I woke up this morning and crawled languidly out of bed. I flipped up the shade of my window to let some light in for my beloved little plant. I noticed the bright sun outside and thought "ah, what a perfect day for the beach," except it was 30 degrees outside and the ground was covered with snow. But off I went anyway.
I decided to visit Silver Sands State Park which is in Milford, CT. It is not the greatest beach in the summer months. A bit dirty. But today, with a blanket of snow, it was absolutely beautiful.
Rules of the beach
From the beach you can see Charles Island which is connected to the mainland by a sand bar that is submerged at high tide. Apparently someone named Captain Kidd buried a treasure there in 1699. He was a sailor of Scottish origin who turned pirate and was subsequently executed in 1701.Snow-covered Beach and Charles Island
A man who passed by told me that loons nest in this area in the summer, so I will have to come back later in the year.
Today I was in a little bit of a seaweed mood. So here are a few pictures. The first is a green sponge-like species that I have seen before. It seems to prefer to cling to slipper shells. It looks like it belongs to the genus Codium but it doesn't quite fit the sketch in my seaweed guide or shore guide. The problem is that both guides show a bifurcating branching pattern, but the bulk of bifurcations seem to occur near the tips in the book but closer to the base in my picture. Another problem is that it seems to look most like Codium isthmocladum, but this species is only found in warmer waters in the southern US. Codium fragile is the only coldwater species of this genus, so I guess this is what I found. Apparently this species recently came to the North Atlantic coast and was first spotted in 1957 on Long Island. Since then it has spread widely in the Northeast. Apparently they are a big threat to the shellfish to which they attach. The algae accumulate oxygen interstitially and then become buoyant, pulling the shellfish out of the beds and causing them to be taken away by the current. This has landed them the appellation "oyster thief." Supposedly this species comes from the coasts of Japan (which makes sense since they eat this and probably transport it for food). I read that this plant is coenocytic, which means that nuclei can divide many times without cell divisions. I must remember to take a specimen next time and check it out under the microscope.
Codium fragile
Family: Codacea
Order: Bryopsidales
Division: Chlorophyta (one of the two divisions of green algae)
The next species is clearly a member of the genus Fucus. This is part of the family Fucacea, in which some of the species are commonly called "Wracks." They are brown algae which are scientifically known as the class Phaeophyceae. Sargassum is also part of this grouping. Species of Fucus, along with the genus Ascophyllum, are also known as rockweeds because they are often found in intertidal areas. Fucus are easily recognizable because their holdfast is disc-shaped, like a suction cup, and very small. They have bifurcating branches with a distinct midrib, although sometimes not visible closer to the base. They have knobby receptacles (fruiting structures) on the ends of the main branches which are sometimes swollen or sometimes flattened. Color can be light brown to dark green.
The problem with Fucus is that it is sometimes difficult to tell species apart, particularly F. spiralis and F. vesiculosis because they have similar ranges. F. vesiculosis also has air bladders, but they can be absent sometimes. In this case, the two species are almost indistinguishable. According to photos this looks like F. vesiculosis, but I am not sure. The only way to tell is to open the receptacles. In. F. vesiculosis, individuals produce only male or female sex cells but in F. spiralis they produce both.
Fucus (Rockweed)
Family: Fucaceae
The final algae of the day was this pretty red specimen that looks somewhat bleached from light exposure. It looks clearly like black moss (aka irish moss) which is often harvested to extract the substance carrageenin which is heavily used as a commercial emulsifier and thickening agent. The color can range greatly from deep purple or almost black in deep water to yellow or pinkish-green in shallow water exposed to the sun. They branch in bifurcations, have a disc-shaped holdfast, and are often "crisped" at the tips.Chondrus crispus
Phylum: Rhodophyta (Red Algae)
I just found out that the picture below is actually an egg-case from a Whelk or similar species of Mollusk. Apparently, each pouch of this chain houses smaller, offspring whelk which look somewhat similar to adults. Amazing! Whelk Egg-Case
There is a long boardwalk which joins the beach to the road. From this view you can see the wetland habitat surrounding the beach. I saw my first and only bobolink here last summer. Even more important is that in these wetlands I saw my first red-winged black-bird. This was several years ago, and it was the first moment that I really became interested in nature. So I guess this beach holds a special place in my life.
