Featured

At Broad Meadow Brook, the shutdown is for the birds

VEER MUDAMBI

When people think of the lockdown, crowds are not what come to mind, but that was exactly the case at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary back in March. With schools and workplaces closed, Worcester residents turned to the great outdoors as a way to dodge the virus — and boredom.

Bird-watching, in particular, became a popular activity during the pandemic. Mainly due to its ubiquitous nature, seeing as how one can quite literally participate from anywhere: a park, a parking lot, your window, the woods and even urban spaces.

Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester is the largest urban wildlife sanctuary in New England. Run by the Mass Audubon Society, it has more than 400 acres, about 80 species of butterflies, 164 bird species and more than 700 plant species, which can be all viewed from trails leading through woods, fields, streams and marsh.

“We saw an amazing increase in visitation here,” said Martha Gach, education manager and conservation coordinator, “The parking lot was packed, the trails were packed.” It was a genuine craving for an engagement with nature given the limitations of the state guidelines.

However, for the first month, most of the wildlife made themselves scarce in the face of this heightened activity.

Spring is usually a favored time for bird-watching but this year, it appeared to be chart busting. Unfortunately, so much foot traffic, which would have been more than welcome any other time, did not align with social distancing guidelines, and the trails were shut down from mid-April to the end of May.

That period coincided with the highpoint of bird nesting season, and the wildlife, especially birds, took advantage of having the woods to themselves for once. “I think they were very appreciative,” chuckled Gach. She even saw a red-shouldered hawk nesting only 10 feet from the trail. “I don’t think they would have done that if there were more people around.”

Slightly smaller than the red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawks are a

Martha Gach is the Conservation Coordinator at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary.

southern species more commonly seen in the mid-Atlantic regions that have been slowly moving north. While they have been seen regularly in the sanctuary over the past three years, a nest was not confirmed until this year.

So is the increased avian activity a direct result of decreased human activity like fewer cars, planes and trains? The anecdotal evidence certainly supports that. The lockdowns roughly corresponded with the spring migrations of many species, which is the best time for new birders to look upward and get hooked on the hobby.

However, Gach is not so sure, “the pandemic kept people close to home and they paid more attention to nature in their own neighborhoods,” including Gach herself. Though she did see more birds in her area, it was unclear “whether it was because I was there more often or they were more active.”

While closing the trails may have given the birds a much needed break, staff at Mass Audubon went through a period of furloughs resulting in significantly reduced staffing. This in turn meant less trail maintenance — putting up necessary signs to make trails one way for social distancing, picking up discarded masks, removing fallen branches, etc. — at a time when visitor levels began to pick back up in June and July.

As the state begins to open up, sanctuaries, like Broad Meadow, are dealing with a kind of misalignment — staff decreases at the same time as visitor increases. Ironically, even the visitor center is still closed — the required plexiglass for the cashier is in short supply these days.

Gach is clear-eyed about the challenges faced by an urban sanctuary, that making the woods a welcoming place for visitors is a demanding task. “We understand there are people who will come to visit who are not comfortable being out in the woods so we make sure the trails are cut back and stay on top of trees that fall across the path.” Doing it with a vastly reduced staff is even tougher.

In addition to staff furloughs, the loss of income from shutting down educational programs will also have future repercussions, but donations from both individuals and foundations have helped Broad Meadow avoid the worst of it. “One of the very encouraging things that’s happening is the sanctuaries are becoming more linked,” she said. “Educators are talking more to each other so we have an

understanding of shared goals.”

Overall though, the public’s renewed interest in the natural world can only be a good thing, as far as the staff at Broad Meadow are concerned. Com- munity engagement appears to be on the upswing, state guidelines notwith- standing. Gach reported that “we’re seeing people we haven’t seen before,” including markedly more young people between 20 and 30.

Hopefully this is an indicator of the next generation’s investment in local ecosystems, making them better stewards of our natural spaces. Gach, at least, is hopeful. “We’re looking at this as a real boon for increasing enthusi- asm for protecting open space.”

