Bobcat on English Lane

This picture of a bobcat was taken at English Lane by Bridget Kelly yesterday. I've had lots of people tell me about bobcat they have seen in Shelton, but this is the first time someone was able to cough up a photo. Well done, Bridget! I hear about bobcats most often in the White Hills, the Nell's Rock area, and Pine Rock Park, along the lower Far Mill River (that one is said to screech at night). Last year a Conservation Commission member watched a large bobcat stalk some deer in his backyard near Indian Well S.P.

Bobcats have very large territories, depending on the food supply and gender, that range from 6 to 60 square miles, and they follow a circuitous route that may take days to complete. So a particular bobcat seen in the White Hills might also be seen in another part of town, or even in some other town.

Watch your pets, folks! Bobcats are known to attack cats and small dogs. As you can see, though, they are beautiful animals.

Tree Eating Itself

This old maple tree on the Paugussett Trail in Monroe appears to be eating itself. The tree center rotted into dirt about six feet up, and you can see the tree has actually put roots down into the dirt. Hey, whatever works.

Mohegan Lake, Fairfield

The 170-acre park at Mohegan Lake in Fairfield is heavily used by dog owners, since they can take their dogs off-leash. There were about 20 cars in the parking lot today, in the middle of February, and most everyone had dogs. It's a beautiful park, although there is an unfortunate amount of erosion from the heavy use. The top photo shows a nicely done foot bridge over yet another "Mill River" (how many Mill Rivers are there in CT?).

There are two reservoirs formed by the damming of the Mill River, with trails encircling both water bodies. Here the river flows into the larger reservoir.

This last picture shows the mini "pine cones" of alder. These tall shrubs create thickets along the shores of ponds and "fix" nitrogen with their roots.

White Hills Pheasant

This ring-necked pheasant was spotted by George Magdon off of Birdseye Road in the White Hills of Shelton. Pheasant are not native to the US (they originally came from Asia) but they have naturalized in agricultural areas, and are also sometimes stocked for hunting. It's a bird of farms, not forests, more often seen in the Midwest.

Winter Feeding

Survival is tough this time of year, especially with all the snowfall we've had. The picture above, taken on Buddington Road, shows exactly how high the deer can reach. In the winter deer "browse," which means they eat the ends off of twigs. In the summer they are more likely to "graze" on herbaceous wildflowers or grass.

The second picture, taken at Bicentennial Park in Berlin, shows where a squirrel punched through a very hard, crusty snow (probably by chewing a hole in the ice), found an acorn under the hole, and then left the acorn shell on the snow, which was about 6 inches deep. They used to say that squirrels remember where they buried their acorns, but now they say they just smell them under the snow. The Shelton area had very few acorns this year and I imagine the squirrels are desparately hungry right about now.

Mondo Pond, Milford

Lots of waterfowl were congregating in what little open water remained at Mondo Pond (it was 22 degrees when I took the photos). It made for quite a show. The top photo is a little hooded merganser eating a fish (a sunfish, I think). Compared to the ducks, these birds are zippy, skittish, and you might see them diving.

This photo shows a couple of Canadian Geese, a Mallard Duck (yellow beak), and a Ring-Necked Duck (in the back). There was also a Swan and some Sea Gulls. Here are some more photos.

I accessed the park from the grade school on West Ave. There's a nice wide trail, but condos were built unfortunately close to the shore and trail, and it looks like condo residents have been clearing the narrow buffer between them and the trail (which looks like it's city property) so they can get a better view. Of course, that means hikers feel like they're passing through their living rooms. Which leads me to wonder: If trail users started mooning the condo owners, would the buffer strip still get cut?

Reading the Signs

Winter hiking brings its own rewards: reading the signs of the forest. A bird of prey caught something here. Look at the feather marks in the snow on the left and right edges of the photo. (Rec Path, Shelton).

These tracks on Dominick Trail in Shelton belong mostly to coyote, along with some deer. None of those tracks are human. Think trails are just for people?

The bare spot was where a deer took a snooze (this was one of three). The deer tracks and deer poo were other telltale signs. Near Dominick Trail, Shelton Lakes.

The bare spot on the sapling (about 1 foot up from the ground) is a deer rub, where one or more bucks sharpened their antlers. The tree behind and to the right has marks going up the side of the tree where a poacher climbed the tree to hunt (Klapik Farm open space off Long Hill Road, Shelton).

Deer at the Dump

There are ten deer in this photo, which was taken at the Shelton landfill this week by George Magdon. Ten deer per square mile (that's 64 acres for each deer) is the recommended density for healthy forests, healthy deer, and low rates of Lyme Disease. But parts of Fairfield County have densities of up to 60 deer per square mile.

The deer population in Shelton is rising, although it is nowhere near as ridiculous as what towns like Redding and Ridgefield have. In those town the deer have stripped the forests of vegetation, then stripped some rather expensive landscaping from yards before deer fencing could be installed (many homeowners there surround their property with deer fence). Rates of Lyme Disease and deer strikes have skyrocketed in lockstep with the deer population boom, leading to a surprising display of public support of bowhunting on city open space, in some cases very close to official hiking trails.

I moved to Shelton in 1991 and for several years I heard gun fire out my back door every fall. I rarely saw deer, even when hiking. That changed when most of the vacant lands were either subdivided or acquired for city open space, where hunting is prohibited (there is still some poaching). Now it's common to see deer herds calmly browsing a few feet from residents' front doors.

It's just the beginning folks. Although there are still some pockets of hunting in Shelton (notably on farmland in the White Hills), the deer population will continue to rise. Where deer once nibbled on hostas and tulips, they will start devouring entire gardens and shrubs. Lyme Disease rates will increase significantly, and more drivers will hit deer.

I just returned from planning the installation of deer fencing at the new Ecklund Native Species Garden at Shelton Lakes. We received a grant from Iroquois to purchase native species, and we'll need to protect our investment with a deer fence. As the deer population rises, the forest will be stripped, and Ecklund Garden will be an island of biodiversity in the desert our forests will become.

Lost & Found

Ever find a trail you never knew was missing? I "discovered" Fox Hollow Trail in Shelton recently when I saw this engraved stone pillar along the edge of Little Fox Run just east of Okenuck Way. It's an access trail to the trails at Birchbank Mountain, built by the developer of the neighboring Fox Hollow subdivision in the 1990s.

The neighbors knew it was there and a few people had mentioned a set of stairs to me, but I had no idea what they were referring to until I just happed to see this pillar with a set of stairs behind it leading to Birchbank. The trail is located on a narrow corridor of city open space land.

Our Trails Committee knew nothing of the trail and was delighted to hear of it. Next spring we'll need to give the trail some maintenance, paint some blazes on the trees, and update Birchbank Mtn hiking map.

Wilcox Park, Milford

It was a terribly dreary day in Shelton. Fog drifted over a covering of dirty snow. But it's been drab for, I don't know, weeks I think, so I decided to force myself outdoors. It's also that time of year where you find yourself thinking unexpectedly, "Oh no, it's past 1:00, it'll be dark soon!"

So I jumped in the car and headed south for someplace right along the shore, hoping there wouldn't be any snow. The gamble paid off and, as a bonus, there wasn't even any snow-fog, and I enjoyed watching the boats and ducks. Wilcox Park is small, located along the mouth of the Wepawaug River (I keep finding myself along this river lately). There are docks, pavilions, playing fields, and a wooded area with trails, benches, an overlook and, of course, some letterboxes.

On the way back home, as soon as I climbed up Warner Hill Road into the hills of Shelton, I was surrounded by snow and dark fog once again.