Grumpy Painted Turtle

Today Wayne stopped the car on Huckle Hill after a brief rain so that I could cross a Painted Turtle who was in the road. I was rewarded for disturbing her plans with turtle pee down my leg and into my shoe. Well that wasn't very friendly now was it? -Norma Manning

Painted Turtle

Watch Out For Little Families

There I was on my hands and knees combing through the area looking for the tiny pink creatures too small to make a noise. When I did find one it remained motionless with its legs straight up in the air and it's tiny mouth slightly opened. Frozen with its dark marble eyes still closed, I wondered if it would live, if I shouldn't just leave it there to let nature take its course.

Minutes earlier had I carried my old porch bench onto the lawn, gave it a good sweeping then went to the trailer to get the big ratty tarp we kept there.  I reached over the side and began pulling it towards me when two little somethings rolled out of it. Realizing that I had upset a mouse nest, I placed the little mice onto the nest and proceeded to drag the tarp over to my project. I began unfolding the tarp when a rather stunned adult brown mouse fell onto the grass staring at me like I was a barn cat. Now you have to know that I have done battle with this little critter's relatives, mostly in the Autumn when they found their way into my basement and began filling our snow boots with birdseed; but how was I to not to take pity knowing that her babies were back in the trailer and I had unwittingly been the cause of this family breakup. I briefly considered scooping her up with my hands but common sense took over and I headed to the shed to find a pail. Of course she took off running for the wood pile when she saw that pail.

I was finally ready to resume my project when it occurred to me that mice babies seldom came in twos, in fact they typically come in litters of six or more. So I picked back up the tarp, gave it a firm shake and out popped the third mouseling. The fourth was close by in the lawn and that is all that I was able to recover. Being 100% invested in their minuscule chances for survival, I stayed in the area just in case a predator took notice. That is when I noticed that a couple of Carolina Wrens were flying in and out of our canoe which we keep upside down on our clothesline. I took one last look at the mice whose mother had yet to return, painted my bench and went inside for the evening. 

I'll probably feel differently come fall about families of mice moving into our basement; but for now I can't help but feel a little bit saddened.  - Norma Manning

Four mouselings 

Carolina Wren's in our canoe 

Assassin Fly

While hiking in the Roaring Brook Wildlife Refuge, I crossed paths with an Assassin Fly on the hunt. Also known as a Robber Fly, it buzzed just in front of me and caught a moth roughly the same size as itself. I was fortunate enough to have it land on a nearby leaf with its prey and captured this photograph.

Assassin Fly preying on a moth

Directions to Roaring Brook Waterfall

 The old saying is true, the third time is the charm. With blue skies and temperatures in the low seventies, the perfect hiking day was beckoning Wayne to try once again to locate the High Falls at Roaring Brook Wildlife Management Area. In my previous three posts about this quest, "Don't go Chasing Waterfalls" ,  "Another Day, Another Trail" and "Trail / No Trail" I fear that I might have needlessly dissuaded a few hearty adventurers from taking on the challenge and here is why - we were almost there.

We left the dogs at home as I had promised Ginny that I wouldn't subject her to another grooming from an aimless day of wandering (being lost really) in Roaring Brook. We also assumed that being dog free would allow us to move at a quicker pace and so have more time to travel further into the area. As it turns out, it hadn't been the dogs that kept us from our destination, it had been the early spring trials and a deeper, swifter brook. So the take away form all of this is that on a cool dry day in June, a couple of fifty six year olds can make it to the High Falls in a little over an hour.

From the Basin Rd Trailhead go left of the sign and take the Red and White trail. Where the Red and White trails split, take the Red trail to the Blue. Follow the Blue trail until it ends at a clearing where the Sweet Fern grows. The logging road directly ahead will take you into Roaring Brook. You will go left on that road.

Disclaimer: These directions will not guarantee that you won't get lost.

Cross the field of Sweet Fern to the logging road

Go left on the logging road pas the White Trail sign

When the trail splits go right / green

We stacked rocks on the side of the correct trail

You will have walked on the trail for a long time, continue straight at this junction.

When you get the end of the trail, take a left on the road- note the stacked logs. 

First brook crossing

Note the timbers after the first crossing

Stay to the left on the trail

Second Brook crossing

Third brook crossing

You can start to hear the falls, stay on the trail

Top of the High Falls

High Falls at Roaring Brook

The brook disappears into a deep gorge.

Wayne decided that we should continue on the trail to see if we could find the end.  

