Monthly Archives: December 2016

It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Karen Stein

As the end of each calendar year approaches, it’s hard not to look back and reflect on the many wonderful experiences, sometimes a few challenges, and the continued successes that propel us into our next year. kay

This year, one of our reflections is to look back over the time that Kay Andberg (Mrs. A) has spent at Moose Hill. After 23 years of leading Moose Hill’s camp and school and group programs, Kay has decided to retire. With grandchildren calling her name, the timing just seemed right.

Over the last 23 years, Kay’s passionate, positive, and supportive role as Camp Director has connected children of all ages with the wonders of the natural world around them. When you have an education coordinator who finds wonder in everything around her and then wants to share that with everyone, and we do mean everyone, that she meets, well, let’s just say it makes it hard to say goodbye.

When we reflect on our programs, it’s easy to see how Kay’s guidance has provided campers, camp-2014-week-11-098 students, teacher naturalists, counselors, volunteers, and even visitors with a place (Moose Hill) where they can feel at home. It has become a place where those teaching can find equal value in watching and engaging with the campers or the students; play becomes a natural way to engage with the world around you and to discover and learn so much more.

But, while Kay may not be with us on a daily basis, she will continue to be involved here at Moose Hill – with advice, with stories, with ideas, and with grandchildren, family, and friends in tow as she introduces them all to this great big backyard of exploration.

So what happens next? Moose Hill is actively seeking our next Education Coordinator and Camp Director who should be with us as spring of 2017 begins to arrive. In the meantime, our incredible education staff and teachers will still be here, channeling Kay’s inner voice and continuing to provide the engaging, fun, and educational programming expected by our campers, our students, and our visitors.

Kay’s last day will be Friday, December 30, 2016. She will, appropriately, be spending that last week with vacation week campers.

Wished you had a chance to say goodbye? Don’t worry, you can! We will have a goodbye gathering for Kay on May 21, 2017, when the weather will be more cooperative. Come and have a chance to share your stories and memories with Kay. More details to come in April, so watch our enewsletter, News from the Hill, for updates.

Catching Up With the Past

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Karen Stein

MH100_fullcolor It’s hard to believe that 2016 has come and has almost gone. After 100 years as Mass Audubon’s first wildlife sanctuary, one year seems like a short period of time, yet despite the quickness by which this year has seemed to go by, what a year it has been.

Celebrating 100 years kicked off in March as Moose Hill celebrated 44 years of maple sugaring. With programs for schools, groups, and visitors to learn about the process of turning sap into syrup, this time honored annual event continues to connect people with a truly New England crop – maple syrup -oh how sweet it is. Join us at a program or for Maple Sugaring Weekends in 2017.

George and Martha, our 250 year old maple trees, are ready for sugaring season.

On April 7 as we welcomed back David Clapp for a Fireside Chat. David grew up in Sharon, was one of the very first campers Moose Hill ever had, and later became one of the sanctuary directors here. An evening of stories, shared memories, and even some great pictures and other keepsakes was enjoyed!

The celebration continued on April 9 with a “100th day of the year” celebration. All Mass Audubon sanctuaries were open for free that day – some with programs that visitors could attend, some with cookies or cakes, but all with the opportunity to share our wonderful sanctuaries with visitors – those that had never been to a sanctuary before and those that enjoy the sanctuaries all the time. It was a great day for greeting old friends and making new ones too!

Lotor, the raccoon knows where to hang.

Here at Moose Hill, we had the pleasure of meeting one of the sons of a former sanctuary director, Al Bussewitz. His son, Al, stopped by on April 9 and shared photos and stories, and we even took a tour of the old nature center – the home in which Al had lived when he was younger. It was great to finally hear the truth behind some of the stories that we have heard and to learn what it was like to grow up at a wildlife sanctuary.

staff and volunteers gather for Statewide Volunteer Day in April

With 100 years to celebrate, Moose Hill wanted to provide as many opportunities for people to visit and experience our great sanctuary as possible. On April 30, Moose Hill was one of the host sites for Mass Audubon’s Statewide Volunteer Day. With staff working by their side, volunteers joined us to spruce up our gardens, spread wood chips, weed the fields for our Community Supported Agriculture program, and scrub down the camp garage. Laughter, along with a lot of much appreciated work, was done! We look forward to next year’s volunteer day so we can do it all again.

June brought camp – 67 years strong – back to Moose Hill. Our summers just wouldn’t be the same without campers exploring the trails, discovering the farm fields, catching frogs, experimenting with science, dabbling in art, and venturing new places. Building appreciation for the natural world, providing hands-on science learning, and helping children develop important life skills, such as teamwork, leadership, and self-expression remains our focus. Registration for summer 2017 begins soon! barn-display2

As summer ended and campers headed back to school, it was time to turn our attention to fall and Halloween Prowl. With another visit from a former director, Mike Shannon and his wife, Margie, we discovered that so much of this event follows the traditions that Mike and Margie created when they started this event 34 years ago. Each year, the costumed characters change, but since this was our 100th year as the first sanctuary, we decided to bring back our favorites to have on the trails and the opossum, great blue heron, dragonfly, and dung beetle did not disappoint. Of course the luminary lit trails started with a druid and ended with a celebration fire followed by hot chocolate, camp fire songs and even S’mores to finish off the night! Guess we’ll do it again next October; we just have so much fun.

