Fall Color & Birds From CT Traprock Ridge

Northern New Englanders sometimes refer to those of us living in Connecticut as flatlanders. We may not be known our mountainous landscape but what we do have in Connecticut are traprock ridges. They were created by continental rifting and the welling up of lava flows 200 million years ago. The highest traprock peak in Connecticut is just over 1,000 feet but the views from the top of the ridge are so wide open it can feel as though you are at a higher elevation. The first two photos were taken along the Metacomet Trail in the Southington/New Britain area.
I parked at a trail entrance located on Andrews Street in Southington. This turned out to be a costly mistake. When I returned to my truck after a short hike, I found a $30 dollar parking ticket on my windshield. It was issued by the water department from the town of New Britain who apparently own the surrounding land. There were no signs visible near the trail entrance stating that parking was not allowed. Instead of arguing my case, I decided to send out some e-mails to see if a no parking sign could be put up in the area. I'm hoping that I might be able to help prevent someone else from getting a ticket for parking there. If I had read this post from the Connecticut Museum Quest website, I could have avoided getting a ticket altogether.
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When you're hiking in an unfamiliar area, it's best to familiarize yourself with the hiking trails in the area before you get there. A great site for information about hiking trails in Connecticut is the Connecticut Explorers website: CTxguide.com.
My original intention was to visit a portion of the traprock ridge that I had never seen before called Ragged Mountain. I headed over to the trail on West lane in Kensington where there is approved parking. From the entrance you take the main trail and then veer left onto the blue & red trail which will take you right up to Ragged Mountain. There was a memorial at the top in memory of Darin Findley, who died during a climb here in 2003. The hike to get to the top of the ridge was a little longer than some of the other trails that I'm familiar with but it was worth the effort. On my way up I saw deer, Belted Kingfisher, Wild Turkeys, and 2 Pileated Woodpeckers having a squabble with a Sharp-shinned Hawk (the hawk left first). There were numerous kinglets in the area with the vast majority of them being Golden-crowned Kinglets.

I also saw numerous Yellow-rumped Warblers that were feasting on cedar berries.

The next day I visited another portion of the traprock ridge in located along the Mattabesset Trail. This photo is showing the deeper end of Black Pond which is located along the Middlefield/Meriden border.

The species of birds that I saw on this portion of the ridge were very similar to the ones I saw in Southington. Here is a Red-tailed Hawk surveying the scene and watching the man laying on the rocks trying to take pictures of him.

The high ridges are a good place to get a close view of vultures and other birds of prey in flight. I had to back off on the zoom to get these flight photos to come in focus so I used 10x instead of the full 18x. The sun was shining brightly on the Turkey Vulture when I took this photo. I thought the lighting effect from the camera was strange but interesting.

Along the trail I passed Powder Ridge Ski resort which closed down years ago. In 1970 a music festival similar to the one in Woodstock was supposed to take place at Powder Ridge. I found a detailed account of the event which includes photos of the concertgoers and a concert poster listing the original lineup of performers. It included big name acts like Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin. The event started to fall apart over legal issues. The only originally scheduled singer to perform was Melanie , who was best known for her song "Look what they've done to my song-ma." She avoided legal trouble by agreeing to perform for free. Another species that I saw a lot of during my hike was the Hermit Thrush. I counted six of them during my hike along these trails.-

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There were two Osprey at Black Pond. I attempted to capture them in flight but barely managed to keep up with them.

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So, if you live in Connecticut or you are here for a visit , be sure to explore the traprock ridges. It's hard to beat the scenery, especially in the Fall . If not, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Searching For Hawks Closer To Home

I've made a few visits to hawk watching sites over the past two years. I'm thankful for the valuable information that veteran hawk watchers have been able to provide me with. I thought it might be fun to use what I've learned so far to try to find migrant hawks from a location that is closer to where I live. I believe that searching for and identifying migrant hawks without help from others helps me to pay closer attention to details.

Most of the official hawk watch sites are about an hour away from me but I wanted to experience the Fall hawk migration closer to home. Fortunately, I'm within 15 miles of several trails that provide access to the Metacomet Ridge . The traprock crest of the ridge was created by lava welling up from hundreds of feet deep through faults that were created by continental drifts millions of years ago. The maximum elevation of the Metacomet Ridge in Connecticut is only about 1,000 feet but the view from the top area is fantastic, especially on a clear Fall day. I had a clear view of Long Island Sound in New Haven almost 30 miles away. As I was making my way through the wooded trail that leads to the top of the ridge I saw a doe, a deer, a female deer. I stood very still and talked to the deer in gentle tones. The deer seemed very curious as it took a couple of steps forward and stared right at me. I was concerned that it might run onto the busy highway which was only 10 feet away. After a few seconds of staring me down, it slowly wandered off into the woods. Further up the trail I saw a Fisher scurrying up the hill. There has been an increasing number of sightings in Connecticut of this sleek, dark member of the Martin family over the last few years. They may look harmless but they have been known to eat birds, domestic animals and even deer!
Do you know what kind of plant is in the above photo? I didn't find the big kettle of Broad-winged Hawks that I hoped to. My total count of broadwings was only 8 for the morning but I enjoyed closeup views of Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Turkey Vultures, and Black Vultures. Searching for migrant hawks reminds me a little bit of trout fishing. Don't worry, I don't intend to start casting lures off the top of a mountain in hopes of catching a passing Osprey. What I mean is, your success depends on the perfect weather conditions and being at the right place in the right time. Veteran hawk watchers wll tell you about some of there greatest days when they saw hawks by the thousands but they will also tell you that some days can be very slow. You can find count totals and hawkwatch locations on the hawkcount website .

One of my more exciting moments came when 5 Black Vultures flew past me in close formation. They reminded me of military aircraft flying out on a mission. The grey wingtips are one good fieldmark to differentiate them from Turkey Vultures. Other highlights included watching a Sharp-shinned Hawk chase after a Red-tailed Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk badgering a Black Vulture.

Does it look to you like this Osprey has wing damage? I wonder what happened to it and can it survive?

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I combined a couple of short clips The first clip is a Raven which seemed to be enjoying the winds which were in excess of 30mph at times. That is immediately followed by a sharpie showing off its rapid wing beats.