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The Next FBIM meeting will be May 28th. We will attend the Winthrop Conservation Commission meeting in the Joseph Harvey Hearing Room at Winthrop Town Hall at 7 PM and meet briefly after that meeting.

Visit the MassBird website

The Short Beach Project and Project Summary

Party Celebrating Stacey's 18 Years on June 18th

After 18 dynamic years at Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH), Stacey Chacker is taking a position at Corporate Accountability International. NOAH people are planning an outdoor barbecue with vegetarian options to celebrate her many accomplishments. It will be held on Wednesday, June 18th, from 4:30 to 7:30 PM in back of the NOAH headquarters at 143 Border Street in East Boston, rain or shine. Everyone is welcome to attend. Please contact Laura Crandall at 617-418-8243 or lcrandall@noahcdc.org for more information or to RSVP. Best wishes, Stacey!

Our new neighbor on Chelsea Creek is the 600 kW wind turbine at Forbes Park, Chelsea,

the site of the former Forbes Industrial Park which included Forbes Lithograph.

Forbes Park includes the brick and white buildings on the far right across the Creek from the Logan 480 Office Park

(the large white building) and McClellan Highway in East Boston, seen in the foreground.

Belle Isle Marsh Reservation is located in East Boston, Revere and Winthrop, Massachusetts.

This 350 acre former Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) reservation, now the Department of Conservation and Recreation, was acquired from the Massachusetts Port Authority in the late 1970s and was opened as a public park in 1985. The largest surviving salt marsh in Boston Harbor, it showcases plants and wildlife now rare to the Metropolitan area. During the 1600s the marshlands were used for sheep and cattle pasture with the salt marsh harvested for salt hay. By mid 20th century a few homes, business/light industrial structures and a fuel tank farm were built on filled-in marshland as was the Belle Isle trotter track, now Suffolk Downs, and subsequently the Suffolk Downs Drive-In theater. In 1986 the MDC reclaimed a major section of Belle Isle Marsh as a reservation, and began a substantial wetland reconditioning program. The Friends of Belle Isle Marsh, a grassroots environmental organization, was formed in the early 1980s to help preserve the marsh and publicize its importance as an urban natural resource.

Our Mission

Friends of Belle Isle Marsh is a volunteer organization dedicated to the preservation of this marsh. We believe that protection ultimately depends on public awareness of the value and beauty of this natural resource. Our focus, therefore, is mainly educational.

Membership

FBIM is a non-profit corporation. To join, send dues to: FBIM, PO Box 575, East Boston, MA 02128.

$15 (Family), $10 (Individual) and $5 Seniors/Under 16) Contributions are tax-deductible.

Thank you for your continued support. Monthly meetings are held the fourth Wednesday at Eliot House in Revere which is the large white house located at the rotary at the southern end of Revere Beach.

2008.05.11 Belle Isle Marsh
9 - 11:30 dst
Soheil Zendeh
Tide: low; low tide 11 am; high tide: 5 pm
Sky: clear
Temperature: 60°F (15°C)
Wind: e 10 - 15 mph (16 - 25 kph)
Visibility: good

Notes:

It looked like a flock of catbirds arrived overnight. At least 22 were
singing various places in thickets. One even managed to sound like a
Red-eyed Vireo! With them arrived a Brown Thrasher, a pretty scarce bird at
Belle Isle.

When an Osprey is sitting quietly in the nest, it is almost not visible.
With a telescope, I could barely see the top of the head from the Boardwalk.
At one point another Osprey arrived and they copulated briefly, then he was
gone.

Number of bird species:    34

Brant (Atlantic)    40
Canada Goose    2
American Black Duck    5
Mallard    4
Double-crested Cormorant    3
Snowy Egret    6
Osprey    2
Semipalmated Plover    1
Lesser Yellowlegs    9
Least Sandpiper    4
Herring Gull    2
Great Black-backed Gull    1
Common Tern    6
Rock Pigeon    5
Mourning Dove    3
Chimney Swift    1
Warbling Vireo    3
American Crow    7
Tree Swallow    2
Barn Swallow    2
American Robin    21
Gray Catbird    22
Northern Mockingbird    2
Brown Thrasher    1
European Starling    5
Yellow Warbler    2
Common Yellowthroat    1
Savannah Sparrow    2
Song Sparrow    7
Red-winged Blackbird    25
Common Grackle    8
Baltimore Oriole    7
American Goldfinch    3
House Sparrow    15

Visit last year's reports

Belle Isle Bird List - October 7, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - October 14, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - October 20, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - September 23, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - September 16, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - August 26, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - August 5, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - July 23, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - July 8, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - July 1, 2007

Belle Isle Bird List - July 2, 2006

Soheil Zendeh

42 Baker Ave

Lexington, MA 02421

home phone 781-863-2392

cell phone 617-763-5637

office phone 617-528-4013

The following photos were taken by John Kilmartin in January of 2008 at the Belle Isle Cemetery pathway. Several years ago the Town of Winthrop authorized $500,000 to prevent erosion at this former dump site, but problems exist. This series of photos show the erosion along the path, the stone dust that has been washed into the wetland, the erosion of the hillside and the filling in of the marsh. If these violations continue, the marsh will eventually be filled in and the wetland will be lost forever.

Click on these small images to enlarge them. To return, click on the "back" command.

See Photos from the 2008 Spring Cleanup

See Photos from the 2007 Harvest Festival

See Photos from the January 2006 Astronomical High Tide

See Photos from the 20th Anniversary of the Dedication of Belle Isle Reservation

See Photos of the erosion at the Belle Isle Cemetery in Winthrop

See Photos of the source of Belle Isle Creek near the Logan 480 building on McClellan Highway

See Photos from the 2007 Spring Cleanup

Check out the Flights over Belle Isle

right now! Belle Isle is to the upper right

of Logan Airport on the map, approximately under the Route 145 symbol.

Click here to see the Chelsea Creek Action Project Slide Show

Belle Isle Heron Census

This is the 27th year of Belle Isle heron censuses. Our primary focus has been on "southern herons" (snowy and great egrets and glossy ibis) as they come to feed at the marsh when high tide and sunrise occur fairly close together.

See the most recent Bird Sighting Reports by Soheil Zendeh, FBIM founding member