Swampin'

Pussywillow (Salix discolor)

After dropping R off at here driver's ed. class at 8:00 at the University campus in Kingston this morning, I met my sister for a walk(turned out to be a two hour long one!) through the Great Swamp Management area nearby.

This 3,475-acre property near West Kingston in southern Rhode Island includes 2,600 acres of forested wetlands in the floodplains of the Chickasheen, Usquepaug, and Pawcatuck rivers. Red maple, Atlantic white cedar, red oak, white oak, white pine, and American holly are important tree species. The Great Neck, a higher-elevation drumlin near the center of the WMA, was farmed and pastured before being abandoned in the early to mid-1900s. The Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife manages Great Swamp WMA for wildlife conservation, hunting and fishing, and compatible public recreation. Waterfowl, American woodcock, ruffed grouse, Northern bobwhite, whip-poor-will, osprey, Northern harrier, New England cottontail, Eastern cottontail, beaver, bobcat, river otter, fisher, coyote, red and gray foxes, and white-tailed deer are some of the wild species inhabiting the area.

from http://www.timberdoodle.org/node/74

Swampdog

Lucky Jewel got to come along, and was in all her glory as a true bird dog on the trails and along the shores of the swamp itself, sniffing out waterfowl, deer and who-knows-what-else scents. She also had fun chasing Canada geese into the water . We spotted osprey(fish eagles) overhead, some carrying giant branches to add to their nests. Although, from these photos, not much looks alive and green and growing yet, the trees were full of birds and their birdsong, and we spotted some trees--shadbark and I *think* witch hazel(not entirely sure)in bloom.

This is me sitting on a (cold as) stone "chair" along one of the trails.

Some green showing in a boggy place among the still-bare trees.

Vernal pools, unseen, deeper in the woods were the source of "spring peeper"(Pseudacris crucifer) frog sounds(one of the earliest signs of spring here, and usually loudest--a true chorus--at night). Interestingly, while looking up the correct Latin classification name for the this frog, which all my life I had always only known them as "peepers", I learned that on Martha's Vineyard they are called "pinkletinks". Heh.

Listen to the peepers here.

Typical New England woodland --rocks and stones all over, sometimes with trees growing out of a split rock like this one.

Yes, the landscape is flat.

Jewel, sniffing away, and my sister, Angela.