Wadsworth Falls: Middletown, CT (4/18)

On Friday the 18th I got out of work early and drove home to pick up Shannon. It was a beautiful spring day so I took her to Wadsworth Falls for an afternoon hike. Before starting out to Little Falls we took a few minutes to inspect the pond for wildlife. It was pretty hot so there were a few kids cooling off in the shallow water. But it didn't seem to bother the Red-spotted Newts which just moved to a calmer area of the pond. We even found a Red Eft in the water. These guys are the terrestrial form of the newt so its not too common to find them in the water. I don't know if this guy was just about to change or if he had returned to the pond to become an adult but it was interesting to see how he differed from the newts. The eft moved around by walking on the muddy bottom. The adults swam around with their legs limp using their tails as propulsion (like an alligator).

After a few minutes looking around we headed out for our hike. We walked by the giant laurel tree and up to the falls. There, one year and one month since we first met, I got down on one knee and proposed to Shannon. Of course, she accepted. To commemorate the moment, we took turns taking pictures of each other with the falls as the backdrop. Then we headed down the hill and drove out to get some dinner at On the Border, the first restaurant we ate at together. After some great Mexican food, we drove to the Barnes and Noble in Glastonbury and sat at the same cafe table where it all started what seems like a lifetime ago. The night ended at home celebrating with friends and champagne.

Humpback Whale Recovery

Time has a story about the recovery of the Humpback Whale. Once as low as 1,500, the population has rebounded to approximately 20,000. The major factor in this recovery was the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling. But other factors such as altering shipping routes and protection of feeding sites such as Stellwagen Bank must have had an impact as well. Also, the explosion of public interest in whale watching has increased public awareness of whales and other sea life. Plus, these whale watching boats have provided a means for organizations such as the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies to monitor the population and identify individual whales that have become tangled in fishing lines. To me, this news proves that large, slowly reproducing animal species can be saved from extinction.

Putting Up Kestrel Boxes (4/13)

On Sunday the 13th, Shannon and I drove up to Worcester to help my Dad and grandfather put up a pair of Kestrel boxes at Broad Meadow Brook. My grandfather had built and painted the boxes the year before and he and my Dad had made platforms for them.

When Shannon and I got to the power lines, the men had already put up the first box. We helped them lug all of the tools to the next location. I was surprised by the height of the post that the guys created. It was huge. We found what we thought was a good location and gramps and I started digging the post hole while Shannon and Dad attached the house to the end of the pole. Then the four of us stood the post up into the hole and packed the area around it with dirt. The finished box looked great.

After our work was done we took some time to scatter some of my Mom's ashes along the power lines. Dad and I each took some and we tried to distribute them as widely as possible. My Mom really loved BMB and especially the power line area. During the summer she would look for butterflies there almost every day during her lunch hour. And she brought the entire family there dozens of times and we always enjoyed our hikes.

Later that night we came back to the sanctuary for the annual volunteer appreciation dinner. Shannon and I couldn't stay for the entire thing but the staff did a really nice thing and said some special words about my Mom.

Helen Carlson Wildlife Santuary: Portland, CT (4/12)

That same afternoon, I picked up Shannon and the two of us headed out to Helen Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary in Portland. It was a cool but sunny afternoon and I was hoping to relocate some Spotted Turtles. I actually found these guys at this same place last year and I thought that the conditions would be right to see them again.

When we got to the sanctuary, I brought Shannon down the trail where I had seen the turtles before. Surprisingly there weren't any to be found. But I did spy a Northern Water Snake coiled up on some debris and basking in the afternoon sun. He stayed put for the entire time we were there even when I crept up to take his picture.

I was a little dejected as we headed back to the road. But, only a few minutes later Shannon actually discovered what she thought was a turtle. After taking a few minutes to describe where he was siting, I was able to find it too and confirm that it was a Spotted Turtle. We had really great looks at this guy and he didn't even dive for cover when I inched close enough to take a nice picture.

We were both really happy at this point. But, that wasn't the last turtle that we found. Shannon found one more and I discovered one too. In total, we had three Spotted and a few Painted. After a short hike thru the woods we headed back to the car and on the return trip I had my first butterfly of the year; a Spring Azure.

