2004 Nature Walk Recaps
May 15, 2004: Spring wildflower walk
Pat Swain, Community Ecologist for the MA Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, took us on a walk around Parker Pond to see what wildflowers we could find. The weather conditions were perfect - temps in the 70's and sunny. The wildflowers seemed to have burst open during the previous week, so walkers witnessed a plethera of flowers including:
- Starflower
- Striped maple
- Fringed polygala
- Canada mayflower
- Ladyslipper
- Bunchberry
and a variety of others.
June 5, 2004 : Bird walk
Marty Michener, professional field naturalist and resident of Hollis took us on a walk on the Flint Brook town conservation land to see what birds we could see or hear. Since retiring from environmental consulting, Marty has been busy self-publishing his own guide to birds of North America on CD-ROM and a guide to common grasses, sedges, and rushes in the Northeast. Visit Marty's website at www.enjoybirds.com.
In the two hours that we were out, we saw or heard a total of 25 species, including a couple of relatively uncommon birds - Northern goshawk and Brown thrasher. See the entire list below.
Click on the species name to see the enature.com profile for that species.
July 10, 2004: Geology Tour
Jim Canfield, pediatrician and amateur geologist took 14 Hollis residents on a geology tour around town. Tour-goers discovered outcrops of the seven types of bedrock underlying Hollis – "two kinds of granite, three colors of schist, and a weird old gneiss." They also found out that two faults are located in Hollis, where they were located, and "why geologically speaking, Casablanca, Hollis and Glasgow are sister cities." Here is a sampling of the bedrock types you can see around Hollis:
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Gray slate-like schist located at Overlook Golf Club. This type of bedrock can also be found in Morocco, North Africa, and in the Atlas Mountains. |
Dark brown variant of Silurian
Ordovician rusty schist on Elnathan's Way in east Hollis. This is the location of one of the fault lines in Hollis. |
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Glacially polished
exposures of Permian two mica granite/Rusty schist contact atop Woodmont Orchard. |
Freshly excavated boulders of Massabesic Gneiss, an ancient sea floor sedimentary rock. |
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Close-up of Permian Granite intrusions into Massabesic Gneiss. This is a good example of deformations and metamorphosis of the Massabesic gneiss. |
Interested in learning more about the geology of Hollis? Take a self-guided tour. Download the following maps and text guides and you're on your way.
The maps and text guides are in pdf format and require Acrobat Reader to view. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, download it now! It's free!
