Broad Meadow Brook MAS: Worcester, MA (3/3)

I spent most of the day on Saturday at Broad Meadow Brook attending a natural history conference. There were several different presenters who spoke about the work they were doing on the sanctuary. The talks were wide ranging: from mammal diversity to fungi, from birds to invasive species. My Mom gave a talk on the butterfly diversity on the sanctuary and discussed the Harris' Checkerspot and how its population was affected by the recent power line cut. All the speakers were great. Its just too bad that there weren't many people in attendance.

After spending most of the day inside, we were anxious to get out on the trails and enjoy the sunny weather. My parents, John Shea, a woman we met at the conference, and I headed out for a short hike. My Mom was hoping for her first Mourning Cloak of the year but we lucked out.

There were lots of tracks though. I found a few that looked like Fisher to me and others which were probably Chipmunk. We walked down Holdredge and made the turn onto Enchanted Forest Trail. About halfway to Sprague Trail, Ann spotted an animal moving around in the Sedge Marsh area to our left. Even though it was a ways off, we immediately recognized it as an Eastern Coyote. We tracked the coyote with our binoculars getting quick glimpses of the animal thru the trees. Then, I spotted a second coyote a ways in front of the first. Could this possibly be a mated pair? I did a quick search and found out that coyotes in Massachusetts mate in February and give birth in April. So, this really seems probable to me. And I have seen a lot of coyote tracks this year especially along the power lines. Could the pair be denning in the Sedge Marsh?

We finally lost sight of the animals so we continued down to Sprague Trail. There we found lots of fresh tracks which I attributed to the coyotes. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are more signs of activity in this area later this spring.

After looking at the tracks for a few minutes, we continued down to Frog Pond Trail. There at the corner we had the best birds of the day. There were sparrows in the bushes as well as a Northern Cardinal and some American Robins. A White-breasted Nuthatch, a Downy Woodpecker, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker all worked over one of the trees looking for food. A Red-tailed Hawk soared above us and we even spotted what John thought might be a Rusty Blackbird in the bushes. Unfortunately he never gave me the opportunity for a clear photograph.