Magazine Beach

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Historic summit of DCR, Rep. Jay Livingstone, Senator-elect Joe Boncore, Taha Jennings of the City of Cambridge & the Magazine Beach Comm. at the Riverside Boat Club.

This morning we were lucky enough to have DCR’s Commissioner Leo Roy walk Magazine Beach, tour the Powder Magazine, and visit the Riverside Boat Club. With him were DCR’s Patrice Kish, Rick Corsi, Kevin Allen, Peter Seweryn and Nick O’Connors, all on the team to move the park forward. Thanks to you all!

(Sorry Taha and Joe, you missed the photo op!)

The Magazine’s old granite blocks are now being prepared for repointing.

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Thousands participated in the Charles River Earth Day Cleanup up and down the basin on Saturday, including at Magazine Beach. Many thanks to Bunker Hill Community College, Ray Street Alumni, the Riverside Boat Club and neighborhood volunteers for pitching in–picking up trash and sticks at the park. Among our finds: styrofoam cups, fishing lures, bottles and bottle caps, needles, a laptop and even an empty cremation urn (with ashes sprinkled along the beach). The latter was a first for the cleanup.

It was a gorgeous day and it felt good to working together with a common purpose: readying the park for long summer days of picnicking and swimming at the pool. The pool opens June 25th. Yoga returns to then, too!

Thank you, volunteers! Thank you, organizers: the Charles River Watershed Association and the Charles River Conservancy!

Many thanks to Cambridge aerating, adding 80 tons of sand topdressing, and then seeding the playing fields at the park this week. DPW’s Acting Superintendent of Parks & Forestry Dave Webster reported that he hopes to aerate it with solid tines every 6-8 weeks thereafter. Cambridge will aerate, topdress and seed in the fall, too, with the hopes of bringing up the fields to a much higher level.

Soccer players, if you want to see better fields at Magazine Beach, please try to stay off them for the next weeks.

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Central Cambridge Youth Baseball 2016 Season Begins!

Parents of girls and boys, ages 4-12, look for games at Magazine Beach from now to mid-June. The Nationals & Cardinals play Thursday (28) at 5:30pm; the Red Sox & Blue Jays, Friday (29) at 5:30pm; and the Nationals & Pirates, Saturday (30) at 12noon. For the full schedule and information about joining, go to: http://www.centralcambridge.org/home.

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Remember: Earth Day Cleanup is THIS SATURDAY, April 30th, 9-12noon. See you at the parking crescent at the foot of Magazine Street for work gloves, bags, water & brownies!

Work is getting ready to ramp up at the Magazine. The masons should start their work in the next week, most likely. The general contractor will be on site to remove obsolete services from the inside of the magazine, and pour concrete for the landings at the doors. The overhead doors and wooden windows and doors should be up by the end of May to mid June, with painting and electric to follow.

General Contractor – Campbell Construction, LLC

Mason – Chapman Weatherproofing

Electrician – Sanibel Electric Corp.

–Peter Seweryn, Project Manager, DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program

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Mark Your Calendars! Open House at the Powder Magazine: Saturday, May 14, 10am-12 noon. Note: The Magazine itself will NOT be open as part of this event since it will be under construction. Look for historic panels, however, telling about the long history of the 1818 structure—the oldest building on the Charles River Basin.

Hope to see you at the park on Saturday, April 30th, 9am-12noon, for our Annual Charles River Earth Day Clean up. It’s spring and time to get our park into shape for months of picnicking, running, dog walking, soccer, baseball and just plain relaxing along the river.

Meet at the parking crescent at the foot of Magazine Street for gloves, bags, brownies and water!

For more about the larger cleanup, see: http://www.crwa.org/charles-river-cleanup. We’re still welcoming volunteers at Magazine Beach!

Today, the CRA announced that the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Assn. is the recipient of a $10,000 capital grant to help fund an ADA-accessible public canoe/kayak launch at the end of the Cottage Farm Facility at Magazine Beach.

According to the terms of the Forward Fund Grant, this aspect of the Phase II design will be implemented in 2016. Thank you, CRA!

The winning mixed eight at the Crusher Casey Challenge.

Mike Farry and Ilana Zieff won the singles at the 2016 Crusher Casey Challenge.

