Deer Tick Larva

Smaller than a dog tick is a deer tick. Smaller than a deer tick is a deer tick nymph. The nymphs are the ones most people get Lyme Disease from (like me just recently) because they are easily missed. But even smaller than a deer tick nymph, is the ridiculously tiny deer tick larva. I found this one on my ankle last night. A ruler showing 1/16th inch lines is there for comparison. (Larvae = plural, Larva = singular).

This photo shows the tiny tick near the tip of the ball point pen. But guess what, you CANNOT get Lyme Disease from the larvae. That's because they just hatched and have not had the opportunity to become infected yet.

If you manage to see one of these ticks (it helps if you have lily white skin), how do you know if it's a nymph or a larvae? If it's late summer/early fall odds are it's a larva. My rough guide is that if it's so small you can't see the legs without a magnifying glass, it's a larva. That might not work for everyone. So here's another way: The larvae have only six legs, while nymphs and adults have eight. You are going to need a magnifying glass to see this. Here's the one from last night (taken through a magnifying glass). Note that the long mouth parts are not legs.

Sheffield Island, Norwalk

We took the ferry out to Sheffield Island on this spectacular day. The sky was blue and the air was clear and we could see the Manhattan skyline in the distance (above).

Here are some old ruins on Sheffield Island we passed in the ferry as we approached the pier. Unfortunately, the ruins are on a section of Stewart McKinney Wildlife Refuge that is closed off to people, so I wasn't able to walk up to them. There's a nature trail nearby with a viewing platform and interpretive sign that says the ruins were once part of a mansion with a 100 foot long pier. The trail is quite short. If I go back, I plan on walking along the shore on the opposite side of the island, where it looks like you could go quite a ways. Otherwise, there's really not that much space for you to explore considering the size of the island.

You only get to stay on the island for an hour and a half, which seems very short considering how much there is to do. When we arrived, a tour of the lighthouse was announced to take place in twenty minutes, and the tour would last 20 minutes. I chose to skip the tour so I would have more time to explore the island. But later I regretted missing the opportunity to go inside the lighthouse and one of the staff was kind enough to let me go in and climb to the top. You go up by wooden steps so steep they are nearly ladders.

Here's a view from the top of the lighthouse towards the tip of the island. Later we walked down the tip there and found the old stone ruins of a former building...

...as well as a big clump of these beach peas, a plant native to our sandy shores.

Information on the Sheffield Island Ferry is online. Be sure to call. The first time I planned to go I did just that and discovered they had canceled the ferry that morning because a private party wanted to charter the boat. During the ferry ride a guide describes what you're seeing, but unfortunately I couldn't understand most of it due to the fuzzy speakers.

Isaac Hull Bridge Plaque

This plaque is located in downtown Shelton inside the Exit 14 entrance loop. I've seen it from a distance a zillion times, so today I finally pulled over and took a look. Click to enlarge the photo and read what it says. Honestly, if you had asked me, I would not have remembered that the Route 8 bridge is called the Commodore Isaac Hull Bridge, or even who Mr. Hull was (the bridge spans the Housatonic River) . I guess that's why they do plaques. This one is difficult to get to, however, because of traffic.

Milford Dog Park

Shelton has a Dog Park Committee and there is talk about putting in a dog park, the type that is fenced in, at the corner of Shelton Ave and Nells Rock Road, near the little white house (which the City owns). This is very close to the trail system and reservoirs, so I wanted to find out for myself whether barking is a problem and how far the sound might travel. Plus, I have a five-month old puppy that needs to meet more dogs. I figured the dog park at Eisenhower Park in Milford would be a great place to check because there is a trail system nearby.

What a disappointment! The dog park was deserted and neglected. People were walking their dogs outside of the dog park, often unleashed, in violation of park rules along the trails, but I didn't see a single dog in the dog park. It started with the rusty, creeky gate, which scared my puppy so much she refused to go inside (above).

Most of the park is in the hot sun. The only shade is under this tree.

It's nasty under the tree. The chairs are disgusting, and there was litter.

The grass was too long, even though the field right outside the fence area had just been mowed.

My puppy did her duty. Fortunately I had a doggy bag in my pocket, because the dispenser had nothing but a bird nest inside of it.

But I couldn't understand the garbage can system. Exactly what does "Clean Bags" mean? And which can was I supposed to put the doggy poo in?

So what's up with the Milford Dog Park? Was the location bad? Too sunny or too wet? Did they just not get the right volunteers to run this thing? It was such a contrast to the lovely Community Gardens in the same park. I'd like to know so this doesn't happen in Shelton. If people prefer walking their dogs off-leash along the trail to using a dog park, would it be better just to have a designated off-leash trail (like they do in Fairfield)?

I'd like to visit the Trumbull dog park next, but xenophobic Trumbull doesn't allow non-residents to use any of their parks under any circumstances, so I could get a $25 ticket for parking there.

Milford Community Gardens

People have been asking for a community garden in Shelton, so I visited the garden in Milford at Eisenhower Park yesterday to see what neighboring towns are doing. In a Community Garden, people can lease a plot to plant vegetables or flowers.

The gardens look like they cover a couple acres, and this was one of the busiest areas at Eisenhower Park during my visit, with maybe eight people there working on their gardens under a very hot sun (one woman was putting a huge arm load of garden produce in her trunk). Facilities include several sheds and a port-o-let. I was surprised to find no deer fencing, especially since there was a deer crossing sign placed comically out on the road near the garden.

