Birds

Oil and its stench is back on Leverett Pond

By adamg - Wed, 02/26/2025 - 11:17am

Update: Brookline says that's not oil and officials were there to check the booms put down after December's spill.

A correspondent reports from the banks of Leverett Pond this morning:
Read more.

Jamaica Pond's Marble the swan is dead, likely due to avian flu

By adamg - Sun, 02/16/2025 - 10:55pm

Jim Sullivan, who along with several other swan fans, had watched over Marble the swan since his hatching last year in Ward's Pond, reports that Marble was found dead today on the ice at Jamaica Pond, likely a victim of the avian flu that has killed other waterfowl there in recent weeks. Read more.

Rare four-legged gull spotted

By adamg - Sat, 02/15/2025 - 12:16pm

On a trip down to Plymouth, Mary Ellen spotted a rare four-legged herring gull enjoying some fresh shellfish.
Read more.

His feathers were ruffled because there were no French Toast birds to go with all that powdered sugar

By adamg - Sat, 02/01/2025 - 3:25pm

Mary Ellen spotted this red-tailed hawk looking for some breakfast this morning at Millennium Park in West Roxbury.

You don't always need an eagle eye to spot a fresh meal, sometimes a crow eye will do

By adamg - Sat, 01/18/2025 - 10:20am

Mary Ellen witnessed quite the scene yesterday at the Cow Island Pond stretch of the Charles River off Rivermoor Street in West Roxbury, after rushing over on reports coyotes chased down a deer onto the ice - only to scattered, possibly after one of them also up and died. And that left the newly deceased deer available as some fresh buffet for some scavenger birds, including, yes, the noble bald eagle (who was joined by a mate: Read more

Eagle on ice

By adamg - Fri, 01/17/2025 - 5:02pm

Ari Ofsevit was running along the Charles in Cambridge yesterday when he noticed an eagle walking on the ice and nd asked a guy with a camera if he'd taken a photo.

Rehabbed ducks, geese released to Muddy River

By adamg - Fri, 01/03/2025 - 4:11pm

The New England Wildlife Center brought a gaggle of de-oiled waterfowl back to the Muddy River to live out their best bird lives again. It can be hard to hear the people (they didn't want to use speakers that might annoy the birds), so if you just want to see those birds flapping their way back to the water, skip ahead to 6:00. Read more.

Still no answer on where the oil in the Muddy River came from

By adamg - Mon, 12/30/2024 - 9:34am

Brookline.news reports that while the oil that coated birds in the Muddy River came from a pipe near the Brook House, and while that condo complex had been responsible for past oil spills, officials are not sure it was the source, in part because it had earlier removed heating-oil tanks.

Esplanade eagle

By adamg - Wed, 12/18/2024 - 9:31am

James was riding along the Esplanade lagoon on the Paul Dudley White path yesterday when he couldn't help but notice the eagle flying along the banks of the Charles before coming in for a landing on a tree on the Storrow side of the lagoon.

Earlier:
Eagle eyeing the Muddy River.

You wouldn't think a hawk would need to catch a plane, but these are unusual times

Raptor inside the Airport Blue Line station

By adamg - Thu, 12/12/2024 - 9:33am

Kristin MacDougall spotted what appears to be a hawk inside Airport station on the Blue Line this morning.

Earlier:
Watching the Green Line like a hawk - and riding it like one, too.
MBTA starts new rodent-control program at Haymarket.
Hawk takes up perch in Green Street Orange Line station.

More birds rescued from Muddy River, but water is looking cleaner, group says

By adamg - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:00pm

The New England Wildlife Center reports its workers captured four more birds along the oil-besotted Muddy River in need of cleaning and rehab today, bringing the total number of birds it now has under care to 43. Read more.

Hopefully Sam didn't get a sudden craving for fresh fish

Bald eagle perched on tree along the Muddy River

By adamg - Mon, 12/09/2024 - 10:57pm

Along with all the ducks and geese, a bald eagle perched up in a tree along the Muddy River today, surveying the geese paddling down below in the oil-infused water, near the pedestrian bridge over the Green Line to Carlton Street.

Brookline says source of Muddy River oil leak still undetermined

By adamg - Mon, 12/09/2024 - 8:49pm

The Brookline Select Board said tonight that state environmental experts have taken the lead in figuring out where the oil that coated birds in the Muddy River downstream from Leverett Pond and that the source has yet to be identified. Read more.

Wildlife rehabbers in hazmat suits, volunteers try to save more waterfowl from the Muddy River, which still reeks of oil

By adamg - Mon, 12/09/2024 - 6:03pm

The New England Wildlife Center reports it's now removed about 30 ducks and geese from the Muddy River downstream of Leverett Pond to be driven down to its Weymouth clinic to clean and treat them. Read more.

Oil flows into Muddy River on Boston/Brookline line, coating, endangering birds

By adamg - Sun, 12/08/2024 - 3:04pm

Brookline and Boston firefighters responded to the Muddy River and Leverett Pond this afternoon on reports of oil - and a heavy petroleum odor, spreading from Leverett Pond at the rear of the Brook House at 33 Pond Ave. in Brookline and at least as far north as the Longwood Green Line stop. Read more.

Hoping the T will get them out of town for Thanksgiving faster than flying

By adamg - Sun, 11/24/2024 - 4:16pm

Jordan Frias spotted this turkey rafter at a bus stop at Massachusetts and Putnam avenues in Cambridge today.

Apex predators, assemble!

Eagle atop Flag Rock and a dolphin swimming near it

By adamg - Mon, 11/18/2024 - 2:05pm

Mary Ellen was down in Plymouth this morning and spotted an eagle eating breakfast atop Flag Rock and a dolphin swimming nearby. And then a lobster boat puttered by.

More (caveat: some blood and guts): Read more.