Written by Gwyn Loud for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. She welcomes your sightings and questions at 781-259-8690 or gwynloud555@gmail.com. 

Readers who have been longing nostalgically for the “real winters” of long ago are happy. The last month has given us nearly two feet of snow and bitter cold, below zero on some nights, with many days when the temperature did not climb above freezing. People all over town have been dealing with ice dams.When this column reaches your in-box, more snow is on the way. According to various sources, we have not experienced this depth and length of cold for over twenty years.The resulting slow melting means that roadside walls of snow created by snow plows are just sitting there, getting dirty. One concern is that when the banks of snow finally melt they will take road salt into freshwater streams and ponds, with negative impact on freshwater organisms. Quoting from an article in the Feb. 15, 2026 Boston Globe, “There is, however, one environmental benefit to heavy snowfall. (Julie) Wood said slow, gradual snowmelt allows water to recharge groundwater supplies, something intense rainstorms often fail to accomplish. Still, the sight of blackened snowbanks offer a powerful visual reminder. “Snow is just revealing to our eyes the pollution that’s always there year-round,” Wood said. “That black stuff we see on the snow is not only there in the winter, it’s just only visible in the winter.” We are lucky, here in Lincoln, to have beautiful vistas of (mostly) clean white snow lying on the fields.

The plant world is just waiting, ready to respond as temperatures rise and the sun is higher in the sky. The snow is actually providing good insulation from the cold. I cut forsythia twigs and brought them inside to provide spring on the kitchen counter. Before the snow, a walk in Flint Fields provided views of the American Chestnut Foundation orchard on the slope, as well as an empty bald-faced hornet nest on one of the young trees. Snowdrops were already blooming, as they do each year, at the east-facing corner of my house but they are deep under snow now. Sugaring season is around the corner: daytime temperatures close to forty degrees and nighttime temperatures below freezing will get the process moving in the sugar maples.
Lengthening hours of daylight signal that spring is actually on the way, and birds are responding with more singing. I have heard black-capped chickadees giving their fee-bee call, and house finches are twittering. Woodpeckers increase their drumming in February to communicate courtship, claim territories, and bond with mates, although they will not lay eggs until May. Robins which are over-wintering have to forget about earthworms, changing their diet to berries, such as those found on staghorn sumac or my holly bushes. Not all berries are equal, nutritionally. Native shrubs tend to be best, both for the birds and for pollinators. There are many resources available listing the best plants for the backyard gardener to plant with the goal of supporting wildlife.

Birds have been flocking to feeders throughout the cold and snow. The Winchells, on Concord Rd. were surprised to see a leucistic American goldfinch for several days, “all white except the wings with a yellow blush on the head and throat – quite dramatic!” Leucism in birds is a genetic mutation meaning loss of pigment in feathers, but the eyes and legs remain dark, unlike in albinism. Eastern bluebirds are frequenting many feeders, eating mealworms, suet, and even hulled sunflower seeds. They look gorgeous against the snow. A Baker Bridge Rd. resident was surprised to find a bluebird staring at him when he opened the woodstove door to lay the fire. Luckily, the wood stove was cold and the bluebird was caught gently and released, without injury But why and how did it come down the stove pipe? A few grackles turned up below my feeders recently, and before the end of February we can expect to hear the conk-a-ree call of red-winged blackbirds, annual harbingers of spring.

Great-horned owls are already nesting, usually occupying old nests made by larger birds such as red-tailed hawks. Eastern screech owls are courting at this time, making “ a variety of sounds, including barks, hoots, squeals and an occasional screech, but the most common calls of both male and female screech-owls are an even-pitched trill, or tremolo, and a shrill, descending whinny,” as Mary Holland explains in her blog. Owls have a hard time hunting for rodents in deep snow.

Other avian sightings of interest include flocks of horned larks and snow buntings near Hanscom, a solitary turkey vulture circling above the transfer station, and cedar waxwings. Purple finches, a few yellow-bellied sapsuckers, savannah sparrows, brown-headed cowbirds, and American tree sparrows have been spotted at Drumlin Farm. Will Leona led a walk in the snowstorm for a group of hardy walkers and snapped a photo of a pair of bald eagles in the snow in a tree near Farrar Pond. Carol Roede observes life in the swamp behind her house and found over thirty mallards and at least three black ducks “in a row” in a narrow channel of open water.

Common ravens, are indeed more common than years ago and have been heard, giving their deep croaks, in several parts of town; Susan Packard watched twelve ravens “playing with one an another” as they flew over Boyce field. An uncommon event was to see a Cooper’s Hawk attacked and killed by another raptor, probably a red-tailed hawk, behind a Lincoln Woods residence. Red-shouldered hawks are calling more noticeably now, preparing to nest.

