Field Journal 3/18/2023
On Saturday, March 18, I spent a couple of hours at The Desert Conservation Area near the border of Marlborough and Sudbury, MA. It was sunny, about 50 degrees F, and there was enough wind that I could hear it blowing in the pine trees. The Desert is a 615-acre pitch pine/scrub oak community, which is fairly rare in Central Mass. I’ve been visiting The Desert for most of my life, and I remember when the Conservation Commission did a prescribed burn about 10 years ago to stop eastern white pine from becoming dominant. The soil is sandy, with lots of small, steep ridges and valleys carved by glaciers. There is also a systems of wetlands, which is where I went on Saturday from 12-2pm.
The first thing I noticed was all the signs of spring, like skunk cabbage and rows of painted turtles sunning themselves on logs. There was still ice in parts of the wetlands, but I heard a few wood frogs calling. I didn’t see any egg masses yet, but it won’t be long. I heard lots of birds, including Northern Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Song Sparrows, and Red-winged Blackbirds. I know the birds are establishing territories this time of year. There was a Song Sparrow perched right next to the railroad bridge where I was sitting who sang the same song over and over the whole time I was there, and I heard a second one farther away. They were probably telling each other to stay away. I saw several Black-capped Chickadees tearing apart cattail heads, probably for food? They didn’t seem to be carrying away any of the material. I’m sure such a little bird has to spend a large percentage of its day foraging.
I think it’s pretty clear that the Song Sparrow’s streaky brown plumage acts as camouflage in shrubs and forests. I’m interested by the Black-capped Chickadee’s plumage, though. Maybe it’s general enough that it provides some level of camouflage in a lot of different habitat types? Maybe it blends in with the sky? As instructed, I tried pishing at some Black-capped Chickadees, and one of them got very agitated and flew right over to me. Maybe they think it sounds like the alarm call of a squirrel? I only did it once because it seems unkind to bother them. I noticed how big the buds were on all the plants and shrubs at the edge of the trail, and how high the water level was compared to last summer. There must be so much snow melt right now. I saw fairly fresh beaver activity on a stump at the edge of the water, but it didn’t look like anyone had worked on the dam recently.
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