Abigail
Curtis
This time
of year, two familiar sounds seem to signal the arrival of summer.
One is
the reassuring thrum of a tractor’s engine as farmers mow their sweet-smelling
hayfields. The other is the bubbling, lyrical song of the bobolink, a small
grassland bird with a shrinking population that is known for its cheerful
plumage and captivating voice.
But put
them too close together, and the bobolink and the tractor sound more like
disaster. Just ask scores of ardent bird lovers who have registered their
dismay that a farmer last weekend mowed large open fields at the Hart Farm in Holden, a historical dairy farm that
was purchased last year by the Holden Land Trust.
Bobolinks
are known to nest there, and a few of the birders had asked land trust
officials if the mowing could be delayed so that the chicks would have a better
chance of survival. But the farmer leasing the land needed to make sure that
the hay he cut had sufficient nutrients to feed his herd of dairy cows and
couldn’t wait, according to Betty Jamison, a board member of the land trust.
“We did
not go out to kill off the bobolinks — it’s just a hard balance,” she said this
week. “The farmer knew the bobolinks were an issue, but there’s not much you
can do about it. These have been hayed fields for years. There are other
wildlife that can be damaged in mowing a field. It’s a balancing act between
trying to keep habitats and to preserve farming in this area.”
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