Wildlife Watch by Marian Harman

 

Black capped Chickadee waits for seed – Doug Pederson

Happy New Year! At this time of year, I like to review all the flora and fauna reports for the past year. In 2017, we had 32 reporters, who sent in 1294 reports on flora and fauna they had seen. This is a smaller number of reporters than in the past few years, but these few stalwart reporters reported a very large number of species. Reporters reported from all over different parts of Westford.

Some notable reports were received in every month. In January, some cowbirds were reported to have been in residence all winter along Hildreth St. Bluebirds were visiting feeders all over town. In February, two pairs of hooded mergansers were reported on Forge Pond. A river otter was also seen fishing at the Forge Pond beach. The first woodcocks arrived early at Almeria Dr. on February 24. In March, peepers were heard on March 1. A river otter was seen on Vine Brook. On March 6, a great blue heron visited a yard on Howard Rd   read more…