Public Garden

The annual Make Way for Ducklings parade wound its way around the Common and the Public Garden today (yeah, I don't know why it went that way instead of up and down Beacon Hill, either), ending, of course, by the ducklings statues.

Ducks in a row:

Masstreehugger spotted this guy and his contraption in the Public Garden today.

Brig Dauber captured the Public Garden tree that plunged to its demise across Boylston Street Friday night.

Boston Strolls admired the hats on the Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Garden today.

The Back Bay Sun reports the Friends of the Public Garden has started posting trees with 4x6-inch black anodized aluminum signs to let you know just what kind of trees they are.

Jonathan Berk wondered what these people on the Lagoon today were thinking.

Chris Lovett took some photos as the snow began.

Turlach MacDonagh spotted this apple just sitting there in the Public Garden.

Copyright Turlach MacDonagh. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The Proper Bostonians reports on the scene in the Public Garden, where owl watchers and photographers converged this evening to watch an owl in a beech tree (right near the fountain/statue that shows a mountain lion catching an owl):

A few more owl-watchers showed up as the light faded, having heard rumors from a bearded guy named Peter. As we talked and craned our necks, the owl finally took off, and we followed on the ground, exclaiming over the magnificence of its wings as it swooped through the trees. It landed on a high branch that gave us a much better view of its yellowish beak and dark, round eyes. Barred owls have beautiful brown, camouflage feathers and we had an excellent view of it now. Behind us, a group of serious photographers with massive telephoto lenses had materialized, setting up lights and tripods. One trained a spotlight on the owl. This troubled my owl-watcher friend and me, but the owl didn't seem to care. It stayed put and suddenly regurgitated a lump of whatever owls regurgitate... feathers, fur and bone fragments, I think.

The Daily Free Press interviews the guy who plays a hurdy gurdy in the Public Garden.

Andy Ihnatko reports a data-recovery business managed to liberate the photos on a muck-encrusted digital camera he found in the Public Garden Lagoon this past spring, when it was more of a mud field being readied for its annual cleaning:

In addition to the recovered photos and videos, they were also able to find a evidence of a batch of documents that had been on the card but long-deleted. They had the documents' filenames, though the files themselves were unrecoverable.

The biggest surprise of the report? The camera's time of death. I'd discovered the camera face-up in the mud, in plain sight. I had assumed that it hit the water sometime during the 2011 season. But the most recent photo on the card had been taken on the afternoon of June 24, 2010.

With copies of some of the photos, for anybody who might recognize them.

Workers were busy today putting disassembled Swan Boats on a flatbed truck for the trip to wherever it is they store them for the winter.

Charlie came to life today, ambling about town to promote Charlie Cards and the new air-conditioned Charlie service center at Downtown Crossing.

At the Public Garden, Charlie posed with tourists and handed out CharlieCards as souvenirs to little kids who had no idea what to do with them. "It's a CharlieCard!" T General Manager Jonathan Davis helpfully told one tot.

Then, once enough tourists had shown up, Charlie got on a Swan Boat and went for a ride. We didn't stick around to see if he ever returned, no, we don't know if he ever returned.

Ed. note: Don't worry: The Mass. Bay Credit Union paid for the suit, which has a built-in fan and a vent in the hat, but which still proved to be wicked hot enough on a day like today to force Charlie to take periodic breaks and take his head off.

Mike the Mad Biologist chronicles the adventures of the mama duck for whom park workers built special housing in the Public Garden.

This squirrel kind of stood out in the Public Garden today. Wonder if any local drugstores have noticed boxes of hair dye looking as if they'd been chewed ...

Somebody (or somebody's pet/child) trampled some allium in the Public Garden.

It's one of Boston's most endearing celebrations - the annual Make Way for Ducklings parade from the State House to the Public Garden. Today was an almost perfect day for a waddling procession - the only problem was it was so warm some kids were getting out of their costumes even before they made the turn from Beacon Street onto Joy.

An irked citizen exhorts the parks department to take a gander at what's going on in the Public Garden:

Public Garden needs more park rangers monitoring park. Over past 3 days people have been allowing their dogs to swim in the pond chasing the ducks and swans.

After being wheeled down on decked-out Four Seasons luggage carts, of course.

Before they refilled the lagoon, Mike the Mad Biologist took a walk to and around the island.

Speaking of the lagoon, the Swan Boats return April 14.

The city has installed a series of traps in parks to see if they can stop the destructive elm bark beetle:

The traps consist of 18.5"x 28" green plywood boxes mounted approximately 15 feet off the ground on trees located at least 150 feet away from any elms. Four have been placed on Boston Common, four in the Public Garden, three in the Fenway Victory Garden, and one in Copley Square.

The traps are designed to monitor elm bark beetles which cause damage when the larvae build “galleries” beneath the bark. Adults pose an additional threat when they travel from sick to healthy trees carrying Dutch elm disease spores with them.

Each trap contains a paper lining with a sticky surface that acts like old-fashioned flypaper. The paper is infused with a pheromone lure to attract the insects. The traps contain no pesticides or harmful chemicals.

Rob Stanhope captured an early St. Patrick's Day celebration in the Public Garden.

On their way to Indianapolis?

Leslee noticed some trees are putting out blossoms even as they're dropping leaves.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Richard Beaubien spotted these pigons in the Public Garden the other day.

Copyright Richard Beaubien. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.