I visited a high school classmate and facebook friend recently. She and her hubby have a birdhouse walk around their property.. .
We saw a few different nests in their nest boxes~the Tree swallows lined their nests with beautiful white feathers and the Wrens nests were made of twigs.
I didn’t take photos until the end of the Birdhouse trail, the last of the nest boxes.
Purple Martin houses..
Checking the houses for eggs.
Inside the condo house..an egg Inside the one family houses we find…
Four eggsand in another three eggs….
The Martins pluck leaves from trees and put in the nest
Jeff and I will be in CT until the end of the month and then head north to Acadia National park where we will stay one month.
From there a few weeks on Cape Cod, before returning to Mom and Dads driveway for a month…then back north to MA. for a few weeks to visit Jeff's family.
I hope to set up two bird outings in September…One from CT and one from MA. Hope you can join us!
I have been to busy here to put together the blog posts about our Awesome experience birding The Biggest Week in American Birding.
I will do them..soon.
Here are a few things that have been keeping me busy…
We have had some morning nice walks with Mom and Dad and Bella..I don’t see Bella in this photo..she must be chasing a squirrel.
A few Panera Bread lunches..My favorite fast food.
A trip to the spa with Girls..Waldo had his toes done
The planters I bought last year fell apart in a few months and I returned them.
So, this year my Brother in Law said he would make me a planter that would last years…here it is. Isn't it a beauty? I will take more pictures after I plant it up.
A family picnic…Aunties, Uncles, Cousins and Families.
We had a nice sunset dinner at MGM Casinos, 28th floor lounge.
Waldo stayed at home.
I ran out of wine and took a few photos.
The table was shiny black and reflected the sunset…see the two crumbs on the table..and the reflection of the chandelier?
So..that’s what Waldo, Jeff and I have been up too…
Sunday we hiked Lantern Hill with my Sicksta Tammy and her hubby Joe. Lantern Hill is not to far from where we are parked in my parents driveway in Ledyard, Ct.
Nearby City: North Stonington/Ledyard
Length: 2.6 total miles
Elevation Gain: Minimal around 400ft
Trail Type: Out-and-back
Skill Level: Moderate, steep climbs and bare rock
Season: Year-round, weather permitting
We started out hike via Wintechog Hill Road. Directions here. I found this online GPS map that is pretty cool. The author started his hike from Foxwoods Casinos Two Trees Inn.
Check out the graph then x out of the black box to see his route. Lantern Hill
The trail splits….the trail to the left goes directly to the summit, we took the trail to the right that skirts around the summit and then took a trail to the summit.First views of Lantern Hill pond.Beautiful oranges, reds and yellows.
I always think of Trix cereal when I see these colors.Below you see the remains of a Silica Mine.
Lantern Hill gets its name because its white cliffs are said to shine in the sun when seen from the sea (Caulkins p. 97; Crandall pp. 107-108; Detwiller). Some believe that Lantern Hill was also known as "Tar Barrel Hill." In August 1814, during the War of 1812, barrels of tar were set ablaze atop a hill to warn residents of the British approach along the coast. It may be unlikely that Lantern Hill is Tar Barrel Hill, being so far (on the border with Ledyard) from the more populated coast. A more likely candidate for Tar Barrel Hill is Jeremy Hill, about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) to the southeast, on the Stonington/North Stonington border (Haynes and Boylan, p. 51; Heermance, pp. 246-247). The barrels were put in place on May 15 and set on fire on August 9, 1814 (Haynes and Boylan, p. 51). The smoke from the burning tar, not the light from the fire, may have been the warning signal (Grotz p. 32; Haynes and Boylan, p. 51). via The Story of the Yawgoog Trails
The hill's quartz was first mined by David D. Mallory in 1870 ("A Growing Industry"; Haynes and Boylan p. 74). With a purity as high as 96.84% silicon dioxide, the mineral had many uses, including glassmaking, filter sand and construction aggregate. Lantern Hill quartz was used as an aggregate in the concrete faces of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts (Altamura, Tectonics, Wall-Rock Alteration pp. E31, E15). Paul Slade and his Gang reused narrow-gauge rails from the quarry to build a short marine railway where Yawgoog's sailing center is today. The railroad was used to move 28-foot (8.5-meter), surplus navy cutters into and out of Yawgoog Pond from the 1930s onward (Williams and Anthony vol. 2 p. 28). Lantern Hill is spiritually significant to the Pequots (Detwiller; "Bozrah's Healing Waters"); the tribe protected the quarry site by acquiring it from the U.S. Silica Company in 1994. To the south, it can be seen that much of one of the hill's lower summits was removed before mining ended. via The Story of the Yawgoog Trails
See Foxwoods Casino in the distance?
Here's a better view.Jeff and Joe checking out the scene.
The hill is composed mostly of high-purity milky quartz and it occupies the inactive Lantern Hill Fault, which runs south into the Atlantic Ocean. Analysis of the quartz reveals that it is 238 million years old—the mid-Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era in geologic time. The formation of the fault and the quartz are associated with the early formation of the Atlantic Ocean (Altamura 1995; Altamura 2003).[5][6]
Back to the western summit and we start our hike down to Lantern Hill pondWe leave the Reds..for a forest of Gold.To the pond where we see, Wood, Mallards and Black Ducks.The golden forest was busy with Chickadees, Titmice, Juncos, Downy woodpeckers and Wood thrush.Wowee colors…The peachy colored leaves in the trees below are Dogwoods.We continued that trail thru the forest of gold and green..We didn’t have a map..so we hoped we were taking the right trail back to the car.Old foundation….wonder who lived here…We made it to the road we came in on..the car was just a hop, skip and a jump away..