Our small mammals, such as voles and shrews,  deal with the deep snow by making subnivian tunnels, which provide protection from both the cold and from predators. A couple of white-footed mice made their way into my house and met their demise when my cat considered them new toys. Numerous gray squirrels keep busy eating seed under my bird feeders, and red squirrels have created tunnels where they take seeds for snacks.  This is breeding season for raccoons, beavers, bobcats, and coyotes, with coyotes howling a lot now as they seek mates. North American river otters give birth at this time after a ten-month gestation due to delayed implantation. Quoting Mary Holland, “The young are born fully furred, but their eyes are closed and they lack teeth. In a little over a month they are fully active, in two months they are foraging with their mother, and by the next winter they have dispersed and established their own territories.”  

A snowy winter, such as this one, provides excellent opportunities to identify and follow animal tracks, which tell complex stories of “who, what, why, and where” . Ranger Will Leona writes, “The depth of the snow has made it hard to get good pictures of track definition.  But so many tracks and proof of active wildlife have still been seen around Lincoln.  Foxes, coyote, deer, mice, voles, ermines, long-tailed weasels, red squirrels, gray squirrels and more have been leaving evidence of their trails and meals behind in the snow.” 

Two months ago I invited readers to report sightings of black-morph gray squirrels. I now have more, including at 235 Concord Rd., also in Concord by White Pond, near Spy Pond in Arlington and Lexington Center. A Concord reader wrote, “A friend who lived in Battle Creek, Michigan said the town had a lot of them as Mr. Kellogg, of cereal fame, saw them when he was in England, liked them, brought some back, and released them in Battle Creek area.” I think I am finished with my un-scientific survey, but am happy to have readers email me directly if they have more to say on the subject!

Looking out at our snowy scene makes it hard to imagine that the annual amphibian migration may only be weeks away. The first night in March or April when it is warm (38℉ or above), raining, and dark may find spotted salamanders and wood frogs making their way to their natal pools. More in the next column.

Most insects survive the winter in diapause, as pupae, eggs, or hiding as adults under bark or in other protected places. Birds know where to find them! A few insects are active, however, even in the cold. Norm Levey snowshoed in the riparian habitat at Tanner’s Brook and found winter stone flies, winter crane flies (very small: 7-9mm) and tiny non-biting midges, even smaller (4-5mm) recently emerged from the stream as adults looking for mates. Norm also photographed a  spider, “Genus Cicurina, a sheet web weaver. The spider is six millimeters or 3/16 body length (Legs make it much longer.) This is a male and likely a young one. The spiders are hungry and emerge from the subnivean leaf litter to hunt springtails and small arthropods. Their bodies avoid freezing by producing cryoprotectant chemicals.”

In closing, I urge readers to check out neighboring Weston’s new digital newspaper, which includes interesting nature notes by Michael Pappone, the “Backyard Naturalist’. See link.

Links

To See Carol Roede’s Trail Cam Footage of Mallard and Black Ducks

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nGG-dRoZT_VxKFj55rYc_HbK3ktSSj3_/view?usp=sharing

To read about winter wildlife survival adaptations

https://www.massaudubon.org/news/latest/wicked-winter-survival-adaptations

To read about sugar maple trees and the sap flow

https://www.massmaple.org/about-maple-syrup/how-sugar-maple-trees-work/

To read about insects in diapause

https://www.schlitzaudubon.org/2020/11/16/how-insects-survive-the-winter-diapause/

To read “The Backyard Naturalist” in the Weston Observer

https://westonobserver.org

Nature Survives the Cold

Written by Gwyn Loud for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. She welcomes your sightings and questions at 781-259-8690 or gwynloud555@gmail.com. 

COLD. That basically sums it up for much of the past month, until a warming trend (I.e. it got to a high of 33℉) began on January 6. December was the second coldest December in the past twenty-five years for Boston, with arctic blasts and bitter wind chills. Paradoxically, global warming may be the cause, making changes in the polar vortex and jet stream. See link to read more. Here in Lincoln, ponds were frozen well before Christmas and a few small snow storms, starting with 4 inches on Dec. 27, allowed intrepid sledders and cross-country skiers to have some fun, even though the snow was not deep. As of this writing, we are in a January thaw, which has contributed to very icy driveways, paths, and trails, caused by daytime melting and overnight re-freezing. Roads appear clear, due to large amounts of brine. Drivers are happy, but I wonder about the effect on roadside trees. Dog walkers are wary of salt on dogs’ paws. We are all heartened by the gradual lengthening of daylight hours.

