Framingham Nature Blog - Wildlife On The Sudbury River

The Sudbury River flows from Reservoirs in Framingham, through Framingham and Sudbury and into Concord. The 33 miles of freshwater provides an ecosystem for Beavers, Herons, Eagles, and much more. With February's snow melting away, the river explodes into action. Red Winged Blackbirds are calling, Skunk Cabbage is blooming, and the water level is rapidly rising.

There are 3 basic access points that I use to access the water. Carol Getchell reservation, Wickford Bridge, and Simpson St. Last month, I used Simpson street to see Waterfowl and found a red fox skeleton.

On March 1st, I went to Carol Getchell Reservation. For the first time in my life, I saw a beaver in person. I did not get footage of it because it dove down as soon as it saw me. There was plenty of evidence of it though.

You can tell that this is not a beaver chew because beaver chews are when a beaver cuts down a tree. you can see above that this beaver only used it's teeth to shave off the bark. This is so that it can feed of the inner bark layer. beavers do not use large trees like these in dam and lodge building.

I also heard Red-Winged Blackbirds calling. They were fighting over nesting territory. Red Winged Blackbird call It is one of those sounds that reminds me of summer. The bird prefers marshes to forest because of the insects that emerge from the water over the summer. It may also act as a moat, protecting the nest from predators. Those are the only reasons I can think of that it would choose the habitat it uses. Red Winged Blackbirds are one of the first songbirds to nest and typically lay eggs in early march.

On the 5th, a merle of blackbirds swarmed my backyard and were so noisy that when my windows were open, i could not hear my teacher in zoom. They came and went in about the span of 30 seconds.

On the 15th, I was walking home from cross country and decided to take a picture of the view downriver. Pretty cool.