Local #6 Wollomonopoag Conservation Area

 

This  is the adult Great Horned Owl

    A couple of days ago my new friend Danielle found out about baby Great Horned Owls growing up in a marsh in Wrentham, MA. Since neither of had anything to do on Wednesday afternoon we decided to explore. She sent me the ebird report for the directions and off I went. This conservation area (which I refuse to write again) is only twenty minutes from my house. So to explore a local place that I had never been, that possibly had owlets, was pretty exciting.

  I met Danielle at 3:30 at the parking area. It was only a short trip out to the swamp, The swamp has dozens of dead trees that were killed by flooding, probably from the local beavers. In many of these trees are large nests of Great Blue Heron. Many of the nests are occupied by these four feet tall birds. However, one nest is occupied by  a Great Horned Owl family. My policy is never to talk about owls especially nests, but this nest is in the middle of a swamp so no one can harass the owls by walking up to the babies and taking photos. 

 

 We had fantastic views of the owls, a parent and two babies in the scope. The photos aren't as good because the mid-afternoon sun was in our face. Still, seeing the babies owls was well worth the trip. 

   After we got our share of the owls we walked around the conservation area. The trail is long and we ended up doing over three and a half miles. We ended up hearing or seeing every woodpecker species except Yellow Bellied Sapsucker (including Pileated). My second favorite highlight was seeing three Spotted Turtles. Spotted Turtles were recently taken off of the Massachusetts Endangered Species list. I had never seen three in a day before. I'm pretty sure Danielle's second highlight was the Brown Creeper (maybe 2) that were feeding near my turtles. 

Two photos that are annoyingly 
bad(ish) of
Spotted Turtles

 

 All in all, this place is fantastic. I am very grateful for the invite to go. Seeing the owls in a safe, respectful place with beautiful scenery was awesome. More importantly, I'm making a new birding friend that lives close by and will bird on the north side of the Rhode Island border.