Yup, it's a cattle underpass, right here in Shelton. Who knew. It's at Nicholdale Farm (Shelton Land Trust property), immediately west of the main parking lot. The tunnel was incorporated into the construction of Route 110 so cattle could cross the road. There are no longer any cattle, but maybe some wild animals use it (they actually build tunnels for amphibians to cross roads these days).
Tamarack (aka larch) look like a spruce or pine, but their needles turn color each year and fall, just like the maples and oaks. It's when they change color that they really stand out. I normally associate them with northern bogs and streams, but here's a line of tamarack growing in the Shelton Land Trust's Nicholdale Farm off Route 110 in the White Hills. I also noticed a tamarack changing color on Bridgeport Ave near exit 13 the same week.
Mike VanValen sent me these pictures he recently took of salamanders along the trails in Shelton. The salamander at left was identified as "Leadback" Salamander (Plethodon cinereus). He also took great photos of Northern Two-Lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata) and Northern Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus). Click here to see the photos.
A Barred Owl has been hooting away all summer north of our house, near the southern end of the Shelton Lakes Greenway, around Buddington Road and Great Oak Circle. Instead of the steady "hoo, hoo" of the Great Horned Owl, which I used to hear on occasion, I now hear a hooting that has a weird trailing off on the last note. It's commonly described as "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you ALL?" The "All" note sounds oddly like an elephant.
Here's a sound file. Barred Owls and Great Horned Owls apparently don't mix very well, so their territories tend not to overlap much. That would explain why I don't hear the Great Horned Owls this summer now that I'm hearing the Barred Owl.
Over the past few years the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) has sponsored macroinvertebrate sampling of several Housatonic River tributaries, including the Far Mill River and Indian Hole Brook in Shelton. Last weekend, myself and a few other volunteers scrubbed little bugs off of the rocks in the river for hours, which were carried by the current into our nets. Later, we picked out every bug (macroinvertebrate) we could find from the samples, placing them in ice cube trays (photos), and identified them. It's very time consuming, about 3-4 hours per sampling location, and it usually takes two people.
The type of macroinvertebrates you find says a lot about the water quality. Certain types, like stoneflies, must have very high oxygen levels at all times. Other types, like blackfly and midge larvae, can live with very little oxygen and high numbers may be found in polluted waters (including my goldfish pond).
Because we volunteers are no experts, we pick one of every type of bug we find and place it in a jar of alcohol. HVA submits the jars to the DEP, who re-identifies everything in the jar and publishes a report. Here's the 2006 report.
The good news is that both streams are oxygenated enough to support a small number of sensitive species such as common stonefly larvae. The many waterfalls and riffles of both rivers is a big factor there. The bad news is that we are not usually finding many of the most sensitive species. Most of the bugs we do find -- netspinner caddisfly, fingernet caddisfly, midge and blackfly larvae -- are indicative of unnaturally high organic loads. Think lawn fertilizer and lawn clippings getting washed into the storm sewer.
For example, near Mill Street (Gristmill Trail), we collected 5 stoneflies (good), and also about 200 netspinners, 35 fingernet caddisflies, 1 fishfly, 2 snails, 3 riffle beatles and one small minnow mayfly. These are the bugs in the ice cube trays in the picture up above (click it to enlarge). Other Far Mill River samples were taken near Route 110 and off of Roaring Brook Lane. The sample near Route 110 looked better this year than the samples we usually get.
Here's a video from last year showing how we sample the river. Sometimes we get unexpected animals. The first year we caught a baby eel. This year we caught a baby salamander and a couple of fish (blacknose dace and tesselated darter).
Update 10/9/2007: A sample collected from Means Brook at Lane Street had none of the "most wanted" species, which suggests that oxygen levels are too low to support sensitive species.
Where have I been lately? Well, for one thing, I've been working on a new website for the City's open space properties, online at http://sheltonopenspace.googlepages.com/home. It's just a start!
Yesterday I assumed the ruckus in my pond was another frog fight until I discovered our largest pond frog, "Bubba", with a pair of frog legs jutting from his mouth. According to Wikipedia, Green Frogs will "consume anything that can fit in its mouth, such as: crickets, flies, fish, crayfish, shrimp, grasshoppers, smaller frogs, tadpoles, small snakes, birds, mollusks, moths, and their own cast skin." I managed to grab my camera and get him on film just as he swallowed the feet (see below). Update August 14: Bubba was recently seen eating one of my goldfish, the tail hanging out of his mouth. This frog will eat anything that moves. Update October 2007, I've been told this one is a Bull Frog because it doesn't have ridges (see comments). If she's eating the Green Frogs, does that mean she's not a cannibal?
Green Frogs (Rana clamitans) are the classic pond frog in Shelton. Build a pond in your yard, and they will come in no time at all, adding a rather silly sort of charm to the pond. The males will puff out their yellow throats and starting singing only a few feet away from you, and they'll get into crazy frog fights. If you startle them, they yelp while making a comical leap.
Because most animals find their taste repulsive and do not eat them, the frogs are incredibly tame (my children have even managed to pet them on occasion). Dogs vomit after picking them up. Even the tadpoles taste bad. A few years ago I drained the level of my pond overnight to 6", with catastrophic consequences. By the next morning, the raccoons had reduced my goldfish and koi to nothing but a few scales. But the ground was littered with dead Green Frog tadpoles, each one having been tasted and then tossed aside.
They get so big that people often mistake them for bullfrogs. I frequently see them in our lakes, rivers, and puddles. The tadpole are also huge - several inches long, and they take over a year to mature.
We've got raspberries, highbush blueberries, huckleberries on the way (all along the powerlines).
Hey, what's the deer doing there? Well, they can be tasty, too, especially with a side of onions, but I'm afraid they're too cute to harvest (unless they eat the flowers in my garden) and besides, it would be against state regulations.
I received this intriguing set of photos taken by a boater on the Housatonic from Leon Sylvester Jr. The story passed on to me was that of a mother fox and her cubs hanging out by the river edge (first photo). The boater could see a coyote stalking her, and threw something in its direction to alert the fox, who immediately defended her kits from the intruder.
I suspect the "fox" may actually be another coyote. Fox are about 12 pounds, while coyote are closer to 30 lbs, so there is a big size difference.
While searching a stone wall for a hidden geocache box off of Turkey Trot Trail, my son discovered the above Giant Leopard Moth, which has a wingspan of 3". Teenagers are not easily impressed by bugs, but this one was striking.
A few years ago I ran across the larvae of this species - a huge wooly caterpillar off of Dominick Trail with distinctive red spots. It was so unusual I took it home to identify it.
I'm the Shelton Conservation Agent, sheltontrails.org webmistress, and a letterboxer & geocacher. These pursuits often take me out exploring in the field.
Yup, it's a cattle underpass, right here in Shelton. Who knew. It's at Nicholdale Farm (Shelton Land Trust property), immediately west of the main parking lot. The tunnel was incorporated into the construction of Route 110 so cattle could cross the road. There are no longer any cattle, but maybe some wild animals use it (they actually build tunnels for amphibians to cross roads these days).