Amateur birders can help provide biologists and conservationists with information on migration patterns by using National Audubon Society’s bird identification apps — such as Merlin ID or Smart Bird ID — and sending their sightings to global databases such as eBird.

Walking trails are now oneway at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary.

RICK CINCLAIR

Coyote tracking app helps keep Worcester’s canine citizens safe

VEER MUDAMBI leave the safety of the den but only add relevant details. After the tracker to see our dogs get hurt,” he contintwo may make it past their first year. went live, the reported sightings ued, being a dog owner himself.

Acoyote picks her way These may disperse in the autumn started immediately and continue to Over 40% of city residents own slowly through the nightbut periodically return to the original come in on a regular basis. To date dogs, so there is a strong incentive to time woods and stops pack, like college kids coming home there have been 175 reports. add to the database. Especially in the to sniff a tree. Joined by for laundry. Councilor-at-large Moe Bergman spring mating season, some coyotes another, a male, who does the same To the members of a human famadvocated the implementation of the will be more combative. Large dogs thing before they both pin their ears ily that lives 20 yards up the hill, the tracker for Worcester, after hearing are seen as competition by male back nervously. This is a mated pair pair in the woods sound like a full increasing reports of coyote activity coyotes, but they won’t approach if and they have caught the scent of an pack. Tomorrow, the humans may where the animals were threatening a human is close by, though even big unknown coyote. The male marks log their experience in Worcester’s pets and worrying people. “You don’t dogs are fair game running through the spot before tossing his head back online coyote tracker, stating how want to have someone lose a pet or the woods. to howl. His mate joins in with yips they heard a dozen coyotes behind pay thousands of dollars to keep a The period soon after the app and shorter howls to fill in the gaps. their house. pet alive,” said Bergman. The idea is went live coincided with the mating Right now, it’s only the two of them, The option to report coyote based on similar measures enacted season, which would explain the but they must keep the area safe for sightings was made available Feb. in other towns. Knowledge is the numerous sightings. Combined with when the pups are born. 25 on Worcester’s Animal Control best defense, according to Bergman, more people at home or spend

Coyotes have a rigid family page. The tool is a web application allowing owners to make informed ing time outdoors, this increased structure; packs consist of an alpha that sends data in real-time back to decisions when walking their dogs activity raises the likelihood of tense pair and their pups, born in spring. the city’s Customer Service Center. or letting them out at night. “A lot of encounters. Well suited for suburban Around seven weeks, the pups will Residents select the location and people have dogs, and we don’t want living, coyotes need a single copse of trees to hole up while using woodland corridors for movement. The reason they are spotted everywhere is that they are everywhere, just well hidden.

A coyote hunting in the field behind the Masswildlife headquarters in Westboro in 2018.

FILE PHOTO/CHRISTINE PETERSON

The Technical Services Division discussed options to achieve this goal but decided to implement the process in the city’s existing Online Customer Service Center application. It was already in use to accept citizen requests and complaints, as well as display previous requests on GIS maps. Adding an option to report a coyote sighting and view previously reported ones was a quick plug-in, completed in just a few hours of work.

Bergman credits Jake Sanders, the chief of staff in the city manager’s office, for taking the lead on the initiative. The IT department has yet to find a way to eliminate the older sightings to prevent the map from becoming overcrowded. Though such improvements would be welcome, Walter Bird, the city’s media relations specialist, said that the map meets the needs of the public and the city has no plans to update it at this time.

Tracking is a far more effective tactic than killing coyotes, which can lead to more coyotes. If one or both of the alphas are killed, other coyotes may move in, dividing the territory between themselves. Thus increasing the population for the given area and making hunting almost counterproductive.

Coyotes want to stay away from us as much as we want to stay away from them. The rare bite is often due to the animal becoming habituated and losing its fear of humans. This is where the tactic of hazing, a basic behavior modification, is useful.