End of the trail

I-91

Doesn't it Look Like a Banana?

Sometimes when wandering about in nature you encounter a heart stopping moment that has nothing to do with smacking face first into the web of a Black and Yellow Garden Spider. I was so excited about this possible find that I didn't dare confess to Wayne exactly what it was that I thought that I had found for fear that I had gotten it wrong. "Look at this long banana leaf, doesn't it look like a banana?" I don't even know what that means, bananas don't grow in the town forest I silently scolded myself.

Honestly I was unprepared for how excited I was; but it felt like that time I was eating church breakfast in the basement of St Rose of Lima church in South Hero when Governor Jim Douglas and Dorthy Foster walked in and sat down with my family to eat Red Flannel Hash. I just don't know how it is that Wayne remained composed while I went all paparazzi on that banana leaf. "Do you know what this is? Do you see any more?" I asked Wayne who speculated that we were looking at an American Beech. "Beech tree leaves are wider in the middle" I informed him. I desperately wanted to slam dunk my identification, however I hadn't a clue what the difference was between  American Beech bark and American Chestnut bark. We had some discussion about it as we continued on the trail and it went like this; every time I saw a Beech I pointed to it and said there's a Beech, there's a Beech, see the bark that's a Beech, that leaf is wider in the middle, it's a Beech.

Now I knew that there used to be American Chestnuts in the town forest because I went on a guided tour into the Black Gum swamps last fall when the guide announced that she had heard that there was a Chestnut ring near the area where we were standing. Like Scouts who had just failed their hiking badge test, the entire lot of us went off trail in search of the ring. I'm not entirely sure that we found it; but it was a lot like hunting for a hard boiled egg at a chicken farm. Speaking of finding treasure, Wayne thought that it would be nice to take the State Line Trail and lo and behold that is where we once again bumped into Karen Saunders who is a scientist with Antioch College and studies the swamps up there. I didn't immediately recognize her as she was carrying different instruments than the last two times I met her. I inquired about her tools which turned out to be depth rods and she told me that the deepest swamp she had found thus far is the State Line Swamp (she dubbed it that) at 19 feet. She said that the upper and lower swamps though purported to be deeper, she had measured at 12 feet. Slyly now, I worked my leaf photograph into the conversation after learning that the swamps are located in troughs created by upright rock that predates the glaciers. I queried, "Could it be that the swamps are filling in with dead trees, and oh hey speaking of trees look at this picture." With that Karen both confirmed a tree on my bucket list and then dumped it back out by adding that it was the big mature trees that they are interested in. The little ones like in my picture wouldn't survive due to the blight.

Karen showed us a neat trick, she explained that on the Beech, the underside of the leaf's base is hairy while the Chestnut's is not. With all of this information, the next time I venture into the forest, I'm bringing my binoculars and looking for a mother tree. In the meantime I'm going to do a better job of my homework and find out more about this rare and once queen of our forest. One last note, if you think that you have been in contact with an American Chestnut, take every precaution to not transfer the blight from one tree to another. - Norma Manning

American Chestnut Comeback? CBS This Morning

The American Chestnut Foundation Note there is a VT chapter that can be accessed through this link

Karen Saunders of Antioch College with depth rods

By 1920 Chestnut  Blight fungus had decimated the mature tree population

Elongated toothed leaves

The American Chestnut is a member of the Beech family

The American Chestnut can reach 100 feet and live 300 years

Water Snakes in Courtship

I met a couple of Northern Water snakes on a sunny morning at the end of May. I was searching for amphibians on the vernal side of Lily pond after a cool night in the 40's and not having much luck when I noticed him in the shallows near the bank. It seemed odd that he was sticking around given my close proximity so I invited myself in even closer to take a few photographs. He let me know that I had trespassed by swimming away.  Not wanting to end our encounter, I initially held my ground and continued to watch and take pictures. I thought it was strange that he didn't go very far before he started back to his spot.

Stepping back to dryer land I saw him swim over what I had thought was a branch before, but now it definitely looked like a much bigger snake. He slid his head under her body and then back out again. She stayed motionless with the exception of her tongue. If it wasn't for her tongue I would have thought that she was dead. Her eyes were milky and her coloration on her head was closer to grey mud. The male continued to glide next to and over her for the duration of my observation. I took several videos one showed tadpoles (a food source) swimming around them which they ignored. In another video he quickly slides onto her back then she suddenly belly roles and he is flipped away. It was so quick that I only realized that it had happened after watching my videos several times. It was me who eventually moved away leaving them to do what snakes do on a sunny morning at the end of May.

