{"id":335,"date":"2013-05-06T02:20:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T06:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=335"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:01:59","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:01:59","slug":"urban-nature-walk-muddy-riverfenway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/urban-nature-walk-muddy-riverfenway\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Nature Walk: Muddy River\/Fenway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jef<\/a> led us on a walk along the banks of the Muddy River on a sunny, seasonal spring day. We first stopped to view some outdoor sculpture as part of the Through the Trees<\/i> exhibition by studios without walls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Through
One of the “Through the Trees” pieces.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
\n
\"the
“conversations with tea bowls” — part of the “Through the Trees” exhibition<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

On to nature…We saw this gray birch seedling growing from a crack in a stone bridge.<\/p>\n

\"Gray
Gray birch (Betula populifolia) seedling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We saw large areas of invasive Japanese knotweed<\/a> (Fallopia japonica<\/i>). There were stands of plants over a foot tall and many plants with only a couple of leaves. The plants were brought over as an ornamental: the picture below makes it clear why.<\/p>\n

\"Japanese
Japanese knotweed emerging leaves (left) and stem (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We found a greater celandine<\/a> (Chelidonium majus<\/i>) plant in flower. Jef squeezed the stem and yellow sap emerged. He warned us that the sap may be an irritant, not surprising given the toxic yellow color.<\/p>\n

\"Greater
Yellow sap of greater celandine (left) and the plant in flower (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We passed under a number of lovely stone arches.<\/p>\n

\"Jef
Jef demonstrates the acoustics under one of the stone arches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stalactite\"
Stalactite dripping from one of the stones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We saw a female red-winged blackbird, much plainer than the males — no red wing!<\/p>\n

\"Female
Female red-winged blackbird<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We passed through a section of the path that alternated between cherry and crabapple, all in flower.<\/p>\n

\"Cherry
Alternating cherry and crabapple trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jef picked off a piece of rotting bark. Part of it crumbled away. He told us it was insect frass, the waste products of insects. He suspected that carpenter ants were to blame and, sure enough, we found one running from the bark.<\/p>\n

\"Frass
Frass of carpenter ants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We encountered another invasive plant – phragmites<\/a>. Phragmites is a reed that grows several feet tall, blocking views of the river and preventing native vegetation from taking hold. Most of the stalks we found were from last year but we saw a bit of new growth as well.<\/p>\n

\"Phragmites\"
Phragmites (new and old growth)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We saw this crane fly basking in the sun and were able to observe it closely without alarming it.<\/p>\n

\"Crane
crane fly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s a pattern to the wild plants that we saw: many were exotic and most invasive. Garden yellow-rocket<\/a> (Barbarea vulgaris<\/i>), one of the exotics, bursts with yellow flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Garden
Garden yellow-rocket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On one of the berms separating the path from the T, Jef found a cane of black raspberry<\/a> (Rubus occidentalis<\/i>). Note the three-part leaves, thorns, and white powder on the stems. Finally, a native plant!<\/p>\n

\"Cane
Cane of black raspberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The grass on both banks, where it could be found, was grazed by Canada geese to within centimeters of the ground. We saw many of the culprits swimming, honking, and grazing. We also saw an American black duck. Jef noted that mallards will come up to people expecting to be fed but black ducks keep their distance.<\/p>\n

\"Goose
Canada goose and American black duck<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We also saw starlings, grackles, bluejays, cardinals, pigeons, and even a great blue heron passing by. It took a little while for us to find this calling tufted titmouse.<\/p>\n

\"Tufted
Tufted titmouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The northern flickers weren’t so shy. We saw two of them pecking at something on the riverbanks.<\/p>\n

\"Northern
Northern flicker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spotted two muskrats. Here’s the second one. It ducked under water as we approached and we didn’t see it surface anywhere.<\/p>\n

\"Muskrat\"
Muskrat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here, Jef digs up some wild garlic<\/a> (Allium vineale<\/i>). The plant had a few small white bulbs at the end, which can be used to flavor food.<\/p>\n

\"Jef
Jef digs up wild garlic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jef found a large piece of rotting wood and took it apart. We saw this worm squirming around the wood. Parts of it appear transparent.<\/p>\n

\"Worm
Unidentified worm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were only able to locate one poison ivy<\/a> (Toxicodendron radicans<\/i>) plant.<\/p>\n

\"Poison
Poison ivy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around the start of our walk, Jef found a fallen branch with some dried black mushrooms. He placed the branch in the river. Toward the end, he brought it out. The dried black mushrooms, Exidia recisa<\/i><\/a>, had come to life.<\/p>\n

\"Exidia
Exidia recisa: wet and dry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our last creature of the day was this diurnal firefly.<\/p>\n

\"Diurnal
Diurnal firefly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jef led us on a walk along the banks of the Muddy River on a sunny, seasonal spring day. We first stopped to view some outdoor sculpture as part of the Through the Trees exhibition by studios without walls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,4],"tags":[147,145,137,136,117,141,131,130,58,190,144,64,134,135,140,152,132,34,153,86,133,101,493,151,99,142,148,139,43,92,138,143,150,5,146,82,149],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1387,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/1387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}