The snow gave the landscape white beauty, while frost and hoarfrost bejeweled many plants. Hoarfrost forms on clear windless nights when water vapor freezes directly to ice crystals in light feathery patters. This cold season invites us to observe shapes and colors of winter weeds, tree bark, lichens, mosses, and evergreen plants. Tree buds are there, just resting and waiting. Rhododendron leaves reveal the temperature, curling up tight the colder it gets. Why do some some vascular plants stay green all winter but others die? It’s all about evolution and genetics. Frost-hardy plants have various chemical adaptations which prevent ice freezing inside their cells and then rupturing cell walls when the ice expands. Garlic mustard, for example, is looking green and happy in temperatures well below freezing, Gardeners know to pay attention to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones when selecting perennials, trees, and shrubs; zones have shifted due to a warming climate.

 

Birds were especially mobbing feeders during recent snowfalls. I also seem to be feeding ten (yes, ten) gray squirrels and four red squirrels, mostly on the ground, but the grays do all sorts of acrobatics, trying to access the hanging feeders. An annual citizen-science opportunity, the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up on February 13-16 in which you count birds at your feeders and enter the results on-line. It’s easy, and contributes to understanding bird populations across the US. See link to learn how.

Any day now we will hear the first two-syllable fee-bee call of the black-capped chickadee, a sign of courtship beginning. This call is triggered by lengthening hours of daylight rather than weather. Click link below to learn what many chickadee calls mean.

Frozen ponds by mid-December meant no chance of seeing ducks and swans on the Christmas Bird Count, The Cambridge Reservoir (which is outside our Count Circle), had a small bit of unfrozen water on the Waltham side. Norman Levey described the scene: “This doesn’t happen every year but when there is a small patch of open water on the reservoir it concentrates the ducks wonderfully along with dozens of goofy mute swans. A passing flock tried to join the party and made two go-arounds but could not find enough open water for a landing without crashing on the backs of the ring-necked duck raft. It was at once fascinating and comical and like Times Square on New Year’s eve. About twenty mute swans came in for a landing but air traffic tower control called them off for a go-around but on second approach there was no runway space with the dense rafts of waterfowl and the flock left. One clumsy individual managed a comical touch and go head plant on the snow/ice.”

As for the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), Norman Levey, who coordinated the whole Concord Circle, wrote,“The winter bird count held on December 28 was notable for, well, how unremarkable it was. Abundance and diversity were typical for mid January. The birds seen and heard were our common winter roster. The morning dawned at a frigid two degrees but by early afternoon it warmed to the mid thirties and our field volunteers shed layers as if it were a spring day in early March.

We did achieve one record high: pileated woodpecker with a tally circle-wide of 90, a dramatic uptick after flat numbers for several years averaging 53. Perhaps we had a good hatch year. This was a rare New England bird in the 19th Century after extensive land clearing for farmland but a few decades into the 1900s this woodpecker made a slow and steady population climb as cropland and pastures were abandoned and reforested. Our present day mature woodlands provide abundant nesting and overnight roosting opportunities in large dead and decaying trees that also harbor their favorite food, carpenter ants, and beetle larvae a distant second. Watch this large woodpecker scale bark and excavate in search of ants and grubs in my video (see link). I had to go to Vermont to see a pileated as a kid birdwatcher.”

As always, warmly dressed volunteers tromped through fields and woods to count on the CBC, and others tallied birds at their feeders. Many thanks to all who helped the Lincoln count: Pam Boardman, Jenifer and Dennis Burckett-Picker, Mathias Bitter, Larry and Kim Buell, Patti Cable, Mary Capkanis, Rob DeNormandie,  Marjorie Durand and Greg Stathis,  Jason Forbes, Deborah Gerstein, Sam Harris, Rakesh Karmacharya, Allison Lu, Jacqueline Kluft, Norman Levey, Gwyn Loud,  Ron McAdow, Nancy Nicholson, Barbara Peskin, Grayson Shannon, Lucy Sprayregen, Betsy Stokey,  Barbara Peskin, David Peterson, Jocelyn Pyne,  Lucy Sprayregen, Betsy Stokey, Anne Sobol, Joan Stoner, Vanessa Vallée and Robin Wilkerson.

Other interesting recent bird sightings include a rough-legged hawk,  a northern harrier which continues at Drumlin Farm, a few lingering swamp sparrows and savannah sparrows, and snow buntings in Boyce Field. While American robin counts were generally low on the CBC, on Jan. 4 a flock of 92 turned up at Drumlin. My neighbor had a dozen red-winged blackbirds on Jan. 9. Are they early spring arrivals? I doubt it- probably just rugged over-winterers. The “best birds”  from my field team on the CBC were a winter wren, hermit thrush, and yellow-rumped warbler, all seen near Valley Pond.

