A pair of Cedar Waxwings and the continuing love burps of the Green Heron both near the water and both suggesting possible nesting. A Great Blue Heron is still present but it seems to be only a single bird -- an immature perhaps that did not take off with the other wintering birds to find a nesting colony.
Add to the local flora: Nightshade or Solanum ducamara.
The aftereffects of Sandy are still noticeable, not only in the dead and dying trees that line the pond and marsh but also in the extraordinary amount of Pokeweed that has come up and is now sending out spikes of waxy greenish-white flowers that will later turn into those striking purplish-black berries. At the head of the trail that goes into the Samuel & Frances Salzman Preserve (which covers the southwestern half of the property), there is a dense, almost impassable Pokeweed forest with some of the individual plants reaching six and seven feet in height.
Near where this path begins and just before our right-of-way emerges from the property proper heading toward Randall Lane, there is a bristling new appearance: a huge thistle, already 6' high. It hasn't bloomed yet and I haven't pinned it down as to species but when I do, I'll let you know. I suspect Bull Thistle or Canada Thistle. I don't recall ever seeing a thistle here before; the Goldfinches should love it!
Eric Salzman
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