271. Nahant: Nahant Thicket Wildlife Sanctuary

The fall equinox was virtually upon me as I headed the length of the Nahant peninsula to find the thicket, another Mass Audubon wildlife sanctuary. Despite the grayness of the day, with storm clouds threatening, the birds were singing. Breeding was done, and migration was well under way. Some birds don't give up on their dawn chorus - typically the mark of birds attracting mates in spring - until the sunlight tells them the season is over. Even then, there's the odd fact of the sun crossing back over the equator and at some point in the fall producing exactly the same amount of daylight on a given day as there had been during the rush to procreate. Make that fall day 70 degrees and sunny, and you need earplugs while walking through a thicket.

The thicket was smaller than I expected it to be, but, as thickets tend to be, it was dense. I walked through it twice, then walked around it entirely, and still had ten minutes to spare, so I did it all again.

I'm sure I saw the same Carolina wren twice, and the same gray catbirds over and over. Robins moved through the trees in bunches, and starlings overwhelmed the skies from time to time. I could see how this place had become a "migrant trap" in spring, when birds flying north over densely settled areas dive for patches of green seen from above.

That did it. Just thinking of all those warblers made me put Nahant Thicket on the list for next spring. Sigh...I may never see a May Red Sox game again.