2020-7-12, Edwin Way Teale Preserve, Hampton, CT

I visited the Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary on 2020-7-10 and 2020-7-12.  Here's a link to an interactive map showing location numbers that I will refer to: http://arcg.is/1eSG5i0 .  You can find general information about the preserve at this link: https://www.ctaudubon.org/trail-wood-the-story-of-trail-wood/ .

1.  Hughes' Monument.  According to a nearby kiosk, Edwin Teale said that, before Teale bought the farm that is now the Edwin Way Teale Memorial Sanctuary, a hired man built this monument to honor himself.


2.  Beaked Hazelnut, Corylus cornuta


3.  I think these dead trees are oaks which were killed by gypsy moth caterpillars.


4.  The larger of two swampy ponds on the preserve.


4.  Lots of evidence of the presence of beavers.


5.  Chimaphila maculata, also known as spotted wintergreen.  This is the flower.


6.  Maybe the Audubon people are worried about dogs disturbing nests that some birds build on the ground.

6.  You can see the drill marks that were made when the boulder was drilled in order to split off a piece of the rock.


7.  Most of the trail length in the preserve was in areas that got enough sun to require frequent cutting back of the vegetation.  When I visited, vegetation, including briars, was encroaching on the trails in many places.


8.  The protruding stones must make trail mowing difficult.



9.  I think this is Bull Thistle, Cirsium vulgare.  This was near the top of the plant which was about six feet tall.




10.  This was Edwin Teale's writing cabin.


11.  One of the many well-built stone walls on the property.


12.  Did two strong men place the top rock at the top of the wall end before the Civil War?


13.  The smaller of the two ponds.


13.  Edwin Teale called this structure, "Nellie's Summer House."  Nellie was his wife.


14.  This large white ash was still alive, but it probably won't last much longer due to the emerald ash borer.


15.


16.  This is a replica of a structure that Edwin Teale called his "Brushpile Study."  It was a sort of blind that he could write in.


17.  Hamamelis virginiana, commonly known as witch hazel.  These are the newly emerged seed pods.


18.  Great Mullein, Verbascum thapsus, in its second year.  Edwin Teale wrote that the low, first-year version of the plant harbored "minute  spiders, beetles and springtails" in winter.  His words appear on Kiosk 10, one of the 11 informational kiosks which display words and pictures along the preserve paths.


18.  18.  Great Mullein, Verbascum thapsus.




19.  I think this was the largest stream I saw on the property.


20.  One of the many American chestnut sprouts I noticed on the property.  These come up from the old roots and die when the trees get to be about three inches in diameter when the barks begins to crack and let in the fungus that kills the tree.


21.  Wood Lily, Lilium philadelphicum.


22.  Edwin Teale wrote about the flammable nature of the spores of club mosses. I believe this plant is in the genus Dendrolycopodium, one of the genera of club mosses.


22.  Can we specify the species?


23.  Ghost Pipes, Monotropa uniflora, a common species of flowering plant that does not have chlorophyll.  This is the flower.

23.  Ghost pipe.



24.  One of the few places on the property where a trail crossed a stream without a bridge.  Note the locally common flat rocks.




25.  I think this is Red Baneberry, Actaea rubra.


26.  The sign on Kenyon Road.



David Reik

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