Milford Powerlines (6/18)

On Sunday I decided to take a walk along the powerlines in Milford. It was a particularly hot spring day and the sun can really beat down on you when there's no shade. But, the discomfort was worth it.

The area was full of wildflowers in bloom. I saw some Whorled Loosestrife, a small patch of Maiden Pink, and (one of my personal favorites) Birdfoot Trefoil. The Connecticut
Botanical Society site lists this as a non-native plant, originally from Europe. But, I still think its pretty cool. Usually the flowers of this plant are yellow but I found a few blooms that were orange. From what I've read, this has something to do with the age of the flowers. One more interesting fact about Birdfoot Trefoil... it gets its name from the shape of its fruit pods (see the picture at the bottom of the CBS site linked above).

The butterflies were pretty standard for this time of year. There were some Harris' Checkerspots, some Silver-spotted Skippers, Cabbage Whites, etc.

Maybe because of the heat, the birds were pretty quiet. I did have a Red-tailed Hawk on one of the powerline poles being mobbed by a couple of Red-wing Blackbirds. And a Broadwing Hawk "screamed" loudly as it circled overhead.

But, my favorite part of the trip was finding a Spotted Turtle. It was in a small pool close to the path. I had seen this turtle (or one of its kin) in this same pool a couple of summers ago and it was good to see that it was still there.

When I last found the turtle on the powerlines I submitted a rare species report to the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program but they rejected my sighting. So, I felt especially good about finding the turtle again. I desperately wanted to get a photo of the animal so that I could get a little bit of "revenge" but it did NOT cooperate. He seemed to know that he was hidden behind an autofocus defeating barrier of vegetation and waited just until I could see over it before jumping into the water. Oh well, maybe next time.