Coyotes have a comfort zone and will only let humans get approximately 25 feet before running. Walk forward, making eye contact and the coyote will run once you pass that comfort zone. If you stop at this point, the coyote will only run about 50 to 60 feet before turning around to reassess. Keep following with an aggressive posture until it keeps running.

The average weight of a coyote is only 25 to 35 pounds.

The tracking initiative was not without a few detractors, said Bergman. “Some people believe that any kind of tracking must be for nefarious purposes,” he said, but he is quick to point out that the city is not in favor of hurting any animal including coyotes. In fact, the aim of the tracker is to be able to peacefully “coexist rather than demonizing the animals in any way.” Incidents are thankfully uncommon and statistical probability of a coyote attack on a dog is low, but “If you save one dog,” he said, “it’s enough.”

Zack Slik gets some help from friends on ‘I’ll Get Happy Someday’

ROBERT DUGUAY took the time to edit the sound.” The sound quality is impressive,

There are certain musicians with “Up All Night Again” starting it who can take a sound from off and capturing the tone of Slik’s the past and bring it into banjo in excellent fashion. “Stackthe present day. Hearing ing Wood” is an instrumental track these types of acts perform can take PHOTO SUBMITTED that has a backwoods country vibe to it, and the mind to a difthe title track features ferent time while a kazoo during the giving it a glimpse beginning while being of what things were relatively optimistic. like back then. There’s a plethora Worcester’s Zack of rhythm within Slik has a knack for “Thought I Told You bringing this kind of (Down The Road)” that vibe when he plucks comes from the flurry his banjo and begins of picking courtesy of to sing. It’s the kind Slik’s impeccable skills of vintage folk music that’s remi- on banjo. Finishing off of the EP is niscent of ragtime and other styles “Miss You,” a heartbreaking ballad. that blossomed during the early Overall, the record runs the gamut of 20th century. His latest installment emotions while exhibiting clear and of this approach is “I’ll Get Happy poignant production. Someday,” an EP he self-released on Because of the pandemic, things Aug. 17. have been difficult for Slik as a

The record comes from Slik want- full-time musician, but he got a job ing to record a bunch of material at a local restaurant right before while also dealing with the current everything shut down which has COVID-19 pandemic. helped him a ton. He also would like

“I have a lot of songs to record,” he to record some more songs if time says on how he got around to makallows it. ing the record. “Before COVID-19, I “It has been somewhat difficult was going to go into the studio with lately,” he says. “I’ve been a full-time a friend and record some of them. musician for the past seven years, There were some other songs re- but I started working part time as served for another band I work with, a cook at Goodstuff Smokehouse but then the virus came and I was un- in Blackstone before COVID-19 able to be with people or in a studio. I canceled all my gigs. They helped out kept thinking of some kind of project I a lot putting me in the kitchen now could record and the idea came while full time and I’ve been playing some I was talking to my friend Scrimmy socially distanced outdoor gigs lately, Boucher in New Hampshire, who trying to keep as safe as I can. If the records EPs for some of his bands. time presents itself, I would like to He lit the spark that I should make record some more short albums next an EP and it was the same night that year. One project I have in mind is to another friend, Casey Galfas, gave me record some more of my songs with a a piece of art which later became the fiddle-playing friend of mine, Jess Fox. cover art for the album.” “She has named a couple of the

Fellow Worcester musician Jon tunes I wrote in the last year that will Bonner assisted by handling the be on that release,” Slik adds. “Also, mastering duties. there is the project to be recorded

It was a real community effort. by Scrimmy for an EP with other

“Geoffrey Oehling, who is another musicians added to the mix. I’m just local musician, also gave me the unsure on when I’ll be able to start Tascam 4 Track cassette recorder I these. We are all trying to be as safe recorded these songs on,” Slik says. as possible and keep each other safe. “Jon and I have been playing music There are still so many more songs together for the last around five or I’ve written over the last few years I’d so years in a local band called Boogie like to get out in the world.” Chillin’. When I let him hear the To stream and purchase “I’ll Get rough tracks he offered to master Happy Someday,” visit zackslikmusic. them for me, I was grateful that he bandcamp.com.