Blog de Puree

Memorial Day weekend was fun-filled and chock-full of nature. And we even managed to find some time to relax.

On Monday, our friends from Dorchester came up for a visit. We took them for a walk around the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island in Newbury, Mass. We were not allowed on the beach in that area, however, because it’s now the nesting and feeding habitat for the endangered piping plover at this time of the year.

We did check some other areas of the refuge though and spotted a bobolink, which is a yearly visitor to the marshes here during its migration.  It’s a stunning little bird with black and white stripes and a yellow patch on its head. It has the coolest call and you can listen to it here.

Today, Randye and I had a pleasant walk after work in Moseley  Woods Park on the shores of the Merrimack River in Newburyport, Mass. We were making our way through the woods and around small pond, when Randye spotted an unusual bird with long white plumes on the back of its head. It turns out, we found a black-crowned night heron.

We were amazed at how it didn’t move as we made our way along the trail to get a closer look. But it is a patient hunger and often waits long periods for frogs and other small pond animals to swim by, so why should it move for us?

As we were coming out of the woods, I was very excited to find—and show Randye—the rare and endangered pink lady’s slipper orchid. They grow in the woods where I grew up and finding them by us in Newburyport is fantastic. While they are native to Eastern Massachusetts, they are very difficult to grow and cultivate from the wild. They are mostly found in shade-dappled forested areas.

The lady’s slipper flower is unusual among most native flowers because its slipper-like petals that hang down from the top of a long stem. This herb has medicinal properties that were used by native Americans. They boiled the extract of the roots for calming the nerves. It can be used as a sedative and antispasmodic agent.

People often ask me how I could move out of the city, where one is surrounded by culture and everything I might need at my fingertips. But here in Essex County, I don’t have to shell out $30 to go to a museum or sit on the subway for 45 minutes to go 2 miles, when I can walk out into the local woods or drive five minutes for all the beauty that nature has to offer, for free.