CANCELLED DUE TO WIND AND RAIN. NEW DATE TBD.

There’s no better way to celebrate the arrival of spring than to visit a woodland pond alive with the sights and sounds of newly awakened amphibians and invertebrates — and there’s no more exciting time to do so than at dusk when the local vernal pools are a noisy chorus of quacking wood frogs and bell-ringing spring peepers. As the skies darken, we’ll follow our ears for about a half-mile hike to the center of the Babcock Ridge Preserve where a dry hole last autumn is now a rain-soaked “wicked big puddle.” 

This brimful temporary pond is a wetland nursery filled with a variety of exciting creatures. In addition to frogs, we’ll likely see marbled salamander youngsters, fairy shrimp, giant predaceous diving beetles, and the stars of the show, the exquisite yellow-spotted salamanders. We’ll use nets to collect pond residents and examine them at close range before releasing them unharmed, and if we’re especially lucky, we might also hear the booming hoots of barred owls and the peents of woodcock.  

Bring a flashlight and a headlamp, wear warm clothes and waterproof boots, and don’t forget your spirit of adventure and curiosity on this family-friendly exploration of a fascinating part of the natural world.  

Walk leader Bruce Fellman has been introducing people to vernal pool life for almost half-a-century. For more information, contact the leader at [email protected] or 860-599-4867. 

To register for the adventure, which is free and open to the public but limited to 25 people, click on the link below. This program tends to fill up quickly, but If there’s sufficient interest, we’ll try to schedule additional walks. Note: heavy rain will postpone to Thursday, the 21st, same time, but light rain will be just perfect for bringing out the critters — and raincoat-clad naturalists.

REGISTER HERE

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Accessibility Note

Parking: Small off-street lot, packed dirt surface, no accessible space, room for 7-8 cars. Lot located at Babcock Ridge Preserve trailhead. Additional parking available along the road.

Trails: Narrow in spots, some slopes, some protrusions into pathway, occasional wet areas. Off-pathway walking through open woods to vernal pool. Sampling for organisms involves dip-netting and getting hands wet. The hike back to the parking area takes place in the dark and is illuminated by flashlights and headlamps.

Communication: This walk will be amplified and may include live sonograms that provide pictorial representation of frog and bird calls.

Avalonia Accessibility Statement: https://avalonia.org/accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities-statement/

Accessibility point person: Mary Anne Sherman, 860-884-3500 or [email protected]