Mass Audubon Blogs

Hawks, falcons, and vultures are among the few groups of birds that migrate during the day. Unlike songbirds and waterfowl, which migrate under cover of night, raptors are actually visible as they make their long journeys across continents. Although hawks pass by some sites by the hundreds or thousands, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can […]

Over the course of the 2020 Photo Contest, we will be highlighting 5 photos from the previous month’s entries on Facebook and asking fans to select their favorite. This is just a fun way of sharing some of the amazing entries and doesn’t have to do with the official judging process. You can pick your favorite by “liking” it on Facebook. Not […]

Changes to the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) have been proposed that would significantly weaken how habitat is protected under the law, but we can still help prevent them. The changes would narrow the definition of habitat under the ESA, limiting the ability of federal agencies to conserve and restore areas important for the survival […]

Barn Swallows nesting at the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge have had a successful season in 2020 in the Fort River Boat House. The full final report is available here. Season Summary We estimate that 30 – 38 pairs of Barn Swallows nested in the Fort River Boat House in 2020. Of […]

Land stewardship coordinator, Bea Oliva, joined the MetroWest team at Broadmoor. She is a Terra Corps service member who will coordinate volunteers making trail reroutes and improvements, providing training workshops and mentoring to conservation land managers, and working with local communities on land stewardship projects. She will serve full time for the next eleven months […]

If not tonight, then by the weekend, we’re expecting the first light frost of the season. We take the forecasted low and subtract ten to account for the farm’s frost pocket. This means that in the week ahead it’s all hands on deck for what may be the closing bean, pepper, eggplant, summer squash and […]

With numerous reports of lion’s mane and other species of jellyfish in our waters this summer, we were pretty certain endangered leatherback sea turtles would soon follow. Leatherbacks, the world’s largest sea turtle, feed almost exclusively on jellies. And by late summer some of that feeding was occurring in Vineyard Sound, one of the most […]

At 7:30 AM this past Wednesday, our group of birders gathered in the Hellcat parking lot in dense fog with Dave Weaver co-leading with me. We were joined by David O’Neill, Mass Audubon’s new president! He was giddy that he was able to escape the confinement of his temporary residence, off of Zoom meetings, and […]

Blue vervain  (Verbena hastata) On walks last week I observed two of my favorite flowers, both having blue flowers. Though fairly common in this area, they are less showy and can easily be overlooked among grasses and taller plants that dominate in late summer. Blue vervain commonly occurs in wet meadows, wet river bottomlands, and stream […]

Julia is a teacher-naturalist at Moose Hill who has been with Mass Audubon for over four and a half years and at Moose Hill specifically for the last year and a half. Julia is passionate about conservation and protecting the environment so future generations have the same resources that we have today and she loves […]