Welcome Mass Audubon staff!

But we didn’t limit our celebrations to events, visits from past staff and campers, and programs, Moose Hill also hosted the Mass Audubon Board of Directors for a meeting in June with a tour of our fabulous sanctuary and organic strawberries from our farm. Then, in early September, we were delighted to be the gathering site for the Mass Audubon annual staff outing, sharing the sanctuary and a few of the surrounding attractions with our colleagues from across the state, and the islands.

And to top it all off, every visit provided everyone the opportunity to explore our Gallery. The four shows this past year all reflected in some way on Celebrating 100 years:

Looking Back…Moving Forward – highlighting artists who have exhibited at Moose Hill before, showcasing their creativity and individual expressions of nature with pastels, oil, watercolors, and photography.
What Have We Got to Lose? – an opportunity to capture the potential loss of our natural resources through the impacts of climate change through an artist’s eye.
Hidden Treasures at Moose Hill – a return of the innovative photographs by Fred Martins that were featured in Moose Hill Art calendars from 2006-2011. Each photograph explored the many hidden treasures of the sanctuary and invited visitors to get out on the trails and explore the wetlands, vernal pools, streams, and pine forests at Moose Hill.
Birds of Prey – noted for their keen vision and powerful talons, birds of prey intrigue and fascinate and were the perfect ending on the year – after all, any exhibit that features birds reminds us of the story of Mass Audubon.

It truly has been a wonderful year and we thank everyone who visited, shared stories, pictures, memories, and time with us. It is the land, the staff, the volunteers, and all of you that make Moose Hill still as vibrant today as it was 100 years ago!

We look forward to seeing you on here in 2017 as we begin the next 100 years of Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary.

A Visit from Robo Rampage

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Karen Stein

Recently Moose Hill had the pleasure of seeing a presentation from a local FIRST Lego League group – Robo Rampage. This group of six students attend middle schools in both the Sharon and Canton Public Schools and part of preparing for competition during this tournament season is to present their challenge project to various professional groups in order to practice their presentation, ask questions, and listen to our thoughts or questions to help improve their overall project. team

When Pooja, Soumil, Arun, Daniel, Thanh, and Arjun arrived to present their project, you could see just how much this team is a team. This is their 5th year working together, a few members have left and a few new members have joined, but you would never know that from the interactions we saw, and they have done well as a team at competition. They were excited about this year’s project and had lots of questions for us – and we had a lot of questions for them, too. team-website talking-about-the-gallery

So what is this year’s challenge? Animal Allies – identify a problem when people and animals interact; design a solution that makes the interaction better for animals, people or both; and share your problem and solution with others. Team Robo Rampage set their minds to the task and each team member brought at least one project idea to the table. After presenting their ideas to each other, a vote was done to determine the winning project.

The winning project? To build a thermal detector for cars that would help drivers to know of an animal that might be crossing the street – say a deer – and would then help the driver to brake the car to avoid any collisions. I think we all realize how useful this could be, especially on those back roads, late at night, or at dusk when it can be hardest to see what animals might lay ahead. inputting-information

So what happens at competition? The audience mostly sees teams playing the Robot Game, but the teams are actually judged on a few things: Core Values, Project, and Robot Design. demonstrating-the-robot

We wish Team Robo Rampage the best of luck at the competition on Saturday and we cannot wait to hear how you did! Thanks for visiting and sharing your project – it’s awesome!

Nature Detective Notes: December/late Autumn-early Winter

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Karen Stein

The darkest days of the year are upon us at the moment, but this doesn’t always translate into “cold and snowy” conditions. This past November was a much warmer month then in year’s past, with a brief cold spell in the latter weeks. Precipitation was mainly in the form of rain and accumulated in average amounts, despite what seemed like a deluge at times. We are just NOT used to seeing so much at one time during this dry year—our area still needs 8-10 inches of measurable precipitation to catch up to those 100 year averages and provide our watersheds what they desperately need.

As for the darkest, shortest days of the year (sunrise is now around 7:00 am and sunset is close to 4:15 pm), these usually extend from late November into late December. With that sunrise time staying quite constant until early in February, waking up will be tricky for all of those diurnal creatures. Sunset times, however, will REALLY rebound by January, and just in time to shovel snow under better lit conditions. Not that we will have as much as “snowmageddon” during the Winter of 2014-2015, but there is evidence to suggest (from the Climate Prediction Center) that we will have more snow than last year.

The ½ inch of snow from the “storm” on December 5 was quickly washed away by copious rainfall and melting upon contact with most of the ground. As the ground surface cools (and it will with a short blast of Arctic air during the latter part of the week), please by careful out on the roads. Late Autumn-early Winter here in New England means a good deal of “black ice” and slick roads at times for reasons just mentioned.

