🦃 Boston’s streets are FOWL

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🫡 It’s our job to bring you Boston’s best events … But in this case, readers put us on to one: Drop Clock Club, a new social supper club that gathers friends together around great local meals. Their next event is tonight at Silk Road Uyghur Cuisine and it looks awesome.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• North End restaurants protesting

• Open Streets is coming back

• Boston Calling eats 

Up first…

COMMUNITY

All harm, all fowl

Ah, springtime in Boston: Longer days, Fenway Franks, and … fowl? While not technically birds of prey, spring is when local turkeys and geese start wreaking havoc on Bostonians, be it pooping all over the Esplanade or breaking a mail man’s hip (remember that?).

So here’s what to know about our fine feathered friends this season (and how to avoid a bird brawl):

🦃 Boston is a surprisingly good habitat for turkeys and geese. Both birds are generalists, according to Kathryn Pope, a teacher naturalist at wildlife sanctuary Drumlin Farm. As long as they’ve got food and water, they’d happily hang in your backyard or even in a park downtown. Between bird feeders, food scraps, and plenty of greenspace, the city’s food scene is ideal for both birds, who’ve gotten pretty good at exploiting it, according to David Scarpitti, a wildlife biologist with Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife.

😅 And we’re kinda the reason they’re here. In the 1970s, conservationists reintroduced turkeys to Western Mass. after hunters and deforestation wiped them out. Them making a home in the Boston area was not exactly on their bingo cards, but the birds’ overwhelming presence has actually been chalked up to a success. 

🪿 Meanwhile, local geese literally forgot how to leave. Most geese are actually migratory, Pope explained. But the ones who we see year-round in Boston are descendants of live decoy geese who lost those instincts after hunters clipped their flight feathers in the early 1900s, so they just stuck around. 

🐣 And right about now is when birds are willing to show humans who’s boss. A.k.a. mating season. To try and prevent a scuffle, the best thing to do for both birds is to never ever feed them, plus “give lots of space when walking around them … and if you can, find an alternate route,” Pope said (literally, make way for ducklings). But of course, that’s not always possible. 

💥 So if you do end up toe to toe with a bird this spring … Think of it “like a brown bear, black bear situation,” Pope said. Geese just want to protect their babies, so if one hisses at you, “calmly move away, maybe try to avoid eye contact.” Meanwhile, turkeys are all about a pecking order. If they come at you and you retreat, they might take it as a sign to further assert their dominance, said Scarpetti. So instead, Pope suggests making “yourself look like a bigger turkey.” Don’t be afraid to hold your ground, yell, and even swing your purse around. They’ll get the message.

B-SIDE MADNESS

Boston’s best nightlife

🪩 Welcome to round three of Nightlife Madness! We crowdsourced some of Boston’s best nightlife venues to create our own March Madness bracket, where B-Siders can vote which spot is the city’s best. Round two’s winners were Lansdowne Pub and The Sil over ICON and Bijou. Make sure to keep on voting! 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🍴Several North End restaurants are closing their doors Thursday. In the latest chapter of the neighborhood’s outdoor dining feud, some restaurant owners will reportedly be closing from 3 to 5 p.m. tomorrow in protest of the city’s outdoor dining regulations (a potentially busy window given the March Madness games nearby at TD Garden). This year’s regulations, which prohibit most North End restaurants from al fresco dining, have already spurred lawsuits and protests. Owners say they’re hoping to meet with Mayor Michelle Wu during the shut down, and invited her to a meeting at Saint Leonard’s church on Hanover Street.

🪧 The BU grad student strike rolls on, and some students are feeling the impact. After nine months of negotiations and a vote last week, some 3,000 unionized BU graduate students are officially on day three of their strike for better wages and benefits, drawing support from bigwigs like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley. BU (whose sticker price for the 2024-’25 school year will be over $90,000) says it’s currently unclear whether the strike is disrupting classes, but several undergrads said their discussion sections led by teaching assistants or fellows were canceled.

⛴️ MBTA spring ferry service is SO back. Starting April 1, the MBTA’s East Boston ferry will be back in action for the season, setting sail every half hour daily through November. The Lynn and Winthrop ferries set sail on April 29, and the weekend Hingham/Hull/Logan ferry starts on May 25. Our two cents: If you’re on a ferry route, you might want to get some practice reps in, because when the Sumner Tunnel closes again for two months this summer, it might be your best bet. Check out the schedules here. 

🚗 Boston’s streets are going car-free (again!). Mayor Wu officially announced the dates and locations for this year’s Open Streets events, where large sections of Boston’s bustling neighborhood streets swap cars for food, programming, and activities. The event kicks off in Dorchester on Sunday, May 5, and through the end of the season in October, the program will also come to streets in Roxbury, JP, Eastie, Allston/Brighton, and (new this year!) Hyde Park. The dates for Open Newbury Street will be available in the coming months!

MEDIA PARTNERSHIP

Giveaway!

It’s time to face facts: Having your picture taken by a photographer can be a bit intimidating—and the results often skew a bit on the awkward side. You’re not alone. That’s why Bostonians are loving Muse Studios, the first-ever self-capture photography studio in Boston. And, luckily for you, they’re giving away two free 30-minute sessions (each a $75 value) at their brand new location in Chinatown. Just join the B-Side mailing list and refer-a-friend to sign up for The B-Side daily newsletter.

ONE LAST THING

Boston Calling eats 

The second most important Boston Calling lineup just dropped. We all know that half the fun of going to a music festival is the non-musical parts of the day, and thankfully, in addition to a pretty iconic artist lineup, the festival's food offerings are stacked this year.

As for vendors, we’ll be seeing a mix of fan-fave returners like Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, Tasty Burger, Flour Bakery, Blackbird Doughnuts and FoMu. But there will also be a handful of newbies to sample like Ricen, the not-yet opened Thai spot in Porter Square, local cajun-seafood chain Shaking Crab, and The MacBar, a new mac and cheese spot downtown. 

Plus, if you’re feeling fiscally irresponsible and want to spend $2,900 on a platinum ticket, you can skip the stands and get your food straight from a famous Boston chef like Joanne Chang. 

You can check out all the options here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

😋 Thanks for reading! No vibe is more feral than sitting in the grass at a music festival and trying to inhale your food without accidentally eating your body glitter. Or is that just me?

🏠 The results are in: 52% of B-Siders would “maybe” consider buying a home with a friend or family, with another 33% saying it sounds like a win-win. One reader said: “We’ve strayed too far from platonic cohabitation as a society.”

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