West Hill Dam: Uxbridge, MA (4/14)

Our final stop of the day was at West Hill Dam in Uxbridge. I was hoping to find some snakes out sunning themselves like I had last year at this time. During that visit we found both a Ribbon Snake and a Black Racer. This year we didn't find any.

But, it was still a nice visit. We started at the lower parking lot and hiked thru the field, over the dam, and then along the dike. From the dike we could see down into the valley and noticed a couple of birds perched on the Bluebird boxes. One was a Bluebird but the other was a Kestrel. The Kestrel eventually flew up into a tall tree and perched there for several minutes (even though he was buffeted by the wind.

We continued on to the dam and were surprised to see that the swallows had already returned. As they zoomed back and forth under the dam we could pick out both Tree and Norther Rough-wing species.

Further along the dam we were able to find one butterfly: a Mourning Cloak. After flying around for a bit it settled down long enough for me to take a few pictures of both the top and underside of it.

Before heading home I stopped to look at the vernal pools on the property. Again, there were Wood Frogs in several of the pools but I didn't spot and eggs. One of the pools deeper in the woods was even still frozen.