WINTER divulges a PAPERY PRIZE
A few stubborn oaks still cling to brown leaves, but for the most part, trees are rid of foliage, giving forests a different look and feel. Landscapes are more intimately studied, their layers and intersections well within view. A low sun pierces empty crowns, illuminating hillsides and unveiling what remained hidden through livelier times. Aerial […]
Calling Marsh Birds
Calling Marsh Birds – Beams of mist shine from the headlights as I turn into Macricostas Preserve’s parking lot. Wheels lightly crunch over dirt and gravel until slowing to a stop. Another vehicle is stationed at the trailhead and two Steep Rock Association (SRA) citizen scientists emerge. Convening and taking one last glug of coffee, […]
DISSECTING an OWL PELLET
A large chunk of pellet for dissection. Note: Accompanying needles suggest the owner of this pellet likely prefers a certain white pine perch. Steep Rock Association trustee, committee chair, and conservation easement landowner, Natalie Dyer, poked into the office this spring possessing some treasure. “It’s an owl pellet!”, she exclaimed with wonder and excitement […]
SQUIGGLING AND SQUIRMING our way through SPRING
It’s that time of year again when thrushes and warblers serenade forest dwellers, buds burst, and a rejuvenated environment even teases of summer with an occasional tree frog sounding off. For Steep Rock Association, these cues trigger a certain stewardship action being the monitoring of our critically-important vernal pools. A balmy rain-soaked night has aroused […]
#64
With snowshoes strapped, baggies at the ready, and GPS fixed, I head out into one of Steep Rock Association’s (SRA) preserves characterized as overgrown field rejoicing my career choices and the presence of such preserved land. A cold-water stream runs through it. Seeps percolate from tall grass and alder groves, wind past cedar trees, and […]
PURSUIT for PELLETS
They’re not the easiest to obtain. Stooping, crawling, and dipping through young forest, citizen scientists with Steep Rock Association (SRA) earned their cottontail scat (or pellets). The native species, New England Cottontail (NEC), prefer this brambly habitat type over more open fields and meadows where the non-native eastern cottontail dominates. Forest succession and interspecific competition […]
THE FUNGAL ARMS
Essay and photos by Peary Stafford It’s January… and there’s precious little nature to study in Steep Rock. Few birds, no insects and for sure no flowering plants. But there’s always something and these desolate winter days, BK and I (OK, mostly I) have taken to investigating the fungal life of our beloved Land Trust. This particular […]
BALD EAGLES back for WINTER
Three bald eagles of varying age were observed on Lake Waramaug this morning. The photos below depict morphological changes immature eagles undergo as they reach maturity. It usually takes four to five years to develop the characteristic white head and tail of adults. An adult was also seen in flight, although not documented. Updated January 20, […]
MOBILE MUSTELIDS
A winter’s day awakens with a burnt salmon sunrise engulfing the horizon and a fresh snow blanketing the landscape. A frigid breeze rattles frozen limbs. You pull up the sheets and pity all wildlife, for they must be hunkered down in coniferous stands, reserving stores or hibernating, but that is not always the case. Weasels, […]
RABBIT STEW
A cattail falls to the blade of my brush cutter, grudgingly smacking my face and exploding into a cloud of seed. Reed canary grass, invasive by nature, has also colonized this wet meadow of Macricostas Preserve that parallels Route 202, and its eradication is the focus of my effort. Monotonously sweeping back and forth, my […]
