Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1965 Class Website

Time: Sunday May 15, 2022; 9:30 am

Duration: Approximately 2 hours

Recommended: Wear all-weather clothing and sturdy footwear. Be prepared for sun, wind, mosquitos. Bring binoculars if possible.

Transportation and parking: Belle Isle Park is off a major road, Bennington Street, in East Boston. There is plenty of parking just inside the Park entrance.

To get there by public transportation, take the Blue Line eastbound (toward Logan Airport). Suffolk Downs station is three stops past the airport. Belle Isle Park entrance is across Bennington Street about 200 yards to the left when you leave the station.

 

Belle Isle is an urban park and wildlife preserve owned and operated by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The approximately 250 acres of the reservation is mostly coastal salt marsh with about 40 acres of a former drive-in theater now serving as the visitor section of the park.

 

Meet near the feeders off the parking lot. We expect to walk on gravel paths on relatively flat ground. May is migration time, so with luck we may run into a variety of migrating bird, as well as locally nesting species, in the upland sections of the Park: Such as Yellow Warbler, Grey Catbird, American Robin, Red-tailed Hawk, American Goldfinch, and Tree Swallow. We will walk to the main boardwalk at the far end of the Park where there is a chance for viewing herons and egrets, lingering ducks, some shorebirds and possibly the federally listed Saltmarsh Sparrow. A pair of Ospreys nest directly out from the platform and they should be quite active at that date.

 

Our 9:30 start should coincide well with the onset of high tide which tops out at 11:30. Typically, high tide is the best time to view marsh residents.

 

Just in case we have trouble meeting up, Soheil's cell phone number is (617)763-5637.