Some of our local mammals take naps during the bitter cold and wake up to feed during mild spells. Last night I heard noises outside near the birdseed cans and when I flicked on the outside light, three very fat raccoons, waddled off, disappointed. Another day I noticed something dart past the front door and saw it was an agile long-tailed weasel, poking around a big flower tub and running along the foundation. It stays brown all year, unlike its relative, the short-tailed weasel, which turns white in the winter, then called an ermine. Meadow voles are numerous, but we often do not see them until their tunnels become obvious in the snow. Carole Roede wrote, ‘Some days the meadow voles seem quite active out in the swamp – I hear them gnawing and squeaking inside clumps of reeds and occasionally see them zooming between tunnel entrances.” Carol also spotted two fishers following each other, perhaps thinking about breeding season, which peaks in March. Her trail cam picks up many sightings, including mink. John Nolan, on Codman Road, took videos of a bobcat, and an opossum (see below for videos). I think of opossums as slow-movers, but not this one! Rob DeNormandie was excited to see four flying squirrels at his feeders. They are nocturnal; more of us might see them if we shown a light on our feeders  (briefly) at night. I have had four more responses to my black-morph gray squirrel survey: one from Concord Rd. near St. Anne’s, one from 3 Old Concord Rd., another from 52 Bedford Rd. and one from a reader in Cambridge who sees them at Danehy Park. Fresh snow is a great time to look for animal tracks, telling the story of the the animals which live around us. Michele Grzenda reminds us of resources on tracking offered by the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. See link.

Finally, what about insects? We do not see them outdoors, but birds know where they are. Insects are in diapause, literally pausing in their development during the harsh season of winter. They are resting in the form of eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults in protected places such as under logs or bark. These insects provide food for birds such as woodpeckers, who know where to find them. A few insects seek the warmth of our houses in the winter. For example, I have found several brown marmorated stink bugs in my house; they are harmless indoors but can damage crops. They first appeared from Asia in Pennsylvania in the mid-1990s, probably arriving on a cargo container. which is how many non-native insects and seeds travel around the world.

Thanks to a new moon on January 18, the skies will be wonderfully dark on and near that date, making perfect constellation-watching conditions on a cloudless night. Bundle up and look up!

Links:

To read more about the polar vortex, the jet stream, and how global warming may be creating cold snaps

To see the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Learn how to join the Great Backyard Bird Count Feb. 13-16

To hear chickadee calls and their meanings

To see Norman Levey’s video of a pileated woodpecker

To learn more about identifying animal tracks

LLCT Student Sticker Design Contest 2026

Celebrating Local Creativity and Wildlife

This past fall, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust launched our first-ever Student Sticker Design Contest, inviting young artists in our community to celebrate the natural world through creative expression. The contest opened in early September 2025 and closed at the end of the month, giving students time to reflect on the places and wildlife they love in Lincoln.

Participants were encouraged to design original artwork inspired by our conservation land—its plants, animals, seasons, and special landscapes. We were thrilled by the range of thoughtful and imaginative pieces submitted across grade levels, and we’re excited to make this contest an annual tradition.

LLCT staff carefully reviewed all submissions and selected several standout designs to be produced as limited-edition stickers. Winning students received printed copies of their stickers along with a small gift card prize. Their artwork will also be featured at upcoming LLCT programs and community events.

NEW: 2026 Student Sticker Pack Now Available

We’re excited to offer a special 2026 Sticker Pack featuring the 4 winning designs from this year’s contest!
These limited-edition stickers were created by local students and celebrate Lincoln’s wildlife and natural spaces through their unique artistic perspectives.

Sticker packs are now available for purchase in the LLCT Online Store.
Shipping is free and all proceeds support LLCT’s education and community engagement programming.

Meet the Winners

To celebrate the winning artists, Danielle, LLCT’s Outreach Coordinator,  visited each student to deliver their prizes and their finished stickers in person. It was wonderful to see the students’ excitement as they held their original designs alongside the final sticker version!

Student Artwork Gallery

Below is a collection of scanned submissions from this year’s contest. We are grateful to every student who shared their creativity and enthusiasm for Lincoln’s natural spaces.

 

The Long Winter Watch 

Written by Gwyn Loud for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. She welcomes your sightings and questions at 781-259-8690 or gwynloud555@gmail.com. 