Postscript: When we got back to my house that day, we started a Garter Snake which was soaking up the heat on my driveway. It was a great herp day.

Gay City State Park: Hebron, CT (4/12)

[Well, I'm a month behind again so a lot of this information will be really old now. But I have been having a lot of good adventures lately so I'll try to get them all posted soon.]

Back in the middle of April I got up early on a Saturday morning and headed over to Gay City State Park in Hebron. From the parking lot I walked down the main access road before deciding on the red trail. Per the map, this is about a three mile loop and it took me longer than I expected.

It was an overcast misty morning but I could tell that spring was coming. All around the plants were starting to poke out. There was skunk cabbage everywhere and I stopped for some time to try and get a few nice closeup shots of it in the low light. There were also lots of princess pines sprouting all over the forest floor. They really are an interesting plant when the grow to be large patches.

The forest was pretty quiet though. There were the year long residents like Tufted Titmouse and Chickadee but not too much else. I did find my first warbler of the year though; a Pine Warbler. And I actually got a decent look at the bird since the trees were still mostly bare.

Eventually I made it back to the blue trail. Just before the two trails met I passed a really beautiful cascading brook which just begged to be photographed. I know that I have a lot of pictures of waterfalls but I can't pass them by.

As I made my way back to the parking lot I passed by the pond and was surprised to see it still had some waterfowl. Besides the Canada Geese and Wood Ducks, I actually spotted what I believe were female Hood Mergansers. It was a long sweaty walk in a really nice park.

Turning Over Logs in Glastonbury (4/6)

The other day Shannon and I took a walk in the town owned property behind our house. This is really just conservation land so there are no trails, per se. We hiked up onto the ridge and I started to flip over logs in hopes of finding some salamanders. The first one that I tried had a Red-backed Salamander. Shannon got a real kick out of him so we continued walking and flipping over anything that seemed large enough. Sometimes we found salamanders, sometimes we didn't.

After a while we came to an area that had obviously been used as a dumping ground. There was an old truck and lots of tires laying around. I flipped over one of them and was shocked at what we saw. There was a field mouse with what we counted was nine newborn babies suckling her.

She was obviously quite frightened and ran back and forth in the depression where the tire used to be. I didn't want to crush her or any of the babies so I attempted to herd her into the leaf litter. When she eventually made a mad dash for a nearby tree, two of the babies were left behind. Shannon and I were both heartbroken to see these guys orphaned but I didn't think that it would do any good to move them. So we left hoping that the momma would return.

(Prologue: We went back to the same location the next day and the babies were gone.)

Wadsworth Falls: Middletown, CT (4/5)

On Saturday the 5th, Shannon and I drove out to Wadsworth Falls for an afternoon hike. We walked around the park for a while without seeing anything special. Before heading back to the parking lot we stopped at the small pond near the park entrance. I've never been to this park during the summertime but I guess that this pond is filled up so that people can swim in the water. But, being early spring, it was pretty low. We walked around the shore hoping to see something and we actually found dozens of Red-spotted Newts. They looks so cute resting on the bottom. Every so often we would spook one and it would swim away. They reminded me of alligators when they swam; tail doing all the work and limbs dragging behind them.

We also found some tadpoles and what I initially thought was just a piece of debris. When I looked closer, I saw that it was moving. I think that it was a horsehair worm. Gross!

In the nearby reeds I found a good number of amphibian egg clusters. I'm a bit rusty in the identification skills but I think that the clear ones with solid black centers are Wood Frog eggs and the opaque clusters are Spotted Salamander eggs.

After our hike we drove up to the big falls and admired all that rushing water. Before heading home we made one last stop at Wadsworth Mansion to admire the grounds.

Broad Meadow Brook: Worcester, MA (4/3)

The morning before the wake on Thursday, Dad, Shannon, and I took a hike at Broad Meadow Brook. There weren't very many birds out and about but we did find some signs of spring. A pair of Eastern Painted Turtles were sunning themselves on a log in the brook. We also stumbled across a rather large Muskrat swimming in the clear brook water.