Our resident juvenile red-tailed hawk can often be seen perching on a nest box in the field in front of the nature center. No, it isn’t hunting the tree swallows or bluebirds that will nest there in a few months. The nest box is a perfect place to scan the field for tasty meadow voles and other small animals. When there is snow, the small mammals burrow underneath, making hunting harder. Sometimes the hawk swoops down to the bird feeder behind the nature center where voles, squirrels and small birds can be easy prey.
Another bird that hunts bird feeders, especially this time of year is the Cooper’s hawk. This one is also an immature like the red-tailed.
Plants are either fruiting or getting ready for spring flowering. These bittersweet nightshade berries are still visible. In the tomato family, perhaps they are not the favorite food of songbirds.
Catbrier berries cling to the claw-like stems, giving the plant its name.
Alder has both catkins and cones.
The old foundation of the sawmill forms waterfalls. The foam below is natural, the result of organic acids from the water being oxygenated as it falls, forming foam.
