5-27-16 Oxbow NWR & Parker River NWR

5-27-16  Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts

This 1,647 acre refuge was established in 1974 and is located 35 miles northwest of Boston, MA.   It was set aside to enhance and protect important areas of oxbow wetlands, floodplain woodlands, freshwater marshes, and upland habitat along the Nashua River.  Over the centuries this river has twisted and turned in its valley.  Like all streams and rivers, it scours the outside of bends while the slower-moving water leaves deposits ion the inner curves.  This activity creates the loops called oxbows that give their name to the refuge.  Eventually the current cuts across the oxbow's neck and the abandoned channel becomes an eyebrow-shaped pond.

American Woodcock

We were VERY fortunate to flush seven of these birds and photograph one.  They are very shy, ground-dwelling forest birds that rely on camouflage, and are seldom seen during the day. They are extremely difficult to find, much less photograph.  In this species there is no pair bond and the male provides no parental care.  The elaborate courtship ritual of the male may be repeated as long as four months running, sometimes even continuing after the females have already hatched their brood and left the nest.  

Beaver Activity

Interestingly, beavers do not always build stick lodges.  In rivers and lakes they may live in tunnels dug into the bank.  In the summer beavers eat aquatic vegetation.  The rest of the year they eat the bark of trees.

The Poison Ivy here is huge!

Northern Leopard Frog

These frogs are great wanderers; they may move as much as a mile away from water during the summer into moist fields, meadows, and pastures.  They migrate to breeding ponds from the larger waters where they hibernate.

And they can leap several feet with ease.