The Beach at Allens Pond

For the fifth year, my colleague Doug has led an Allens Pond Audubon Sanctuary annual Beach ramble. The day was sunny with mostly a few scattered thin clouds. The temperature was in the low 30's, but with the gusty winds the wind chill was down to the 20's. We ended up with a total of eight people, everyone dressed appropriately for the weather and had as usual an interesting time. Birding wise, we had mainly ducks on the pond and one great blue Heron on the far shore and the usual gulls. The waves were crashing on the beach and as usual, changing on how the beach looks. Doug discussed and expounded on the ecology of the area. The interesting finding was there was not a lot of bayberries on the bushes and also not a lot of poison ivy berries, it looks like the migrating birds cleaned out the area. In all, it was a wonderful day for a walk.