Winter officially arrives on December 21, the solstice, but recent biting cold and winds have made it feel as if the new season is already with us. Single- digit temperatures overnight led to partially frozen streams and ice on the ponds. On Dec. 12/13 people were sailing ice boats on Farrar Pond and skating on Cemetery Pond. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere; thereafter the hours of daylight gradually lengthen. The Climate Prediction Center predicts a warmer than normal winter for most of the east coast; “Here in Boston, our average high temperature is 46° in early December, bottoms out near 36° in mid January, and climbs back toward the low 40s by late February. Above normal trends could mean fewer prolonged cold snaps and more “mild” stretches breaking up the cold air. Precipitation for New England is forecast to be “near normal.” This “doesn’t mean a snow-free winter, though. On average, Boston picks up about 7.6 inches of snow in December, 12.3 inches in January, and 12.8 inches in February. Even with above-average temperatures, we can still see impactful snow events, they are just more difficult to achieve. They will have to align with overnight colder temperatures or a system comes in during a cold snap.” We’ll find out in March what happened.

Winter walks are opportunities to observe and appreciate the less showy aspects of flora, the variety of subdued colors, shapes, and textures. Weeds display their seeds, which are important wildlife food, along with berries from holly, multiflora rose, and other shrubs. The woodland floor retains greenery in plants such as Christmas ferns, club mosses, and partridgeberry. Participants on a walk led by Ranger Will Leona came across what looked very similar to an oak apple gall, but no, it was a lonely pear-shaped puffball (they are usually seen in clusters), with the common name of wolf fart mushroom. As Will explains, thanks to AI, “Pear-shaped puffball” (Apioperdon pyriforme, formerly Lycoperdon pyriforme) is a common mushroom named for its shape, but also nicknamed the “wolf fart mushroom” because its scientific name Lycoperdon combines Greek words for “wolf” (lycos) and “breaking wind” (perdon), referring to the powdery spores released like gas from mature fungi. These small, edible (when young and pure white inside) mushrooms grow in clusters on decaying wood, releasing clouds of spores when mature, and are a fun find for foragers and nature lovers.’

Birds are dining on all sorts of wild food, and flocking to bird feeders. They need water year-round and seem to be grateful for the open water in my birdbath, thanks to a heater. A dusting of snow on December 14 brought even more ground-feeding birds such as white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos to the seed I scattered. Supposedly this will be a good winter to see irruptive species from Canada; so far only one red-breasted nuthatch has turned up at my feeder but they, as well as pine siskins have been reported from Drumlin Farm, where a single red-crossbill and evening grosbeak were also seen. Tree sparrows are winter residents here, and a few swamp sparrows and savannah sparrows have still not migrated south. Robins and bluebirds are examples of birds which have two populations, one staying with us through the winter but another heading south to warmer climes. They usually turn up in moderate numbers on the Christmas Bird Count, which will be held on Dec. 28 this year. Lincoln is included in the “Concord Circle,” which Norman Levey coordinates. We have birding teams lined up to go out in the field but we could use more counters at feeders; please contact me if you are interested in participating. The Count is run by National Audubon and encompasses all of North America, with thousands of circles, each fifteen miles in diameter. The counts, which are always held in a two-week window around Christmas, are a huge citizen-science project and the data collected provides important information on bird populations.
A small flock of wild turkeys appeared under my bird feeders last week, to my surprise. They were all hens, and cleaned out the scattered bird seed in a short time. So far they have not returned, to my relief. The winter flocks separated by sex, comprise large flocks of hens and small flocks of toms. I was amused back in November to witness turkeys exploring the new solar panel installation at the transfer station.

Other recent notable bird sightings include winter wrens, cedar waxwings, fox sparrows, and at Drumlin Farm, a “gray-ghost male northern harrier” which has been cruising over Boyce Field. Cooper’s hawks swoop through backyards with bird feeders, hoping to snatch a meal. In my November column I wrote about a possible bald eagle nest site on the Cambridge Reservoir. It turns out that the staff at the Reservoir have seen bald eagles nesting along the Reservoir for three years! The nest is not in Lincoln, but on the Waltham side, close to I-95. Great horned owls continue to hoot; I am thrilled when I can see an owl silhouetted on a moonlit night high in my neighbors’ Norway spruce. On December 6, before ponds iced over, Norm Levey spotted a ring-necked duck, common goldeneye, common mergansers (81), hooded mergansers, and a single common loon, and ring-billed gull on Flint’s Pond. A great blue heron looked cold in the wet meadow behind St. Anne’s Church. A few hardy great blue herons will stick around as long as they can find fish, even in small pools of unfrozen water. Will Leona saw two bald eagles by Flint’s Pond, and caught one on camera after it spooked ducks in the pond.