Nikolay Kurmakov’s son Andrew and wife Laura pose with the boat dedicated to the longtime Riverside and Simmons Coach.

Riverside Boat Club Kicks Off 2016 

On Sunday, the RBC held their annual, fun Crusher Casey inauguration of the 2016 outdoor season. Three mixed (men’s and women’s) crews raced on a cool and blustery spring morning. Check here soon for the date of Riverside’s more serious rowing event, the Cromwell Cup Regatta, coming up in late June or early July.

For more about Crusher Casey and “The Famous Casey’s,” click here. Photos courtesy of Riverside’s Igor Belakovskiy. Thanks to Igor, Amanda Milad and Dick Garver for their help with this post.

Head to the park to see bird’s nests, budding trees and tiny flowers. They’re all there under the snow…

Last week, Jeanne noted: The birds were in full song—not just chirping, several brand new tiny, beautiful birds nests appeared and the following spring birds: goldfinches, ruby-crowned kinglets, an eastern phoebe, a purple martin, blue-grey gnatcatcher, a white breasted nuthatch. Bees buzzed around.

Note: Much wildlife stayed put for the winter. Spotted between December and February:

Birds: Canada geese (flocks of 40 to 100 birds), seagulls, sparrows, cormorant, great crested flycatcher, slate colored junco, downy woodpeckers, golden crowned kinglets, mockingbirds, catbird, blue jays, red-tailed hawks, robins, eastern phoebe, chickadees, scarlet tanager, wood thrush, goldfinches, brown thrashers, cardinals, grackles, black-throated blue warbler, yellow warbler, mallard ducks, common mergansers, northern shovelers, mourning dove, great blue heron, purple finches, house finches, raven, European starling, redwing blackbird, and cedar waxwing.

Other critters: Rabbit, snake, squirrels, voles, crickets, mosquitoes and tiny flies

Jeanne says that she observed most of the winter birds in the swales and the hedge. The thistles and milkweed pods, as well as seeds that had fallen to the ground there, provided a lot of food. She also saw birds around the berry trees along both sides of Memorial Drive, clustered around the footbridge. These berries lasted through the first half of February. Most of the hawks I saw were in the tall trees beside the footbridge, as well.

 Remember, our Annual Earth Day Cleanup is Saturday, April 30, 9-12 noon!

Magazine Beach–A Place Apart will be on view at the Mass. State House (4th floor, outside of the House Gallery), March 7-18. Hours: Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm. It includes a new section,  A Revitalized Park, featuring the latest landscape plans and renderings of the park and information about the Powder Magazine and DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program.

We’ve organized two related programs at noon at the State House. Please join us!

Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 9, 12-1pm. 4th floor. Free.

Lunchtime Panel: Saving Our Parks: Effective Partnerships between Government & Community Groups, Wednesday, March 16, 12-1pm. 3rd floor, Room 350. Free.

Refreshments served at both. For further info and photos, click on Events.

Rep. Livingstone and fans at the exhibit opening. L to R: Cathie Zusy, Rep. L., Decia Goodwin and David Torrey

Sharl Heller talks about volunteer efforts to preserve the Southeastern Mass. Coastal Pine Barrens at our “Saving Our Parks” panel Wednesday. Photo by Erica Mattison.

Fruit of flowering crabapple trees a mainstay for robins

Even with temperatures approaching 0˚ F., the robins that stay around all winter need to get out and find food. One place to look for birds of all kinds at this time of year is in the row of red-fruited crabapple trees along the pedestrian overpass at the corner of Memorial Drive and Magazine. On Thursday, February 11, the trees were crowded with robins; they seem to wait until the tiny apples reach a certain stage of ripeness and then show up in force.

It was an impressive sight Thursday an hour or so before sunset, around 4 p.m. The trees swarmed with robins—about two hundred of them were feeding up in the branches and on the snowy ground below. A few purple finches were mixed in, and a cedar waxwing hung around on the outskirts, but the robins were very much in charge

They go through the supply fast, however. A look at the same spot at noon on Friday showed only bare branches–not a crabapple, not a robin to be seen.

However, a red-tailed hawk was kibitzing on both days from a tree across the street in Magazine Beach Park. Thursday he probably didn’t have any trouble finding a songbird for lunch, but Friday he was out of luck. –Mary Holbrow