OK, so technically, it might not actually be a
riparian zone, but I think of it as one. I'm talking about the little strip of trees and brush between the road and the lake, generally
speaking. Some lakes have no zone. The grass goes right up to the water. The thing is, there is a lot of wildlife that really,
really likes to hang around in trees and shrubs and things, especially if they are right next to a river or a lake. So the
maintenance of a riparian zone is really beneficial.
Anyway, now that I'm back here in the Arlington/Medford/Winchester area, I have the
Mystic Lakes at my disposal again. I've previously seen
eagles and swans and today brought a spectacular new encounter.
But first, you should know a few things. It was raining. Not really hard, but raining nonetheless. This was much of the
reason I decided to take a walk in the woods. You see, I learned when I was fishing that when it's just drizzly like that,
it's a great time to go out and see nature. The rain stimulates all kinds of behavior in nature. In addition to birds, I saw
fish jumping and bees and all sorts of things. And because it's raining, there's no-one else around so I have the place pretty
much to myself.
So I drove into the Medford Boat Club parking area to see if anything was happening and I saw a beautiful bird framed
against a tree in a cove in the lower Mystic Lake. So off I went.
Now you can really see what I mean about a riparian zone. Here's a wider shot of the same scene. If there were no strip,
do you really think that bird would be hanging out here?
OK, so I wait and wait and wait hoping this guy will take off and leave so I can catch that, and I finally realize I'm
not going to win. So I leave and drive down to the beach and back. On my way back, I notice the same bird (I think) standing
in the water off the next point down the lake. This is a great section for access because the land veers away from the road
creating a nice swath of brush and there is a bit of elevation which protects the water from the noise and view of the road.
So I park the car and head on down into the brush.
There are lots of trails in here, so it's not hard going. The problem is I don't know where this bird is, and it's really
close. The second it either smells me or sees me, it's gone. If I'm standing in the middle of the trail there will be no picture
because it will fly out over the water and there are about six thousand tree branches in the way.
So I decide I'll just walk really slowly and quietly with my camera ready and see what happens. The first thing that
happened is I ran smack into an
American Goldfinch.
This bird was content to fly around in my periphery. Not too worried about me. I attribute some of this to the non-threatening
way in which I was walking, but who knows. It probably just didn't care.
Around this time, I see the big bird take a few steps inland off ahead at 2:00, and it disappears into the brush. For
the next five minutes or so, I slowly move up into position. When I arrive near the point, having see absolutely no indication
of any movement, I sense motion to my right and two
Great Blue Herons go flying across the lake. At this point, I figure the gig's up with the bird I was tracking, so I run down to the shore
to catch this shot.
Now I've made enough noise to let everyone know I'm there, so I walk around the point at a more normal pace. But still
quiet. There is a commotion off to my left and I see a bird wheeling down from the canopy to land on a tree about 40 feet
away. So I very slowly move in. But when I close the distance by half, I can see no sign of this large bird. I move slightly
towards the water and it spooks.
This big hawk comes crashing out of the brush over the water, banks around hard to shore and lands on a branch about
ten feet away from me. I believe this is a
Northern Goshawk, a young one. I should point out that I am not an
ornithologist. If I am incorrent in any of these and one of my readers can point it out, please do.
Anyway, I stare at this thing and take pictures while it looks around blithly unconcerned. Eventually, it tires of this,
and flies off.
And this was just a two hour stretch on a slow, rainy afternoon. Amazing.
So there's a
story out today about how clusters of black holes may be producing enormous clouds of gas. Like, 6 million
light-year wide clouds of gas. Near as I can make it, that's 'bout 30 quadrillion miles wide.
OK, that's all well and good. However, I got stuck on the first sentence of the article. Since these things sometimes
change online, I decided to capture the article to preserve it.
Do you see what I'm talking about? The headline states the finding as a proven fact, but when you read the
article you find out that it is not. So essentially, this is a news article with a false claim right in the headline. Unbelievable.
