of an oriole in our back yard! It spent a lot of time in the tree closest to our deck, and it was singing around our house all day. There seem to be an abundance of orioles on the west side of the lake this year.”
Deborah Cheever wrote in to say that, on May 12, she encountered a fox just off road round the Lake by Loon drive.
Also on May 12, while out biking, Jamie Walsh saw a bald eagle flying over South Cove Activity Center. On the same day, Jamie spotted a flicker, and a blue jay sitting on his/her nest. He was able to capture some beautiful photographs of the blue jay but didn’t have his camera handy for the eagle.
While eating dinner Friday evening, May 16, Roger and Ethel Paquin noticed a strange bird in the trees in the back of their condo in East Lake. They went to the slider with binoculars to get a closer look and saw a jay-sized bird, but more like some kind of raptor. It was dusk so it was not very easy to see clearly or get a picture. The raptor was dark above with some kind of facial markings, with a finely-barred rusty brown and white breast and a “squarish” dark-barred tail. It stayed perched on the branch for 10 minutes or so then flew off low; they were able to see that it had narrow wings, indicating a falcon rather than a hawk. After searching several bird books, Roger determined that it was definitely a merlin, often called a pigeon hawk, but a member of the falcon family. It was Roger’s first sighting of a merlin.
Here on Hummingbird Hill, we had a wonderful visit from a young doe one afternoon in mid-April. She spent about half
an hour looking for something green to eat, posed for a few pictures and then moved on. We spent one afternoon in late April quietly stalking a barred owl who was resting in our wood. I thought I could get pictures to share, but it turns out that when you take a picture of an owl in the dark woods when you don’t really know what you are doing, you get a bit of a lesson in camouflage. Better luck next time!
One night this spring, we did an inventory of all the animals we have seen in our backyard. It was quite an impressive list, but we noted that we still have not seen a moose anywhere in Eastman. However, not long after we had that conversation, we spotted moose tracks at the intersection of Road Round the Lake and Wellfield Road and noticed the tracks led all the way down to the South Cove Beach. Although I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see the moose that made those tracks, it was still fun to see tracks so close to home!
Here’s hoping for a beautiful, warm and sunny summer!
Don’t forget to send me a note if you see something noteworthy, at whatsoutthere@eastmannh.org.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.