OUR RIVERFRONT WOODLAND
BY DON DOUCETTE
I’m still under the weather, but took time and a chance to transport Nancy to a bone density session this morning at Sturdy Hospital.
Afterward, we sat for a short time by our adopted community wildflower patch next to the MBTA commuter rail parking lot positioned next to Attleboro’s, Riverfront Drive.
We are pleased to report that our nesting killdeer have returned this summer season and are located actively close to the center of Attleboro.
You may or may not know that killdeer are ground nesters with their eggs exposed on open sandy ground and depend on natural camouflaged coloration for protection. Get too close to the nest and the parent bird rolls about feigning a broken wing to draw attention away from the delicate nesting area.
Yellow finch are also frequenting our urban wildflower stands and seem to be doing well. They are such delicate and colorful little birds and a joy to observe during there dip-and-swoop flight patterned acrobatics.
Nature is so resilient even with the roar and oft’ clattering commuter rail trains as they navigate the Providence/Boston rail corridor.
Our Riverfront Woodland acts as a perfect natural gallery forest-screen poised between the busy rail line and the quiet-calm of the linear Robbins Riverfront Park. Riverfront Woodland remains the closest natural woodland stand related to the center of Attleboro and exists as a natural dinosaur in its own right threatened with imminent future development.
Expend some only minutes-away quiet time during the summer and autumn season exploring this yet existing urban natural world which constantly reveals itself juxtaposed between Wall Street and Olive Street in Attleboro – be sure to have at hand your bird and wildflower/plant identification manuals. This resulting self-education exercise can be most rewarding and enlightening.
Know your community.
Don Doucette
“Ten Mile River Rambles”
Friends of the Ten Mile and Bucklin Brook
Citizens of the Narragansett Basin