Challenge yourself with the Nature Notes quiz

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PHOTO COURTESY OF GARRY KESSLER

Pine warbler (Setophaga pinus)

January 18, 2019, Page A8, A9

NATURE NOTES

By Annie Reid
Westborough Community Land Trust

Challenge yourself with the Nature Notes quiz

Ready for a long winter’s nap? Wait, not so fast! If you want to venture outside, check out this winter walk: see WCLT’s Try a Trail Close to Home: A Favorite Winter Walk.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EILEEN SAWYER

Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota)

PHOTO COURTESY OF GARRY KESSLER

Rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)

PHOTO COURTESY OF GARRY KESSLER

Cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae)

PHOTO COURTESY OF GARRY KESSLER

Little bluestem grass (Schizachyrium scoparium, Andropogon scoparius)

You can also perk up and look ahead to sights and sounds of nature in 2019 by taking our annual Nature Notes quiz to review the local nature featured in the past year.

Choose your answers from the drop down lists. Check your answers by clicking the "Show Answers" button. The answer page will contain links to the related 2018 “Nature Notes” columns so you can read last year’s columns, or any of more than 255 past columns. Just match the short descriptions below with the names in the alphabetical list that follows. Then check your answers in the Nature Notes Answer Key on page XX. The key also lists the related 2018 Nature Notes columns on the Westborough Community Land Trust (WCLT) web site (http://www.westboroughlandtrust.org/nn/nnindex.php), where you can read last year’s columns, or any of more than 255 past columns.

Match these descriptions with possible answers from the list below:

1. These natural things are featured in a poem that evokes the magic of the winter woods.

2. I’m a gentle wild creature who pollinates plants in Massachusetts (in addition to honeybees, bumblebees, about 100 butterflies, and a hummingbird).

3. I’m associated with the “river of grass” in Florida.

4. Start looking and listening for me in early spring, especially around white pines.

5. You’ll recognize me at your feeder by the red triangle on my breast (although my mate is plain.)

6. You wouldn’t know it from my name, but I come here from the tropics to make a hanging nest that you might spot in the treetops in winter.

7. I’m a favorite field wildflower of July, as well as an ancestor of today’s cultivated carrots.

8. In spite of my name, I’m not a spaceship, but rather, an odd-looking mushroom that you might spot in a sandy area.

9. I came here from Europe more than 150 years ago, but now you can see me fluttering through the air from April to November and find my caterpillars in your vegetable garden.

10. Spot me by my long tail and large size in a noisy flock of blackbirds, and notice my purple or blue-green iridescent sheen if you get a close look at me.

11. Find me on roadsides and in fields, where I add lovely reddish hues to the autumn landscape, provide food for wildlife, and help to control erosion.

Possible answers:
- Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula)
- Cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae)
- Common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula)
- Earthstar
- Little bluestem grass (Schizachyrium scoparium, Andropogon scoparius)
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, environmentalist
- Pine warbler (Setophaga pinus)
- Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota)
- Rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus)
- Solitary bee (such as a mason bee, leaf-cutter bee, cellophane bee, or carpenter bee)
- Trees (oak, pine, birch), ice, and rocks

Nature Notes is printed in The Westborough News on behalf of WCLT (Westborough Community Land Trust). Report your own local nature sightings (or check out what others have seen) on WCLT's Facebook page! Find more information about enjoying nature in Westborough, including trail maps and a calendar of events, at the WCLT website.

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