Last month I invited readers to tell me if they had seen black-morph gray squirrels. So far I have heard about sightings on Trapelo Rd. in Lincoln (near intersection with Lexington Rd.), three on Dugan Rd. in Concord, two at Drumlin Farm, and at least two along Oxbow and Farrar Roads on the Lincoln-Wayland line. Feel free to send me other sightings. Gray squirrels are active all winter, searching for food in the day and finding nighttime protection in tree cavities. I see nine squirrels regularly under my bird feeders, looking fat and happy. A lot of chasing is going on, with several males competing for a female, indicating this is the winter mating season. After a gestation period of about six weeks, up to six kits will be born in the tree cavity, with the females doing all the care of the young. Gray squirrels have a second mating season in May-June. Red squirrels are also active in the winter and one of their winter adaptations is to molt to a thicker winter cost, including ear tufts. There is a noticeable red band of fur down the back, which changes to a more grayish color when the summer fur molt occurs.

Several people have reported hearing coyotes howling, and Kathleen Lomatoski wrote, “Very late one recent cold night I walked to Pierce Park. As I was approaching the adjacent soccer field behind town hall, a lone coyote came racing down & across the park from Lincoln Rd. At first, due to its swiftness, I thought the creature had to be a deer, then noticing its stride and size more clearly, as it passed closer to me, I could see it was a long legged, dark colored coyote—with breath-taking speed and a smooth gait. Otherwise, during the cold stretches I have frequently seen voles emerge from fields or from beneath small leaf piles then running with impressive velocity—where they were heading, I was not ever sure. I am still finding deceased wildlife on trails, likely the victims of rodenticide. Usually I find chipmunks, mice, or red squirrels. I always bag the critters and put them in the trash. I hope Lincoln residents know there are now poisons with corn meal that impact only the creature who has died and not other creatures who may eat the carcass. Of course, it is ideally preferable not to kill wildlife at all.”

Save Lincoln Wildlife are a group of caring Lincoln residents who treasure Lincoln’s amazing wildlife. SLW hopes to educate the community on the harms of Anticoagulant Rodenticides (ARs), encourage the use non-toxic alternatives, and hopefully ban the use of ARs completely in Lincoln. Want to learn more about the impacts rodent poison is having on Lincoln’s predators and how you can help? Check out their website in the link below or contact info@savelincolnwildlife.org to get more involved.

Kathleen also spotted an opossum crossing Weston Rd., almost exactly where I f found a dead one last month, just south of Pierce House. Opossums are active all winter but take shelter in burrows or other protected spots. Their ears and tails, without fur, are susceptible to frostbite. One of the many ways opossums benefit our ecosystem is by eating a lot of ticks.
Bobcats have been reported from various parts of town and Will Leona wrote, “Beaver continued to prepare for the winter before the ice set in. They stocked their caches and fortified their lodges and now are ready to hunker down….. I have seen many deer browses and buck rubs lately.” Bucks rub their antlers on tree trunks, removing some of the bark, and then they rub their scent glands on the exposed wood. As Susan Morse, tracker and naturalist, writes, “Researchers have recognized that rubs serve as visual and olfactory “bulletin boards”, enabling the maker as well as other deer to communicate their social and sexual status”.

As this is my final wildlife column of 2025 I would like to take the opportunity to thank my “official team” of wildlife observers: Mathias Bitter, Ryan Brown, Stacy Carter, Vin Durso, Marcia Gagney, Michele Grzenda, Sue Klem, Jane Layton, Will Leona, Norman Levey, Kathleen Lomatoski, Ron McAdow, Ellen Meadors, Corey Flint, Tia Pinney, Carol Roede, Nancy Soulette, Pam Sowizral, Rob Todd, Fred Winchell, and Robin Wilkerson. I am also grateful for the calls and e-mails from other observant townspeople who appreciate the many forms of wildlife around us. Thanks go as well to Miranda Loud for proofreading and to Bryn Gingrich, who put the column and photos on the LLCT website, until Danielle Proulx took on the job in November.

I wish all readers a happy holiday season, with ongoing enjoyment of the natural wonders around us in 2026.

Links:

To learn more about harm done by Anticoagulant Rodenticides

Watch Will Leona’s video of a bald eagle flying over Flint’s Pond

November 2025 Wildlife Column 

Written by Gwyn Loud for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust. She welcomes your sightings and questions at 781-259-8690 or gwynloud555@gmail.com. 

