| ______________________________________________________________________________
News & Events, April 2009
Dear Friend,
The Friends of Mount Auburn is pleased to present the April 2009 edition of our electronic newsletter. We invite you to join our email list to receive this mailing on a monthly basis. If you haven't done so already, click the link above to verify your interest in receiving our newsletter. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add friends@mountauburn.org to your address book today.
______________________________________________________________________________ |
|
_______________________________________________________________
Note: If you use Outlook 2007, you might see some formatting irregularities in your eNewsletter, such as gaps of space between article headers and text. To correct this compatibility glitch, select "View in Browser" from the "Other Actions" menu on your message toolbar.
| |
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
View Friends of Mount Auburn photos on Flickr. Flickr is a free photo hosting website - we are now sharing our photos with the world through Flickr.
|
|
___________________________________________________________________________________
 Save the Date! May 2nd & 3rd, 1:00 - 6:00 PM
Spring Celebration & Open House
Join us to celebrate the beauty of spring at Mount Auburn and discover more about the Cemetery with the entire family! Enjoy a trolley ride through our historic landscape while observing the spring blooming trees and learning about the history of this National Historic Landmark. Scavenger hunts, hands-on activities, demonstrations and tours will highlight the Cemetery's efforts to preserve our historic landscape and the many works of art and architecture throughout the grounds. This event will be held rain or shine. No preregistration. FREE.
____________________________________________________________________________________ |
Horticultural Highlight
The plant collections of Mount Auburn Cemetery contain more than 5,300 trees, most of which are labeled with their common and scientific names. These trees represent more than 600 types, making the Cemetery an arboretum of national importance.
With the arrival of moderate weather in the spring, many visitors flock to the Cemetery to witness the beauty of ornamental blooms. Crabapples, Dogwoods and Flowering Quince all begin to peak at Mount Auburn during April and May. Nevertheless, perhaps no single specimen signifies the arrival of spring to the casual visitor of Mount Auburn than the blossoming of the Cemetery's more than 20 varieties of Cherry.
Pictured above is the Prunus 'Okame' or Formosan Cherry Cultivar on Asclepias Path near Spruce Avenue. Other interesting specimens of Cherry to visit at Mount Auburn are the Prunus × yedoensis or Yoshino Cherry on Garden Avenue near the Administration Building (#89 on the Unusual Trees map), the Prunus subhirtella 'Pendula' or Weeping Higan Cherry on Sibyl Path near Birch Avenue (#88 on the Unusual Trees map), the Prunus avium or Mazzard Cherry on Indian Ridge Path (#43 on the Big Trees map) and the Prunus sargentii or Sargent Cherry on Mist Path (#44 on the Big Trees map).
We invite you to celebrate Arbor Day, Friday, April 24th, with a visit to Mount Auburn. In celebration of Arbor Day, Mount Auburn will hold two free tree planting ceremonies at 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM. Directions to the tree planting locations will be available at the Entrance Gate. Feel free to stop in at our Visitors Center throughout the day to learn more about Arbor Day and Mount Auburn's plant collections.
For those who appreciate the early morning or who are looking for a quick walk before work, check out Mount Auburn's Early-Risers' Horticultural Club! These free walking tours with Horticulture staff will highlight what's in bloom throughout the Cemetery - from early bulbs to magnificent flowering trees. Walks will begin promptly at 7:00 AM and last approximately one hour. No preregistration is required for these free walks.
Learn more about Mount Auburn's horticultural collections.
"Big Trees at Mount Auburn" and "Unusual Trees of Mount Auburn" are both available for purchase at the Entrance Gate to the Cemetery.
__________________________________________________________________________ |
 Friends of Mount Auburn Spring Programs
Our Spring 2009 Program and Event schedule is now online. View the complete list of events and register for them on our website today!
Mount Auburn Book Club. Combine your passion for books with your love of Mount Auburn Cemetery - join the Mount Auburn Book Club! On Thursday, April 9th at 10:00 AM - we will discuss The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasure of Reading Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson (2007). After reading this book you will never look at the obituary section the same way. Meet at Story Chapel. FREE.
"I hear the whispering voice of spring" - walking tour. Please join us for a scenic stroll celebrating the joys of spring through the words of poets and authors now buried at Mount Auburn. Saturday, April 18th, at 2:00 PM. $5 for members of the Friends, $10 for non-members.
"Edgar Allan Poe: Friends and Enemies" - a walking tour. Join independent Poe scholar, Rob Velella for this tour on Sunday, April 19th, at 2:00 PM. As part of the bicentennial year of Boston-born Edgar Allan Poe, this tour will discuss his relationship to several literary figures buried at Mount Auburn. Poe as a critic had much to say about many of these figures - some were friends, and some were enemies. $5 members; $10 non-members.
10th Annual Earth Day Charles River Cleanup. Volunteers of the Friends of Mount Auburn will clean up the banks of the Charles along Greenough Boulevard in Watertown/Cambridge. Gloves and cleanup supplies will be provided. All volunteers will receive a free River Cleanup t-shirt. Saturday, April 25th 9:00 AM - Noon. Directions to the starting point will be sent to participants. Please register in advance. Extreme weather date May 2. FREE. ___________________________________________________________________________________ |
Birds & Birding at Mount Auburn
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
By Robert H. Stymeist
"Hey, have you ever seen a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker?" That's a question we birders often get when you tell folks you're a bird-watcher. Many people think this species of woodpecker is a mythical bird because its name is often used in jest. But it is one bird that truly lives up to its name: both males and females have yellow bellies and tree sap is their favorite diet. Males have red crowns and throats, while females have red crowns but white throats. Immature birds are pretty dull, lacking the red color and being brownish and non-descript, except for the white stripe on their sides that is their most visible identifying mark.
