June in the City

Walking Fresh Pond Reservation in Cambridge in June is a visit to baby bird land. Gone are those evanescent warblers which passed through in May. Instead, I am enjoying a family of downy woodpeckers at Black’s Nook flitting about and landing on the lotus stalks before heading back home. A young northern flicker is begging from a dead snag near the northeastern point of the pond. A young Cooper’s Hawk goes after a wounded mouse near the Butterfly Garden. A green heron and black-crowned night heron ( not hatch year birds) fish at Black’s Nook.

The reservation is like a garden of penstemon digitalis , meadow rue( thalictrum) , meadowsweet ( spires alba), elderberry and aromatic Carolina rose. The meadow rue is taller than I am!

How lucky to be so close to the sound of bullfrogs, warbling vireos and orioles while in the city.