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.
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.
Oil-covered goose near Longwood.
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.
Mary Ellen watched a young deer yesterday morning getting something to drink in Sawmill Brook at Millennium Park in West Roxbury, along with some ducks and some tires.
A family of ducks settled in for a snooze on the northern shore of Jamaica Pond yesterday afternoon (dad was equally asleep, a foot or two away).
At 9:49 a.m., the MBTA reported delays on the Green Line Extension between East Somerville and Gilman Square as workers went into Officer Mike mode and escorted some baby ducks off the tracks.
Earlier:
Aw, shucks: More ducks.
Update: Yes, it is a bit early for baby ducks. The duck was an adult female hooded merganser.
David Yamada took a screen capture of a Green Line delay message at 9:36 a.m. today: Read more.
Mary Ellen took Dolly the dog up to Castle Island for a walk yesterday.
They spotted a plump dunlin, a flock of them and a female common eider (also purple sandpipers, which to the untrained eye look just like dunlins, only more gray than brown): Read more.
Mary Ellen headed over to Cow Island Pond - the part of the Charles off Rivermoor Road in West Roxbury - around sunset and spotted this merganser with its butt seemingly on fire in the setting sun.
Earlier:
She's just a bird and she's on FIYAH
The hooded mergansers are back at Jamaica Pond for their annual fall visit.
This time of year, the mallards are usually the main duck species at Jamaica Pond, but this June the wood ducks are giving them a run for their money - instead of the normal one mother wood duck and her brood, there are two, maybe three other families paddling around the pond.
There are always mallards at Jamaica Pond, sometimes supplemented in the spring and summer by a family or two of wood ducks (and one black Muscovy duck in love with a mallard), but the pond now is home, even if temporarily, to all sorts of other ducks. Read more.
In the dawn mist along the Charles River at Millennium Park this morning, Mary Ellen spotted a black crowned night heron, a couple of mallards and a great blue heron.
The other day, a mother duck and her ducklings were at the northernmost end of Jamaica Pond, slowly paddling through the muck there, stopping from time to time for a bite to eat. Read more.
A family of wood ducks glided along the surface of Jamaica Pond yesterday.
Mary Ellen watched some ducklings trying out the Charles River in West Roxbury yesterday.
A bunch of common eiders, including this guy, were bobbing around on the Sugar Bowl side of Castle Island this afternoon (thanks to Boston duck Twitter for the ID).
Mary Ellen spotted a pair of hooded mergansers in one of the unfrozen parts of Sawmill Brook at Millennium Park in West Roxbury today. Mr. Hoodie did get up on the ice for a bit: Read more.
Mary Ellen journeyed up to Jamaica Pond today, where, amongst the fresh crop of hooded mergansers, which usually show up there about now, she spotted some redhead ducks, which are not commonly seen in 02130.
Sometimes, the pond also sees ruddy ducks, which, however, do not have red heads.
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