Sapsuckers have drilling techniques distinct from other woodpeckers; you can tell a sapsucker has visited a tree when you see rows of round or squarish holes drilled into the tree trunk. (The birds feed on the sap that oozes from the holes and also eat the insects that get trapped in the sap.) Hummingbirds will often visit sapsucker "wells" to feed, and, this winter, a Ruby crowned Kinglet Hummingbird could often be seen on Indian Ridge at Mount Auburn, feeding on the sap from the drillings of this very sapsucker that John Harrison has photographed.
Sapsuckers, like Cedar Waxwings, occasionally become intoxicated from sap. I remember one spring when a sapsucker was hanging on to a mountain ash with one claw for a long time-clearly unaware of the audience who had gathered as the bird recovered from his hangover!
Sapsuckers are relatively shy, often moving around the trunk or limb to avoid being studied. They are very quiet when drilling holes; their tapping is surprisingly soft. Their courtship drumming is also quite unique, beginning with a rapid series of taps that slow almost to a pause and end with one or two double notes. They have also been recorded drumming on metal roofs -desperate, perhaps to find a female!
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the only woodpecker in eastern North America that is migratory. It is only in recent years that many more sapsuckers are being found in our area during winter. Mount Auburn is one such place, where as many as FIVE individuals have been recorded in the winter. Some of their favorite trees in winter are the Nikko Fir, Cedar of Lebanon, Atlas Cedar, White Fir, and the Hickories. Migrant birds show up in the spring about mid-April and are usually gone by early May. In spring, the sapsuckers are often found on Mountain Ash and some of the many Crabapple and Apple trees at Mount Auburn. They are not here in the summer and the closest area where you could find them in Massachusetts would be near Mt. Watatic or Mt.Wachusett in the central part of the state.
Photo of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker; courtesy of John Harrison, Medford, MA.
____________________
Birds and Birding at Mount Auburn Cemetery: An Introductory Guide is regularly available for purchase at the Cemetery from 8:30 AM to 4 PM everyday (except holidays). The cost is $8.00. Copies are available by mail order by sending payment to the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery, ATT: Bird Guide, 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Please include the cost $8.00, plus $2.00 for mailing and handling (total $10) for each copy ordered.
____________________________________________________________________________________ |
 Understanding Cremation Presentation
Mount Auburn is still a unique choice for burial and commemoration. We offer a variety of innovative interment and memorialization options: traditional earth burial for caskets or cremated remains, indoor or outdoor niches for cremated remains, and outdoor garden crypts for caskets and urns. Cremation is an increasingly popular alternative to casket burial. Mount Auburn, which has the first crematory in New England to be operated by a cemetery, conducted its first cremation in 1900. We now perform over 900 cremations annually.
Join us for a free presentation about cremation at Bigelow Chapel on Saturday, April 11th, at 1:00 PM. Mount Auburn Crematory Manager, Walter J. Morrison, Jr., will answer any questions you may have about cremation procedures and costs. After the presentation at Bigelow Chapel, there will be an opportunity to tour the crematory.
Please register online for this and other programs at Mount Auburn. Learn more about Mount Auburn's many burial and memorialization options at a free presentation and driving tour on Sunday, April 26th, at 2:00 PM! "Beautiful, Timeless and Still Available" - a virtual tour of Mount Auburn will begin in Story Chapel and then proceed by van to explore the spring beauty of this historic landscape. Experience how contemporary landscape design and architecture are shaping the burial spaces for the 21st-century. The driving tour will end at Bigelow Chapel for a brief tour of the Cemetery's oldest chapel. Limited enrollment. Preregistration required.
___________________________________________________________________ |
 Fresh Pond:
The History of a Cambridge Landscape
Mount Auburn Cemetery, a complex web of ecologically rich, botanically diverse natural systems underlain by glacial sands remaining from the last Ice Age, is inherently connected with Fresh Pond - a natural lake at the northwest edge of Cambridge carved out by the retreating Ice Age about 15,000 years ago. Therefore, Mount Auburn joins author Jill Sinclair and the MIT Press in encouraging the greater public's education, understanding and support for the Fresh Pond Reservation.
In Fresh Pond: The History of a Cambridge Landscape, author Jill Sinclair's celebration of a local landscape also alerts us to broader issues - shifts in public attitudes toward nature (is it brutal wilderness or in need of protection?) and water (precious commodity or limitless flow?) - that resonate as we remake our relationship to the landscape.
Come out and meet Jill during her April 2009 book tour!
*Photo above: View from Washington Tower at Mount Auburn Cemetery looking north towards Bigelow Chapel with many trees and Fresh Pond visible near the horizon - from stereo view, circa 1917.
___________________________________________________________________ |
Think green. Do not print this email and you will help to conserve valuable resources. Thank you!
___________________________________________________________________
| |
|
|
You can now join or renew your membership in the Friends of Mount Auburn quickly, securely and easily online! The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery was established in 1986 as a non-profit educational trust to promote the appreciation and preservation of Mount Auburn. Join the Friends of Mount Auburn. Learn about volunteer opportunities at Mount Auburn.
Mount Auburn Cemetery is still a unique choice for burial and commemoration. It offers a wide variety of innovative interment and memorialization options for all. Learn about Mount Auburn's many burial and memorialization options. |
Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery
____________________________
email: friends@mountauburn.org
______________________________________________________________
| |
|
|
|
