Monthly Archives: December 2013

The Year-End Gift That Gives Back

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Hillary T.
Winter @ Pleasant Valley_ Rene Laubach

Donate Today!

There’s still time to make your year-end gift to Mass Audubon! Enjoy a tax deduction for this year, and help us protect wildlife and wild lands in 2014.

Your donation is an investment in a vital and enduring legacy: more than 35,000 acres protected statewide, for the lasting benefit of people and wildlife.

These lands are home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including 159 state-listed endangered species. Your gift today will also benefit wildlife beyond the borders of our sanctuaries.

Recent news coverage has highlighted Mass Audubon’s work to protect snowy owls. These spectacular birds are drawn to airports, perhaps because the terrain resembles the arctic tundra, but can pose a danger to aircraft.

To protect both birds and jets, Norman Smith, director of Mass Audubon’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, safely captures, tags, and relocates snowy owls each year—more than 20 so far this season, and 500 since the program began.

The snowy owl project is just one example of what your support makes possible! A generous year-end gift of $35, $75, $100, or even more will provide vitally important funds for Mass Audubon conservation, land protection, education, and advocacy programs across the state.

Plus, donate $35 or more and receive two free gifts:

  • Places to Explore, our new full-color guide to Mass Audubon’s wildlife sanctuaries, nature centers, and museums.
  • Peterson FlashGuides® to Backyard Birds, an easy-to-use reference.

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All About Holly

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Rosemary

hollyThe American holly does more than brighten up our winter woods. Here’s a primer on this iconic plant.

Identification

The American holly (Ilex opaca) grows as far south as Florida, but it’s also found in a few places in Massachusetts. To spot one, search for these characteristics:

  • Small size—in the Northeast, it usually grows only 20-40 feet tall, though in balmy southern climes it can reach up to 100 feet
  • Greenish-grey bark
  • Spiny, leathery leaves that are shiny on top and pale green below
  • Greenish flowers in early spring
  • Often found in sandy coastal forests

Decorative Drupes

What about those characteristic red berries? They’re not really berries—botanists call them “drupes,” which means fruit that has flesh surrounding a hard central pit that forms from a flower’s ovary wall. Other drupes include peaches, cherries, and olives.

If you see a holly with fruit, you know it’s a female plant. You also know that there must be a male plant nearby. Only females make fruit, but they need the pollen of a male to get started. American hollies flower in late spring, and pollinators like bees and moths carry pollen from male trees to female trees.

Though holly fruit is toxic to people, it’s an important winter food source for birds and other wildlife.

Saving the American Holly

The American holly was once in danger of disappearing in Massachusetts. People were cutting too many holly boughs for decoration, and they were also clearing forests in sandy coastal areas to build houses.

Enter the “holly man,” Wilfrid Wheeler.  In the 1930s, Wheeler was worried that hollies might disappear from the Cape, so he began to grow the plants on his property, Ashumet Farm in Falmouth. He also encouraged people to plant hollies on public land.

Wheeler’s farm later became Mass Audubon’s Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary. His legacy lives on: the wildlife sanctuary is home to some 1,000 holly trees of 65 varieties.