Table of Contents

Naturally Kingston

Dorothy MacFarlane is a teacher at the South Shore Natural Science Center in Norwell, and is a volunteer with the Jones River Watershed Association in Kingston and holds a Ph.D. in Biology.

Pathways and Trails
(November 19, 2004) Wild animals have long had the run of the old farm where we live, so there are many established animal trails through the fields and woods. Some go to the road, some run along the Jones River. Others circle around and through the fields and woods...

Mystery Bird
(October 22, 2004) Since late last spring, I've been trying to identify a large bird that floats out of nowhere over the field. It was screaming at a red shouldered hawk when I first saw it, and it was obviously a raptor, but which one? More white than brown, not quite an owl, but owl-like. As the weeks went by, I saw it sitting on the barn roof and flying low over the field.  

Flocking Turkeys
by Dorothy MacFarlane
I’m writing about the wild turkeys again because they are such a presence in our yard and in our town. They continue to amaze us, walking by every day, sometimes several times a day, ignoring us, and feasting on the bounty of seeds a...  

Hackmatack
(August 20, 2004) When you live in one house for a long time, individual trees tend to take on a personality; at least they do for me. That personality is linked to the activities in and around them. At the house where I live now, there is an evergreen that is not and evergreen; a tamarack... 

Beetles, Birds & Coyotes
(July 16, 2004) The bugs in my title are bright red lily beetles that are turning my Asiatic and Easter lilies to lace. These beetles are aliens, or at least not native. They showed up a few years ago, and like many other non-native insects, found a place of bounty with few predators.

Indian Pipes!
(June 19 2004) I guess I was always destined to become a botanist; some of my favorite childhood memories involve plants. That is true of the Indian pipes, small, white flowers that bloom in our summer woods.

Fish Wrapper!
(May 21, 2004) Well, so much for my expertise with e-mail. Last month’s column disappeared into cyber-heaven. Speaking of heaven, the lost column was about the simultaneous appearance of the inner planets in the sky last month. I wanted to remind folks to look up to the night sky to see the inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, all at the same time.

Maple Sugar!
(February 20, 2004) In the summer, green leaves a re busy making sugar, capturing the energy of sunlight and converting it to chemical energy. During the cold of winter, most plants sleep. Sugar maples make sugar all summer in their leaves, and as other plants do, use it for growing, repairing, and producing seeds. What's left over is stored as starch in the roots for seasons to come. Sugar is transported in phloem, part of the thin, green layer just below bark.

Trees of Yesterday & Today
(June 20, 2003) Every town has an elm street, but you have to be over fifty to remember why, or remember the graceful green arches that covered Main Street. Mature elms and sycamore once graced our roadways, but there is little evidence of that now, except for a few scattered remnant trees and in photographs. The trees along Kingston's streets today are a hodgepodge of sizes, shapes, and species. 

Hawk and Squirrel
(May 16, 2003) I'm a botanist, and birds are usually of secondary interest to me. But this year, the wildflowers are late, and who could resist watching a pair of hawks? It's been interesting to watch the other wildlife respond to the presence of predators. The red shouldered hawks are still flying overhead, and the population of squirrels has never been lower.

Foxes on the Snow
(March 20, 2003) I've been watching hawks all winter, especially red tailed hawks. I had intended to write about them for this column, in fact I had a couple of paragraphs written, when I spotted a red fox in the field. I watched in awe as it walked slowly over the snow, nose to the surface, hunting for prey. I decided to write about the fox instead, and save the hawks for another day.

Birds in Winter
(January 20, 2003) This winter has been hard on everyone because of the extreme cold, but I'm thinking of how difficult it must be for the birds! With their small size and naked feet, they need every trick in the book to stay warm. Of course, birds have the original winter warmer, down. They can puff their feathers to capture air for insulation, rev up their metabolism, or reduce the blood supply to their feet to preserve heat.

Beautiful Bluebirds
I got a Christmas present on New Years Day, a view of a small flock of bluebirds in the field next to our driveway. They were perched on a little stick in the field, and hopped from it to the ground, looking for seeds. There is a name for this behavior; ground-sallying. Many birds hop along the ground when they forage. Bluebirds instead drop from a perch, grab their food, and fly up again. My birds were a textbook example of this behavior.

Close Encounters
(December 2002) Over the last couple of years, I’ve had a few encounters with wildlife that were less than enjoyable, including carpenter ants, yellow jackets, flying squirrels, and deer ticks. I picked up the tick in the woods.

Deer Yard
(November 2002) The old farm I live on is perfect habitat for white tailed deer. There is grass, shrubby maple groves, water, and woods to hide in. We see deer beds in the long grass, hoof prints in the sand, and little piles of fresh scat on the hills. There are deer trails through the farm, including one that cuts in back of the house and continues down to the road.

Snakes in the Grass
(September 2002) I talked to one caller who was disturbed that snakes would lie in wait against her neighbor’s cellar wall and catch birds. This is nature in action, unfortunately for the birds, and nothing should be done. Removing brush piles and bird seed, which draw mice, may reduce the snake population a little.

Tree Frogs & Toads
(August 2002) I’m a very lucky naturalist, I work at a Nature Center in a job that I love, and I have incredible opportunities to observe nature there, as well as at home. My home is an old dairy farm here in Kingston, with all the wildlife habitat an old farm in succession can offer. My home is along the Jones River, with mowed fields, woods, overgrown stone walls, and lots of edges.