I found several sources that seem to confirm my hunch that the smaller, brighter and more active snake was the male and that they they were possibly ready to mate as these snakes mate when they come out of hibernation in the early spring and into June. The female will carry and hatch her eggs internally giving birth to live young that are independent at birth.  I found a great video on water snakes and I encourage you to watch it. While Northern Water Snakes are not endangered as a group they are often mistaken for venomous Copperheads and unfortunately killed out of fear because of it. Northern Water Snakes are harmless to humans and we have proven ourselves the more dangerous of the two species.

I have heard in response to my last blog on another snake encounter, that the water snakes at Lily pond are huge and indeed they can reach almost five long. I think that I have finally found my answer to why I never see locals cooling off in the pond. -Norma Manning

The male sliding up her back

When they mate, he will wrap his tail around hers

He goes under her and over her

Female on the left, male on the right

A large variation in color and pattern exists among the species

His color seemed to change depending on where he was

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The Lowly Ditch Flower; An Unlikely Hero

With June filled dreams of  Moccasin Flowers and Indian Turnips, I'd like to take pause and celebrate roadside bouquets.  The residents of Vernon know of what I am writing, as being a rural agricultural  community we routinely work, play and live near; disturbed areas, swales, culverts, ravines, watercourse or ditches. Whatever you call them, for the purposes of this entry I will use the term ditch flowers. While not an especially romantic term, in the country it is in fact what they are.

Former First Lady Ladybird Johnson wrote, "The environment is where we all meet, where we all have mutual interest." I wonder about this sentiment every bit as much as I wonder why it is that people who are eager to leave the city, move to the country only to rebuild their suburban style homes and grounds in VT. It's like they want none of the city but in the same instance, all of the provenance of the city. Could it really be that we somehow share a common "interest" in the environment? My mom always points out that I never saw anything old and broken that I didn't love - I guess it's a start.

"Sometimes we spend all of our effort trying to create something that already exists in nature." -Kayden Manning.  Our Queen City is engaged in a runoff battle.  Positioned on the shore of the sixth largest freshwater lake in the U.S; Burlington outgrew its humble beginnings and has loved its lake to the point of becoming a ward of the EPA. In the early cleanup years planners decided that the solution to save the lake was to develop a science museum, luxury condominiums, upgrade the marina to include a restaurant and install a riverfront park all to engage the populace.  In all honesty it is fabulous; but the lake seemed none the better for it.  With nearly twenty years of funding and finger pointing at farms, shore front property owners, sewage treatment plants, parking lots, green lawns and the further digging in of already entrenched heals, it seemed that they had run out of new ideas. But perhaps a new idea wasn't exactly the next step that needed to be taken.

"Every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other human"- Clyde Kluckhon. I was on a field trip with the third grade at Lily pond when a student captured a small water creature and so discovered that the vernal side of the pond was clean. It seems that they had learned from their BEEK leader, that the creature they had caught was intolerant of pollution. They had come to the pond in anticipation of finding an indicator species to determine the health of the pond. Those kids impressed the hell out of me that day. Lily pond has a mandated fifty foot wetlands buffer to protect it and is surrounded by agricultural and forested lands, could this be the reason that it is clean?

Don't tell my coworkers, but when I find myself unexpectedly home for the day my guilty pleasure is watching Across the Fence. You never know what you need to know until you discover something you don't know. It was on this program that I learned about how strategically planned rain gardens, planting trees and installing small holding containers in Burlington, was going to slow water runoff and help prevent wastewater from being released into the lake; and get this, these plants would actually help to clean the water as it ran off of parking lots, streets and lawns. Like a city girl, I spent at least a year dreaming of buying a rain barrel and installing a rain garden. Then something magical happened, the Brattleboro Food Cooperative installed a rain garden smack in the middle of it's new parking lot. They dug a ditch and filled it with grasses, flowers, shrubs... in the middle of their parking lot next to the Whetstone River. That's the day I decided to follow my dreams and stopped mowing the ditch in front of my house. These days, I wait for the Town of Vernon to mow my most beautiful ditch flowers the one time a year in the fall. So as you wander up and down our country roads here in Vernon admiring our beautiful ditch flowers, be reminded that country ways and city solutions can in fact find a meeting place in the environment -Norma Manning

"We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from out children" -Chief Seattle

A lowly ditch flower 

Class two wetland- Lily pond in Vernon, VT