Explore Outdoors ~ another day, another salt marsh...

 A couple weeks ago we walked along the trail of a salt marsh at Caddy Memorial Park in Quincy, MA. It sits where Blacks Creek empties into Quincy Bay (part of the larger Massachusetts Bay).

Join us for a nature walk...

The salt marsh is flooded each day by salt water. Not only do the plants have to be adapted to that, but they need to be sturdy enough to endure the push and pull of the tides. Salt-resistant marsh grasses (Spartina) grow here and, in the fall, were cut and dried by colonists, and used for bedding and fodder for their horses and cattle.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the salt marsh is edged with oak, cedar, elm, sumac, and pitch pine trees. We saw many red-winged blackbirds and bluejays, an osprey nest, and a horseshoe crab. Apparently the crabs use salt marshes for spawning and will show up even in daylight.