The landscape between Water Street and the Connecticut River, downstream from the Holyoke dam, has changed dramatically over the last decade-plus. Year by year, workers transformed the massive complex of paper mills into piles of brick and timber and mulch. Now it’s a blank slate awaiting a new industrial presence: startup Sublime Systems is planning a fossil-fuel-free cement manufacturing facility…
Ovenbird in Pulaski Park
An ovenbird in a tangle of brush at Pulaski Park this morning marked the first “new species” I’ve logged downtown in quite a while. With spring migration heating up I’d hoped to find more warblers. Overall it was quiet, though, with steady rain and cameos from a yellow warbler, a sharp-shinned hawk, a northern flicker and a belted kingfisher.
Peregrine falcon on Front Street
Received a message in December that a peregrine falcon has been spending a lot of time around Open Square.
On a weekend morning in early January I took a spin through my old neighborhood on my way to run an errand. It didn’t take long to find the falcon, feasting on a pigeon on top of a building on Front Street.
I didn’t have my ideal photo equipment in my truck. But, I did have a camera body and a 200mm lens — with some significant cropping, that was good enough to document the sighting.
Canada goose on nest, Holyoke canal
A Canada goose on a nest at Holyoke’s second level canal. Geese have nested on this stretch of the canal — and often in this spot — since at least 2012.
American kestrel on Lyman Street
An American kestrel on Lyman Street in Holyoke, April 1, 2018. Kestrels have nested at Open Square on Lyman Street in recent years.
Immature red-tailed hawk on Sargeant Street
I like to take different routes to work because I feel like it invites discovery. On Wednesday morning I decided to take a spin by the old Parsons Paper Mill site on Sargeant Street. Nearly a decade after a fire destroyed much of the mill, a neighboring business is expanding onto the site. The tangle of brick and machine left…
Redstarts in Pulaski Park
A walk through Pulask Park this afternoon turned up another spring and summer regular: American redstarts. There were a number of females today, flitting between low brush at the edge of the park and a maple tree along one of the walkways. The females were very vocal, but the only male I spotted was way at the back of the…
Spring sightings in Holyoke: Warblers, towhee and more
The last week brought a few new spring arrivals to the city, including two species I haven’t seen downtown before: a chestnut-sided warbler in Pulaski Park and a barn swallow mingling with tree and northern rough-winged swallows over the second-level canal near Lyman Street. Also in Pulaski Park this week was an eastern towhee — a bird I’ve only seen…
The hawks are downtown, but where is their nest?
Holyoke’s resident downtown red-tailed hawks are still in the neighborhood — but, well into the nesting season, I still haven’t found this year’s nest. They spent the past two years on a fire escape at High and Dwight streets. In 2013, they nested at Open Square. And, in 2012, it was another fire escape, at Dwight and Race streets. This…