Long boardwalk leading to the beach
\As I was walking back to my car I came across this paper birch. Less peeled paper birches are usually white with thin horizontal lines. But with considerable peeling, the red underside of the outer bark becomes exposed along with the yellowy inner bark.Very Peeled Paper Birch
-SG
Next stop on my illustrious tour of Connecticut was Quinnipiac Meadows. It is only a few minutes drive from downtown New Haven. The meadows overlooks the Qunnipiac river which drains part of central Connecticut. The Quinnipiac has a length of 38 miles and ends up in New Haven harbor. This area was once all wetland but was filled in for construction purposes, although clearly some wetland is still visible. The sign says that, since then, many plant species have entered the area. The land is part of a preserve. This is not the most picturesque place because the surrounding area is very industrial and economically depressed. The Quinnipiac was once very polluted in this area due to sewage and factory waste, but the sign says that it is slowly improving.It is a short walk from the road to the real park entrance. The park abuts the main railroad track as I saw an Amtrak train passing by. It was a cloudy but crisp winter day with a blanket of crunchy snow covering the ground.Park entrance and description
The first part of the trail takes you through new forest. I saw lots of vines with red berries strangling the trees. Did not really get a good picture though.Vines with red berries
The trail takes you past marsh habitat for several minutes before ending up on the Quinnipiac River.View of the Quinnipiac River
(East Rock Park is in the distant background on the right)
Description of the Quinnipiac River
I am not a very experienced bird-watcher, so I could not really anticipate what I would find at this time of year and in this type of habitat. But I was greatly surprised to find some species of ducks that I have never seen before and consequently had trouble identifying. They were also quite far away which made it even more difficult. But here is a description of what I saw:The first birds seem to have been a group of Bufflehead. Some birds (the males) had white bodies with black backs. The neck and head were also black except for a big white triangle running from the top of the head (the guide says a bonnet-like patch). The head was very puffy. Supposedly when males fly, they have a distinctive white wing patch. Up close (a view I unfortunately did not get), the front of the male's head should be an iridescent green above the eye. The other birds in the group (the females) were more drab. They were generally gray on the sides and the top of the back appeared black. The front of the breast was white and the head was black with a white cheek spot. I also saw a little white spot on the sides of the back near the tail. These birds are noticeably small. The males are quite beautiful because of the contrast between the black and white colors of their feathers. And when they fly they look like a circus of colors. Bufflehead are diving ducks in the sufamily Merginae. This is part of the family Anatidae which includes all ducks and duck-like waterfowl. The Anatidae, in turn, are part of the order Anseriformes, which are comprised mostly of Anatid birds. The closest related birds to Buffleheads seem to be Goldeneyes (also Bucephala)The other birds I saw were much farther away. Some had clearly cresting heads like common or red-breasted mergansers. But others had white bodies with a distinctive black stripe running vertically down the body just before the neck. This seems more indicative of the hooded merganser. I will have to come back here with someone who can ID these birds from far away.There were also a lot of sparrows hanging around. The ones I saw had alternate chestnut and gray stripes running front-to-back on the crown, but I can't ID them.On my way back I hear the shrieking of a large group of red-winged blackbirds. Although I guess at this time of year they don't look like much at all.Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Random Nest
-SG
Today I spent a few hours looking at winter trees in nearby West Rock Park. The weather was quite strange today, quickly turning from sun to rain to snow and then back again.
My original reason for going out was to take a look at the local birch species. Immediately after entering the park I spotted a gray birch. The species has whitish bark like the paper birch but it does not peel as readily. This species is able to grow quickly in poor soils, including abandoned farmland. Apparently, from the picture, the inner bark is brown.
Gray Birch (Betula populifolia)
Family: Betulaceae (Birches)
Gray birches often have multiple, relatively thin stems.
One of the mainstays of the northeast forest is the white pine. This evergreen species can be easily identified by its long, thin needles which are in bundles of five.
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
Family: Pinaceae (Pines)
If you look in any field guide you will see that the bark of the white pine is rough and furrowed. But on my trek I looked over many young trees, and noticed that most have predominately smooth bark at this stage.Young White Pine Bark
A little older - starting to get rough patches
A Majestic Stand Of Eastern White Pines
My best guess is that the next tree is the Norway Spruce (Picea abies) but I am not sure. The remnants of the cones look too small to be this species.
Bark of young tree
Branch
Cones ?
Another winter tree that I couldn't identify. I think it is a larch because it has no needles, but there were tons of short needles lying below the tree. This would make sense since larches are deciduous. Also there are lots of bumps (spurs) running along the branches which may give rise to the needles. I feel like this might be the introduced European larch (Larix decidua) because the cone is facing upright and is too big to be a tamarack (Larix laricina)Fallen European Larch ?
Larch Cone ?
I just bought a mushroom book the other day so I don't know too much. But this is evidently a Polypore (I don't think this is a legitimate taxonomic grouping), which grow bracket-like on trees. Apparently, when a tree falls, these guys always reorient themselves so that they are on a plane parallel to the ground. this is because the spores are usually on the underside and therefore they can easily drop to the ground. This looks like turkey tail fungus (Trametes versicolor), but I am not really sure.
Turkey Tail?
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