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Urban Nature Walk: Savin Hill Beach

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Jef led three of us on an urban nature walk around a very urban beach. Savin Hill Beach in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston is bordered by Interstate 93 and William Morrissey Boulevard. We were surprised at the diversity of water birds we found, including a few I hadn’t previously seen in the Boston area.

Savin Hill Beach in Dorchester
Savin Hill Beach in Dorchester

A great egret, yellow bill and black legs, takes off from its perch on the Dorchester Yacht Club. Two of these egrets graced the beach.

Great egret with wings held high
Great egret

A great blue heron comes in for a landing. This photo makes it look like the bird comically slipped on a banana.

Great blue heron landing
Great blue heron

A couple of greater yellowlegs wandered the shore.

Greater yellowlegs in flight
Greater yellowlegs

At one point, all three of the above birds stood close to each other, making for a nice size comparison.

Three shore birds next to each other
From left to right: great blue heron, great egret, greater yellowlegs

A few double-crested cormorants dove for fish.

double-crested cormorant in flight
double-crested cormorant

A pair of American crows duked it out mid-air.

American crows mid-flight
American crows

A solitary semipalmated plover also made the checklist for the day.

Semipalmated plover in flight
Semipalmated plover

We found a couple of periwinkles and dying green crabs in the salt marshes. But most of these creatures were on or under the rocks in Malibu Beach, across the street. We found a common periwinkle there crawling on a broken piece of porcelain.

Common periwinkle on porcelain
Common periwinkle

We also found a few green crabs (Carcinus maenus), one of which Jef picked up.

Green crab in hand
Green crab
Green crab (close-up of face)
Green crab

The skeleton of a large fish lay drying on the rocks.

Fish skeleton on beach
Fish skeleton

An area landmark, a National Grid gas tank painted in rainbow colors, stood not too far away. The work by Corita Kent is entitled Rainbow Swash.

National Grid gas tank
National Grid gas tank

Back to Savin Hill Beach, we found a number of salt-tolerant plants. Sea lavender (Limonium carolinianum) with its dark green basal leaves was in flower, although the plant looked a little dry.

Sea lavender in flower
Sea lavender

Jef tasted the cylindrical projections of this saltwort plant (Salicornia). “Salty,” he said. The projections, which resemble alien fingers, range from green to red, and are edible.

Saltwort
Saltwort

Seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) bloomed profusely at the beach’s edge.

Seaside goldenrod
Seaside goldenrod

This salt-tolerant goldenrod has waxy leaves that lack teeth, and showy flowers.

Seaside goldenrod flowers
Seaside goldenrod flowers

Beach rose (Rosa rugosa) has developed its red fruit, called rose-hips.

Beach rose
Beach rose

Trees lined an area across the boardwalk. One of them, hackberry (Celtis) is fairly rare in Boston. It is easily identifiable by its bark, which develops dark warts.

Hackberry bark
Hackberry bark

A number of wildflowers grew underneath the trees. Jef identified this plant with light blue flowers as blue wood aster (Aster cordifolius).

Blue wood aster flowers
Blue wood aster

Our native pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) had plenty of dark purple berries on it.

Poke berries
Poke berries

Jef pointed out the dried seed pods of the money plant (Lunaria annua). This non-native is planted in the belief that it will make the gardener money, its seed pods resembling silver dollars.

Money plant seedpods
Money plant seedpods

Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis), a popular ornamental, held its small blue blooms. Each flower blooms during the morning for a single day, hence the common name.

Asiatic dayflower
Asiatic dayflower

Finally, the ever-invasive Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) has started to bear fruit.

Japanese knotweed
Japanese knotweed

I only photographed one insect on this walk: the larva of an Asian multi-colored beetle (Harmonia axyridis). This orange and black creature with double-tipped spines looks nothing like a ladybug, but avidly consumes aphids just as the adults do.

Asian multi-colored beetle larva
Asian multi-colored beetle larva

Thanks to Jef for leading another entertaining and educational walk on this beautiful day.


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