I got up early this morning and made my way over to Centennial woods. This wasn’t my first time visiting this forest, but I was the first time touring and studying my phenology site on my own. With heavy rain yesterday, I was ecstatic to go into the woods and ruck through the marsh a bit, the smell of moist wood in the air. I packed my bag with my water, camera, a Clif bar, and went on my way. I came back with boots proudly coated in mud, some awesome pictures, and a somehow ever-growing excitement for my site. Welcome, my friends, to Hummingbird Point.
Alrighty let’s start by getting y’all to Hummingbird Point with me. When you enter Centennial Woods off of Catamount Drive, you’re going to start heading down the path until you reach a small clearing with a poison ivy warning sign –go left here. There’ll be a foot bridge for you to cross, followed by three small steps in the ground and another footbridge that bears right. At the end of that bridge, there will be another clearing with another poison ivy sign –go left here as well. You’ll stay straight on this path for essentially the rest of the way, crossing a downed tree across the path, a young maple with five black spray-painted stripes on it (at the small fork, bear right alongside the marsh). Continuing this way will bring you to another large downed tree and a mangled stump, part of which kinda resembles a shark which have been some of my favorite creatures since I was real young. Here you’ll turn right and go down a short path to a small, circular clearing that should have a medium-sized rock at the center of it, overlooking the marsh
Congratulations! You’ve reached Hummingbird Point.
I chose Hummingbird Point sort of on a whim. I was participating in a lab for another course when our TA brought us to this site, eager to show us her phenology site that she grew to know and love. She described how it was an edge habitat, linking the forest and the wetland, providing a uniquely diverse series of plant life in the area. Most importantly, she named it Hummingbird Point because on one of her first trips there, debating what to call this place, a hummingbird flew right up near her, and she took it as a sign. The main reason I chose a spot in Centennial Woods though, is that it reminds me of place I know and love dearly, the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The Fells have been a secondary home of mine since I could walk, basically. We’d go on family walks, or hang around the pond by the trail entrance and catch frogs, tadpoles, and crayfish. As we grew up, we’d take the Skyline Trail to Wright’s Tower to get what I believe may be the best view in the greater Boston area. As a teenager, it was my escape from the world; I could go there whenever I wanted as it was so close to my home, so I would often find myself there when school or people or life was just too overwhelming. Centennial has reminded me of the Fells since the first time I went there during my first week of classes for our Self-Guided Tour of Centennial, and I’m so happy I have an excuse to spend more time there.
This is an edge habitat; on one side of the site is a hardwood stand featuring primarily Eastern White Pine and Eastern Hemlock trees with few birch, oak, and maple trees. The ground is inhabited by intermediate wood ferns, Japanese barberry bushes, lots of Alder buckthorn, and grasses. The forest is not particularly dense and is intersected by trails. As the woods transition to the marsh on the other side of the site, lots of alternate-leaved dogwoods, rough horsetail, and purple loosestrife inhabit the ground. The marsh is almost entirely inhabited by marsh grasses, loosestrife, and sensitive ferns primarily, but a few other types of ferns that were just a bit too hard to get to through the mud (my guess is cinnamon ferns or cattails).
And a list of the dominant plant species there are as follows:
Intermediate Wood Fern
Alder Buckthorn
Eastern Hemlock
Eastern White Pine
Japanese Barberry
White Oak
Rough Horsetail
Purple Loosestrife
Sensitive Fern
Alternate-Leaved Dogwoods
Marsh Grasses
I’m going to leave you here today with a few of my favorite pictures I took today, finished up with a Google Maps picture of exactly where in Centennial you can find this spot.
Have a great day! I hope you enjoyed and will hang on for the ride as I learn as much as I can about this spot and Centennial Woods as a whole. See ya ’round! 🤙🏽