As the the hours of daylight shorten and the sun sets by late afternoon, we sense that winter is around the corner. The weather over the past month has been generally mild, although winter chill arrived in the last week, with early morning temperatures dipping below freezing. In spite of a few inches of rain in October, Middlesex County is still considered “abnormally dry” according to the US Drought Monitor. Rain and wind on October 30 brought down many leaves, so now the landscape is dominated by browns and bare gray branches. The fall foliage color peaked here late in October, but some beautiful yellow leaves still remain on various shrubs and trees such as Norway maples. I was glad to find several tamaracks (aka larches) along trails by Beaver Pond. They are among just a few conifers which are deciduous, meaning they drop all their needles each fall, with the tamaracks turning golden in the process. Their name comes from the Abenaki, meaning “wood for making snowshoes.”  On Hawk Hill I came across another deciduous conifer, a bald cypress, displaying rich brown needles, soon to fall. When walking in the woods, this is a good season to admire mosses, lichens, and plants such as club mosses. Fungi in different hues and shapes are also very visible and you might come across witch-hazel, which blooms in November and has spidery yellow flowers. Hay-scented ferns are turning brown and  partridgeberries near to the ground add dots of red to the palette. White pine cones litter the forest floor, as the trees have produced a bumper crop this year.

The fall bird migration is basically over, although a few late migrants such as fox sparrows, rusty blackbirds, and turkey vultures have been spotted this month. A surprise discovery by Norm Levey on Nov. 16 was a magnolia warbler, flitting about and feeding in a weedy area off Virginia Rd.  It should be in Central America by now! Birds continue to find plenty of wild food in the form of berries, seeds, and insects, either as eggs, pupae, or hidden adults. Birds’ nests from the warm months are easy to observe now that the leaves have fallen, and often bits of trash such as plastic are visible in the nests. Our winter visitors such as dark-eyed juncos and white-throated sparrows are turning up at bird feeders, joining the regular Northern cardinals, black-capped chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, house finches, mourning doves, and downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers. At my feeders a gang of blue jays instantly gobbles up seeds I put out. This year there is only a modest crop of acorns, an important food for many birds and mammals; perhaps that is why the jays are so hungry at the feeder. Quoting Mass Audubon, “Blue Jays cache their acorns and collect a whopping 3,000 to 5,000 acorns in one autumn. And not just any acorns. These skilled jays can determine if the acorn is infested with pesky weevils—a process that still puzzles scientists—by simply picking one up in their beaks.  Blue Jays can hold up to three acorns in the gular pouch located in their throat, along with one in their mouth and one in the tip of their beak, for a total of five acorns per trip.  They store the acorns in the ground, and the ones that don’t get eaten by the jay, or any other creature looking for a snack, are left to germinate and grow.  Because of this, Blue Jays are often credited with spreading oak tree populations after the last glacial period.” Red-bellied woodpeckers also cache food in tree holes and crevices under bark, returning to eat their stored supply throughout the winter. I am impressed that birds and mammals which cache food can remember where the food was hidden. They are smart! I urge us all to delete the disparaging term “bird brain” from conversation.

This is duck season. On the Cambridge Reservoir observers have seen hooded mergansers and up to 300 ring-necked ducks, and on Flint’s Pond, hooded and common mergansers, bufflehead,  common goldeneye, and an occasional common loon. I watched a skein of Canada geese overhead, probably only heading to the middle Atlantic states. Many Canada geese remain here year-round.

Our most common winter raptor is the red-tailed hawk. Conservation Ranger, Will Leona, writes, “It’s no surprise about the abundant number of red-tailed hawks that have been present as we start our late Fall field mowing routine.  Every year they are patiently perched on tree limbs at field edges waiting for the passing tractor to rustle up some tasty voles and other field critters.”  Cooper’s hawks often swoop through bird-feeding stations, hoping to pluck a plump mourning dove (or anything else) for a meal; feathers on the ground tell the story. Bald eagles have become more common in our area and one was spotted carrying large sticks along the western edge of the Cambridge reservoir, heading south. We know bald eagles have nested regularly on Fairhaven Bay, but maybe another nest on the Cambridge Reservoir lies ahead. Time will tell. Norm Levey had what he called a ‘“two falcon day”  when he  saw “a low flying merlin that shot by me like a bullet in the early morning over the softball park behind my village and that very afternoon at Ricci Farm a peregrine falcon appeared over the crop field to hunt and perch on the north tree line for about five minutes. The airfield is a good hunting area for falcons.”  Other raptor sightings include a northern harrier over Lindentree Farm and a sharp-shinned hawk at Drumlin Farm.

Owls have been hooting recently, especially great horned owls, who are staking out territories before they start nesting in January/February. Great horned owls are monogamous and I have been captivated  hearing a male and female calling back and forth in the evening, the female’s call higher pitched than the male’s. Carol Roede’s trail cam has also picked up a screech owl and a barred owl.

Additional bird reports of note from Drumlin Farm include American pipits and a flock snow burnings, golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets, American tree sparrows, and a clay-colored sparrow (uncommon).  As I wrote last month, this is predicted to be a good winter to see winter finches and other irruptives from the Canadian boreal forest, as the poor cone supply there is pushing the birds south. Already pine siskins, red-breasted nuthatches, and purple finches have been seen, and a flock of twelve evening grosbeaks were observed on Nov.9 by Ponyhenge on Old Sudbury Rd.

