Two members of the East Quabbin Bird Club agreed to lead a short hike this morning along the trails in the Muddy Brook Wildlife Management Area in Hardwick.  Although I wasn’t too keen on getting up at 6 am (!) on a Sunday morning, by 7 am I had parked at the washed out bridge at the end of Patrill Hollow Road.  Nine of us were thrilled to be outdoors on this first day of May, enjoying a morning filled with sunshine and birdsong.

Because I’m not a birder, I won’t list the species we either heard or saw (I didn’t keep notes and don’t remember what they were, other than Red-Winged Blackbirds and Woodpeckers).  I can report that there were a fair number, though nothing out of the ordinary.  I did take a few photos of the landscapes we passed through on our 3-hour hike.

This marked tree is a Pitch Pine, an uncommon species in Central Mass. The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Natural Heritage Program are planning to remove the white pines which have overrun this area of sandy soils; they’ll then introduce controlled burning which will re-establish a fire-tolerant habitat for birds such as the Whip-Poor-Will.

This area includes diverse landscape features such as ponds and wetlands, as well as fields that are considered sandplain grasslands.  Here you see the flatness that is typical of an area scoured by the last glaciation.

I’m not sure the animals still live here, but this is definitely a beaver lodge.

Here is a close-up (yes, I know this was supposed to be about birds, but I could barely see the avian fauna, much less photograph them).

We also walked through a frost pocket and past a vernal pool.  I don’t know what this body of water is (maybe it’s the eponymous Muddy Brook?), but I loved the colors.

Please do follow the link to the Bird Club website — it includes a lot of information on both the ecology of the East Quabbin area and the bird species that are found here.  For my part, I hope to learn more about the area and visit some of the other sites mentioned.

Score: 5-0 Ticks