Remember that our seasons in these latitudes are relative with no truly defined “boundaries”, as calendars would have us believe with the “first day of Winter (Winter Solstice) arriving on December 21”. That is merely in “astronomical terms” and indicates the Earth’s position to the sun OR the angle of elevation of the sun ON that particular date—the lowest in the sky for the year, resulting in the shortest day.

With the Nature Detective Notes, I speak in “meteorological terms”—when the coldest days occur, when the warmest days occur, etc., and usually at 3-month intervals, as expressed by not only our weather forecasters (or meteorologists), but also ecologists and WE that focus on the applied sciences for a living.

Consider this idea and the fact that EVERY season goes through its stages—early Autumn chill and migration of birds, mid Autumn leaf senescence and frost, late Autumn leaf fall and grey, rainy days.

So…, early December-early March (Winter), early March-early June (Spring), early June-early September (Summer), and early September-early December (Autumn). Note: with the impeding warming of our planet and Climate Change, like I “hint at” below, in our lifetime we may begin to see a shortened Winter season from mid December-mid February, just like the Piedmont of North Carolina.

Here are some observations I’ve made over the past few weeks, as we transition from late Autumn to early Winter:

Frozen ground and Melting Frost—each year I attempt to keep track
Rime ice on a surface

of WHEN the first, hard frost occurs, and each year it tends to happen later. This time it occurred just before Thanksgiving, and even then, the soil holding my potted trees wasn’t frozen solid. While scraping the thick frost off of my car this morning, I was struck by how quickly the sun’s rays melted this frozen “rime ice” and water droplet; this is December, after all and NOT March; WHAT are things like in your area? Have you had to scrape your windshields? Do you park your car so that the early sun can be aiding in the removal of that ice?
But it feels like late March or early April in southern New England—while walking down one of our trails last week I really felt like I had been transported to these months, that it was much later in the day, AND that the “timberdoodles” (or American Woodcock) would be making their flight display in, what we affectionately call the Poison Ivy field, off the Billings Loop. Sure, the greys-browns-tans-lawn greens/piney greens are all VERY early December (or late November) in our area, but there was a smell in the air, a feeling that we had skipped all of that cold and snowy weather. DO you sense some of what I am sensing? All very typical of Winters down in the North Carolina piedmont region, actually, just not so typical of what we have been used to in the past.
Red/Black Oaks with leaves still hanging on
Down come the Oak leaves—After the 2-3 inches of rain that fell last week, many of our Oaks (especially the Red and Black types) have lost their leaves, littering the side walks and forest floor in most areas. Those trees devastated by Gypsy Moth larval feeding produced a much smaller amount. Along the roadside and forest edges, you might find younger individuals who have retained their scarlet-russet leaves, as is characteristic of these tree species in our area.
European Buckthorns tough it out—the most common of our exotic invasive shrubs, this species will keep its leaves attached until the colder and snowier weather arrives.
Winter Moths—These exotic invasive, insect pests don’t seem to be as common as in past years and thank goodness for that. I am guessing that certain density dependent factors might be at play here – disease, parasitism, etc….I just started seeing them around Thanksgiving, which is at least 2 weeks later than usual. Read more about these moths here.
Garter Snake!—a large individual, possibly a female, was seen just off of the Kettle Trail last week with our preschoolers. The latest I have ever seen one active in this area, and interestingly, the ONLY Herp (short for herptile – a reptile or amphibian) seen or heard that day. Usually, a few Spring Peepers will call during damp days in the 50’s-60’s, but not the case where we were. In any case, this species/subspecies is the most northerly of our native reptiles, able to exist in parts of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, so go figure.
Where have all the turkey’s gone?—by this point in early December, I usually step in numerous piles of wild turkey poo, either tracking it in the Nature Center or smearing it on my clothes; not so this late Autumn-early Winter season. My guess is that with ample food supplies throughout our Oak-Pine-Red Maple forests (last year was a bumper crop for nuts and acorns, and this year is almost as good in spots), these re-introduced, native birds DO NOT need to crowd our feeders at Moose Hill, put down a chicken farm’s share of waste, and roost in the trees just across the street, looking southward. Then again, maybe their populations have “tanked” due to disease or other density dependent factors… Read more on this idea here.
Pinwheel Mushrooms on Hardwood tree bark—I love finding these little, Basidiomycetes on the bark of Sugar Maples, Red Maples, and White Ashes, feeding on dead lichen, moss, etc., thanks to the warmer, moister air last week, they woke up from their dormancy; a great strategy that allows many creatures to survive the weather extremes in southern New England

Back to peeling my Italian Chestnuts and dreaming of collecting a basket or two of our native ones, here in southern New England.

Be well,

Michael P. D. Scutari Acciavatti

Nature Detective Notes by Michael, Moose Hill’s full-time teacher naturalist who often heads out on the trails to stretch his legs and observe what is happening. His enthusiasm and knowledge make for wonderful updates about the nature of Moose Hill. We hope that you will be inspired to head out on our trails as well and enjoy the changes that each season, or better yet, each month bring to Moose Hill. We look forward to seeing you here!