The Twin Peaks of Kilimanjaro

Just got off the phone with a friend who mentioned that his wife is currently on an expedition to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, which of course immediately reminded me of this classic Monty Python skit:




And, for good measure, this song from the most underrated band of the 1980s, Toto. (my apologies for the questionable "jungle fever" imagery):

Hike: Middlesex Fells Reservation

Made our first trip ever to Oak Grove, the northern terminus of our own Orange Line. From the station, Middlesex Fells Reservation is a half-mile walk up Washington Street -- and a left turn on Goodyear (named for Woburn native and tire-vulcanizer Charles Goodyear).

Views to the south and southeast from White Rock, on the Circuit Rock Trail.

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Arboretum Walk

This afternoon Jake joined Helen and me for a walk through the Arnold Arboretum. So nice to have a naturalist along with you to point things out and look things up for you after he gets home.

Just got an email from Jake with the report on some of the species we saw today:

The yellow-flowered trees are called Goldenrain trees. (One specimen was called Panicled Goldenrain. Not sure what a panicle is.) (Webster's says a panicle is (1.) a compound racemose inflorescence. (2.) a pyramidal loosely branched flower cluster. -Ed.)

The flycatchers we saw near the piney trail were Eastern Pewees, not the Olive-sided Flycatchers I was hoping for, but still quite cool to see a juvenile. I've heard them singing in there all summer, and for the last two years over close to the rose garden, but didn't know if it was breeding pairs or lonely bachelors.

Speaking of goldenrain, on the way back we were walking under a tree when we felt drops of what felt like water land on us. Pretty quickly we determined that we had been peed on by a squirrel from about 30 feet above.

Blue Hills

Received the following email from Jake yesterday:

Drove myself down to the Blue Hills this morning for a quick recon and hi-speed birding assault on one of the eponymous hills. Left the house at 5:30. Birded for about an hour, saw/heard lots of species that I can't find in JP now, post migration. (Prairie Warbler, Ovenbird, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Red-eyed Vireo, Hermit Thrush, Eastern Towhee were the highlights.)

I think I will try this again, possibly tomorrow, and certainly at least a few more times in July. Would love to have some company if you are up for it. A truly wonderful experience: nobody around, can't hear cars, all you can see is trees and the rising sun thru the haze. Lichen and moss covered rocks (including some really cool, weird shaped lichens), blueberries ripening, all about four miles from Mattapan. It was hard to find the birds I was hearing, but I didn't care.

Was just cool to walk on the rocks and on the trails and feel like I was in the woods. Besides the hills there are also trails around ponds and freshwater marshes, and a source tells me there's Pileated Woodpecker (which sounds a lot like WoodyWoodpecker) and Barred Owl (which make the famous and extremely spooky "who cooks for you all" call) in there.

Excellent. I'm there. Jake picked me up at 5:30 in the a.m. and we drove the few miles to the Blue Hills Reservation south of Boston. It was as he described, a beautiful spot. Gray skies, the eastern horizon over Massachusetts Bay was orange. The top of the hill we were on must be pretty darn windy, as the vegetation is sparse and scrubby. But that means lots of grasses and tough little herbs.

Once again, while Jake went after birds I found myself scanning the northeast horizon for aircraft arriving into or departing from Logan. Saw a couple of jets land on runway 27 over Winthrop but couldn't figure out which runway they were using to take off.