Except for the woodchuck, who has gone into hibernation, our local mammals are out and about, although chipmunks will soon disappear underground to nap in their tunnels. Mammals’ strategies to survive the oncoming cold include gathering and storing food, putting on more layers of fat, or growing thicker fur. White-tailed deer, for instance, as well as building up fat reserves in the fall, shed their reddish summer coats and grow darker gray-brown fur with hollow air shafts. A dense layer of wool-like under fur provides insulation and special muscles allow the deer to change the angle of its airshafts to give maximum insulation. Walter Gundy photographed a buck,”chewing his cud in our backyard after girdling the adjacent sapling by using it to rub velvet off his antlers.” 

Beavers are busy dragging branches to store underwater near their winter lodges; the food must be accessible when the pond freezes over. Mary Holland explains, “ Beavers eat two pounds of bark a day and there can be up to ten beavers occupying a lodge over the winter, so an ample supply of food is essential.” Will Leona writes about beavers in Lincoln, “The beaver population continues to grow!  It’s incredible just how many beaver lodges and colonies are popping up around town if you look hard enough.” 

Other mammals reported this month include a Virginia opossum which I found, dead, on Weston Rd. ,obviously hit by a car. They are the only marsupial in North America, closely related to kangaroos, are primarily nocturnal and move slowly. Their hairless ears, tails, and paws are susceptible to frostbite, partly because their instinct tells them to move to several nesting spots during a week, thus exposing them to the elements. Several people have reported red foxes, and a very large coyote has been observed in fields along Conant Rd. Otters have been sighted, including one in a small pond off Old Winter St. Hathaway Ellis commented, “Never had this fellow before but he spent all day Saturday in our little pond! Seems to be eating snails and such. The heron who comes everyday is incensed- keeps showing up and then leaving after seeing he’s still here!” There have been several sightings of black squirrels recently. They are actually gray squirrels, but called “black morph” because they have a genetic variant producing more melanin. I observed a black morph squirrel near the riding ring in Upper Browning Field, and Ron McAdow photographed one on a trail behind St. Anne’s Church. I invite readers to let me know if and where you have seen them.  Another observer commented that she had seen many more rabbits than usual, looking healthy and hopping away speedily. As always, Carol Roede’s trail cam reveals the night life of mammals around us, including mink, muskrat, otters, weasel, a flying squirrel, bobcats (including kits), and lots of mice activity.

Snakes are now out of sight in their winter brumation but In mid-October Doug Elmendorf snapped a photo of a handsome Eastern ribbon snake soaking up warmth as it basked atop weeds in a swampy area at the end of Farrar Pond.

Most insects are in a state of diapause but you may see a few winter moths in your headlights in the dark. They used to be a big problem when the caterpillars defoliated many trees in the spring. Now their population is minimal, thanks to biocontrol, but entomologists (including my brother)  from UMass Amherst who solved the problem continue to monitor the situation. Several people observed autumn meadowhawk dragonflies well into November. They are a genus of about fifteen species, the last to emerge in the fall and can be found getting warm in the sun on rocks, giving them enough energy to fly even when the temperature dips to 50F. Friends have mentioned finding numerous ticks on their dogs, so be sure to check for them even in chilly weather. One resident found a lone star tick, identified by a prominent white dot in the middle of its cephalothorax; lone star ticks are increasing in Massachusetts due to a warming climate.

Looking skyward, I quote a friend, Tim Sterrett, who writes a monthly column much like mine, in Pennsylvania. He writes about constellations: “Orion with his belt of three bright stars appears in the east late in the evening. Orion is our most easily recognized constellation. Betelgeuse, a red giant star larger than Earth’s orbit around the Sun, marks Orion’s shoulder and Rigel his knee. Orion is followed by his dog, Canis Major (“Big Dog” in Latin) including Sirius, the brightest star we can see at night.”  And from Night Sky This Week, ‘This week brings one of November’s best sky shows: the Leonid meteor shower peaks under dark skies, offering up to 15 shooting stars per hour before dawn. A few days later, the new moon gives us ideal dark skies for trying to find Uranus as it reaches opposition on Friday (Nov. 21) and shines bright enough to spot with binoculars just beneath the Pleiades. “

 To read more about Virginia opossums

https://www.massaudubon.org/nature-wildlife/mammals-in-massachusetts/opossums

Read a post from The Bug Lady about Autumn Meadowhawks

https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/autumn-meadowhawk-dragonfly/

Watch Norm Levey’s video of a magnolia warbler foraging in the weeds:

Watch Carol Roede’s trail cam video of bobcat kits: