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.