Overall, the garden seems nicely maintained and cheerful. There are several corners with chairs and tables where people can hang out - but only if you are one of the plot holders.

Rec Path Wildflowers

Here are some native flowers in bloom today along the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path between Pine Lake and Silent Waters (see www.sheltontrails.org for more info on the path). This is the section that was just upgraded to handicapped-accessibility standards. The top photo is field thistle. Did you know there are many species of thistles? I did not. This particular one not only was covered with bees, but a hummingbird came in while I was taking this photo. Alas, he was too quick for me to get a picture. This was on the dam above Silent Waters.

Right next to the thistle was another plant the butterflies and bees love: Dogbane. This species is called Hemp Dogbane, and like all dogbanes it is related to the milkweeds. Both groups ooze a milky sap if you break them (hence the name 'milkweed'), and both groups are candy for birds and butterflies.

The picture below was taken along the path between the two schools (we call it "the missing link"). It's called Monkey flower because it you look at a bloom straight on it looks like a grinning monkey. Another native species. This was a new one for me.

Below is a great big clump of Eastern Joe-Pye Weed, looking rather like a shrub, at the parking lot and entrance to Turkey Trot Trail on Constitution Blvd North.

Tradition holds that there was an Indian in New England named Joe Pye that used the plant for medicinal purposes.

Eisenhower Park Wildlife (Milford)

We explored the back side of Eisenhower Park in Milford today, off of West River Street. Here the Wepawaug River, or part of it, has been dammed to form a small pond or marsh. The first picture is a male Eastern Amberwing dragonfly, a species that mimics a wasp by both its markings and by the way it holds its wings.
Here's a bee on some Pickerel Weed. The Pickerel Weed was just filled with insects of all sorts, and I'll bet some fish were hiding in there, too. The seeds are supposed to be edible, but I've never tried them.

Here's some Swamp Milkweed. Milkweeds have such beautiful flowers and such ugly leaves.

Here's another damselfly, this one a female Eastern Forktail. I picked up a book of the dragonflies and damselflies of Massachusetts a couple years ago and now feel compelled to identify anything I take a picture of. Who knew there were so many species and it was so involved!

My daughter was curious about these berries, found near the parking lot. These are Bittersweet Nightshade (a vine) and they are somewhat poisonous. The leaves have those funny lobes or thumbs.

Scariest Bug Ever

This huge bug (2" long not counting the tail and antenae) scurried rapidly across the trail at Trout Brook Valley in Easton/Weston today. He was so big I thought he was a crayfish at first, although he scurried more like a big cockroach. I forgot my camera so I put him in a container and brought him home for identification. I'm no bug expert, and had a hard time figuring this one out. My husband suggested he looked like an earwing on steroids. By looking at the general descriptions of the various insect orders, I found some unexpected similarities with crickets. But look at those claws! Reminded me of a mole or a grizzly bear. So I Googled "crickets" and bingo, I found the "mole cricket."

He made such racketwith those claws trying to get out of the tupperware my husband thought it was our puppy digging around under the couch.

They say the mole crickets are actually pretty benign and don't bite, but I didn't test it out. And they say some can fly (oh, dear God, we could have these things flying around?!!).

In addition to the crazy bug, I found five letterboxes that had been planted six years ago in the park and were still in great shape.

Painting Letterboxes

I finally got my act together today and spray painted all my letterboxing containers at the same time. For those of you who don't go letterboxing and have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, letterboxing is a hobby where boxes containing a hand-carved rubber stamp and logbook are hidden along trails for people to find. It's common to try and camouflage letterboxes with camo tape or spray paint. Lock n' Locks are by far the best plastic containers available, holding their water-tight seal even after repeated rounds of freezing and thawing.

Black is the color of choice for spray paint since boxes are hidden in dark holes. This was about 25 boxes and it took me five minutes to spray paint them once everything was laid out on the paper.

I use a very light coat, since you need just enough to conceal the container (not actually give it a good coating) and a light coat is less likely to chip off. I leave the stickers on while painting and remove them after the paint is dry to create a clear window into the box (in case some park police think it might be a bomb or something).

OK, now I've got lots of boxes all set to go. Time to make some stamps and logbooks!

Shelton Canal Wildlife

Some people have assumed that the Shelton Canal has little or no wildlife value because when the hydroelectric plant was built in the 1980's, the flow to the canal was reduced, and there simply wasn't enough oxygen in the water for fish to survive.

Today my husband and I were nearby at Riverview Park checking out some recent trail work when he mentioned he saw kids fishing in the canal the other day. I peered over the concrete wall, and sure enough, there were lots of good-sized sunfish for the kids to catch. (Note this is NOT a place to take the kids fishing - there are train tracks alongside the back of the canal).

And then I saw the circular sunfish nests along the bottom of the canal. Lots of them. Sunfish don't need as much oxygen as trout, but they are more sensitive than carp (I've accidentally killed pet sunfish more than once while the goldfish in the same water were fine).

Speaking of... an 18" carp did start rooting in the weeds below us. He made quite a commotion. I wondered if there were any bass. Usually if there are sunfish, there are also bass, often in some very tiny, skeegy ponds. I did finally see one small bass. Then a duck flew in, swam around, and climbed ashore.

Bonus! A cute little muskrat swam came by. Not bad for a canal with no wildlife value!