Yesterday Johann and I took a few hours in the afternoon to see some wildlife and visit Enders Island, or as Johann has dubbed it “Wonder Island”. We started with a few errands in town then headed out to Quambaug. Quambaug is a small hamlet just outside of Mystic towards Stonington. It is comprised of 15 or 20 quiet homes. We enjoyed spying some woodchucks (Marmota monax) on a few lawns. (I’ll have to remind Johann later of the family connection to this giant ground squirrel). Of course now for the past two days we have been practising the classic tongue twister “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck…”
After a quick pass through Quambaug we went out towards Enders Island stopping at one of my favorite spots for birdwatching, a large low tidal marsh area. This time the tide was in and we pulled up to find a whole host of birds, a very different population from when the tide is out. When the tide is out I usually find a variety of “peeps” as they are locally know — dunlin (Calidris alpina), spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularia), black-bellied plover (Pluviali squatarola), purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima), lesser and greater yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes and Tringa melanoleuca), and especially sanderlings (Calidris alba). They all run through the very shallow water and marsh flats of low tide looking for aquatic insects. There are usually a few gulls near, and occasionally one or two egrets in the distance.
With the tide in we saw this snowy egret (Egretta thula) along with a nearly a dozen others feeding in groups and singly. Beyond the egrets were a pair of American oyster catchers (Haematopus palliatus) on the seaward side of the marshland. Others on the marsh included several gulls, a family of ducks (a mama and at least 9 young ducklings), two great egrets (Ardea albus), a double breasted-cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), and an osprey (Pandion haliaetus).
The mother duck and her brood were interesting to watch as they made their way across the marsh. They paddled across open areas of water, then headed straight into the smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). Periodically we could see her peek her head up in the grass, then a few minutes later her brood would cross another small channel. Eventually they all emerged into one of the larger open spaces of water where we could see and count them all. After a few minutes the mama duck made a sharp movement and all the ducklings gathered close round. The very next moment they melted back into the cordgrass and as quickly as they had emerged, they were gone. All we could see was her tail for a few brief moments more.
On the periphery of the tidal marsh there were a number of songbirds in the brush, along with a dozen or so peeps (don’t know exactly what species) waiting for the tide to go out so they could belly up to the buffet. In all we were there almost an hour mainly watching the egrets feed.
As a low fog began rolling inland off the sound, we headed to Enders Isalnd. There we enjoyed watching the mainland being swallowed in the fog and explored the small beach right off the causeway. Exploring as the tide began to recede, we found a few crab carapaces – three green crabs and two arrow crabs — one live European green crab (Carcinus maenas), a few dozen hermit crabs (species unknown) and at least three types of seaweed. We retired to the leeward side of the island and found many smaller mud crab carapaces along with rough periwinkles (Littorina saxatilis) and European periwinkles (Littorina littorea).
There is a small protected beach there on the boat launch, so Johann decided it was the ideal time to bury himself in the sand to his waist. After a deep wade into the water (still well below 60 degrees!) to get the sand off us (Ha!), we returned to the car and headed home giggling and talking about all the creatures and plants we had seen.
Johann has decided he would like to keep a journal to record all the creatures he has spotted in the wild. We talked about what he could do with it. He decided to include a drawing on one page along with recording the name, scientific name, location of sighting, date of sighting, habitat and status of each animal. We also talked about how he could write notes about their behavior when he sighted them. This promises to be a very long term project. Hopefully one that never ends. Of course to help him create the habit, I guess Tammy and I have to model that behavior.
