Nature Educates at Harvard

This week's report from Rob Gogan's Nature Watch:

COTTONTAIL RABBIT hops leisurely through the grass by the Business School's Cotting Hall.

RED-TAILED HAWKS perching on light towers hunt young rabbits hopping out from beneath the shelter of Newell Boathouse. "Only the cautious survive," notes a boatman. Another curious red-tailed cocks its head 90 degrees to peer inside Holyoke Center 10th floor windows. Up above the roof of Holyoke Center, two red tails circle together. One of them alights on a cell phone antenna about 20 feet above Holyoke staffer...Cineaste immature red-tailed calls out plaintively for its parents from the tower of Memorial Hall, where Denzel Washington's large crew films "The Great Debaters.

WILD TURKEY returns to the HBS campus. She trots outside the fenced-in children's playground at the Soldiers Field Park day care center.

DOWNY WOODPECKER inspects the trunk of a maple on the bank opposite the Weld Boat House. Meanwhile, another downy feeds in a tall maple behind Widener and another patrols the bark of a tree near the Fogg... Black and white checker of another downy flashes into an elm near Memorial Hall.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE comes to light among the plane tree leaves on the corner of Western Avenue and Soldiers Field Road.

WHIPPOORWILL calls just before dawn behind Greenough Hall.

CAROLINA WRENS sing near 5 Bryant Street.

BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE flies about in the branches of the tree in front of the Fogg, calling sweetly.

ROBIN behind Grays Hall pulls up an earthworm and arranges it in his bill before flying off to feed his fledgling in a secure spot. A robin and several STARLINGS happily share the bathing opportunities of a puddle behind Sever Hall.

WHITE BUTTERFLIES flit among the white pine in Harvard Yard, on the ivy of the brick wall in front of Lamont on Mass Ave, and flit across Quincy Street towards the Yard.

RED ADMIRAL butterfly (Vanessa Atalanta) rests on a chainlink fence post by the experimental garden by the OEB Greenhouses. Three more Admirals butterflies also cross Quincy into the Yard from the Barker Center and the Faculty Club, probably after enjoying nectar and the flower garden in full bloom.

Big BUMBLE BEE enjoys a cone flower in front of Loeb House.

Blue CHICORY and yellow EVENING PRIMROSE come into bloom up and down both banks of the Charles.

See Ryan Lynch's fabulous website mapping and identifying (nearly) every Harvard Yard tree!

Thanks to birder and Harvard facilities associate manager Rob Gogan and his "Campus Nature Watchers" including Pete Atkinson, Betsey Cogswell, Marge Fisher, Justin Ide, Sonia Ketchian, Joe Shea, Bob Stymeist and Ray Traietti!