Osbornedale State Park, CT

I have been busy submitting a manuscript this week so I am only getting a chance to begin this entry today.

I visited Osbornedale State Park in Connecticut last weekend with my lab mate Jon. It is a nice little space somewhere near the Housatonic River. There is a little pond there but was frozen. We took a leisurely stroll through the forest.

Titmice and black-capped chickadees were in abundance, but Jon said he saw a golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa). We both caught a glimpse of what we thought was a yellow-bellied sapsucker, but is was from very far away. All I could really see was a very marbled feather pattern and some trace of a red cap. In general adult sapsuckers have a red cap and throat, and black and white strips running through the face. The breast is yellowish-white and the back is marbled black and white. They also have a conspicuous white wing stripe.

Oh, I got my camera back. I really must remember that Canon has great repair service. They reported that my camera problem was probably due to a fall or shock (which it was), but they fixed it anyway under the warranty.

I also saw a bracket fungus. Hopefully soon I will be able to identify it. It is certainly a Polypore, but I am not sure which type. It was very hard, almost wood-like. and about the size of a tennis ball.

Fungus from above


Fungus (and me) from below

Am I alive or just breathing?

I took a short run this evening, and after I was finished I stared up at the stars. I folded the brim of my wool cap to let my eyes roam free, and I immediately received one of those sharp injections of reality that sometimes comes after months of unconsciously spinning life away with work and other earthly endeavors. "I really exist," I thought to myself. I am of this universe, of a world which is much more complex and undefined than my simple life would have me remember. A world with rules that transcend society and human convention. I realize that my senses have become so dull, so utterly narrow. Life comes in all colors, yet I feel I am color blind. Its as if my eyes are focused only on a small path, and all of the other dimensions of life are lost on me. I cannot observe the world in its completeness because I cannot seem to escape my own reality. I live life in a dream made up of invented goals and guidelines, and of things that I am supposed to want because they have been showered on my brain since my consciousness began. We are born into a dream, and so it shall remain. For how can you ever wake yourself from your own dream?

-Scott

Kettletown State Park, CT

I have decided to make a little tour of the Connecticut parks over the next few months. It would be a shame to be in this state so long and see so little of what it has to offer.

I chose Kettletown because it looked substantial in size and was not too far away. It is only 22 miles from New Haven, but actually there are no major roads in between so it was almost a 40 minute trip by car.

Kettletown State Park Entrance


There was no shortage of eastern hemlocks. Some looked rather infested with hemlock woolly adelgids (Adelges tsugae). These are insects in the family Adelgidae, a group of Hemipterans (True Bugs) that are closely related to aphids. The adelgids feed at the base of hemlock needles causing heavy dessication of the tree. Most hemlocks that you see these days are infected with these critters and it is really a sad site. The white stuff in the picture is the woolly wax that the adults use to protect themselves and their eggs. I read that the invasion of the hemlock woolly adelgid occurred back in the 1920s.

Eastern Hemlock: underside w/ adelgids


One of my favorite things to see in the forest during the winter months are beech trees, who hold on to their leaves through most of the cold season. American beeches are the trees with the nice smooth gray bark that people like to carve their names into. I suppose I like them because they really grab your attention in the winter. A sign of life in an otherwise sea of emptiness.

I did not know that oak trees are in the same family as beeches (Fagaceae). That is probably why oaks tend to hold on to their leaves in winter as well. Some members of the beech family are evergreens. I read that much of the diversity of this group is in Southeast Asia, and dispersed here via land bridges that formed in the Pleistocene.

American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
Family: Fagaceae (Beeches)



Random Bracket Fungus

Backyard, New Haven, CT

Still no camera. It is a dreary day. Raining on and off, which is fine because I have a manuscript draft in front of my face that needs some life breathed into it. It seems that standard run-of-the-mill science writing can turn any eager investigator into the most boring of storytellers - if you let it. It's always good to get continuous perspective from the outside world.

My contact with nature today was embarrassingly short. Paul, my housemate's cat, was whining so I let him out the back door. As I peered my head outside I quickly noticed that a circus had come to my otherwise gray and wintry back yard. Noisy house sparrows, "sweet canada"-singing white-throated sparrows, chipping cardinals, dangling black-capped chickadees, and of course those beloved little fellows with a voice too big for their size, the titmice. Some people might see this party everyday at their feeders, but unfortunately I cannot purchase one since Paul would crash the gathering within minutes and then cough up a few feathers in predatory satisfaction.

Honestly I have never paid much attention to house sparrows, but after hearing that wonderfully strange song of the white-throated sparrow, I carefully scanned the perimeter of the yard checking out each bird with my binoculars. I did see the white-throated sparrow (we'll get to him/her later) among a collection of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). To be honest, I never even noticed that some house sparrows have a black patch on their throat. This, it turns out, is characteristic only of males, who also don a white collar, a gray crown, and a yellowish bill. The black of the throat extends to the lores (the area in front of the eyes). There is also a chestnut strip with runs back from the eyes to the nape. The breast is white, although on a urban-dwelling bird, thats doubtful. The females and juveniles lack the black throat, have a light tan breast, and a dull tan stripe running back from the eye. House sparrows are the little brown birds that you see in large numbers hanging about in and around man-made structures. They can usually be distinguished from other drab looking birds by their song which contains simple, short, repetitive elements. House sparrows are not related to the new world sparrows (Family: Emberizidae) but rather belong to the old world sparrows (Family: Passeridae). They were introduced from Britain into North America in the mid-1800s to control pests, and quickly got out of hand. Interestingly, they are declining in their native range. The Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) is also an old world sparrow which looks very similar and was introduced into St. Louis by German immigrants in the 1870s.

So, back to the native species. I easily identified the white-throated sparrow in my yard by the white stripe running over the eye and the yellow dab of color in the lores at the very proximal end of the white stripe. There is also a white strip at the top of the head surround by two black stripes running front to back. Of course, these birds have a nice white throat and their belly can be gray or white or both. They also seem to have two white wing bars that are very thin and unclear. They are often seen in hedgerows and thick vegetation looking for food. They were hanging out in the plants growing along the fence in my yard.

As for the cardinals, titmice, and chickadees, they are all worthy of photos and lengthy behavioral descriptions, and so they will have to wait for another day.

Goodnight.

Scott