Our Environment: “The Trail Untraveled” by Scott Turner

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Scott Turner, Environmental Columnist

With each car that arrived, the disembarked occupants trekked off onto the popular Ferry Way Trail at Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Newington, New Hampshire.

I chose to head in the opposite direction—to stroll the circular Peverly Pond Trail. There I found a moist forest and bucolic pond, plus 30-minutes in a natural space devoid of other humans.

But I was far from alone. Conspicuous on this half-mile stroll were the chipmunks. More chipmunks, in fact, that I could remember seeing and hearing in one place. My guess was that the boardwalk, which covered the entire length of the trail, created great chipmunk cover. Indeed, striped rodents darted left and right, zipping under and out from the walkway.

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Moreover, the woods contained many fallen trees, some of which had dropped onto the boardwalk and were now cut up into logs and deposited beside the trail.

Also in the forest were numerous uprooted trees, a relatively common site in wet woods. Tall trees growing atop soggy soil are a recipe for toppling over in strong storms and high winds.

All of this structure on the forest floor made for excellent chipmunk habitat, plus a great laboratory for listening to the varied sounds that chipmunks make.

There were single chips, high or low in pitch. Some chips sounded like bird calls, particularly those of small songbirds.

There were also trills made up of a series of chips. Then there were “tock” or “chuck” sounds that came from multiple creatures at the same time. This “chuck” cacophony reminded me of the simultaneous tick-tock sounds in an old-time clock store.

Apparently the Peverly Pond Trail traverses springtime-only pools of water that are home to various frogs and salamander species. If it were spring, I probably would have heard some of those amphibians.

Great Bay NWR is known for its access and views of open coastal waters via the Ferry Way Trail. Many waterfowl and sandpipers visit those waters and the mudflats that rim them. Great Bay is also known for harboring hawks, eagles and owls.

Along the Peverly Pond Trail, the tree is known as black birch, source of a wintergreen-like scent and flavor, dominated the woods. In October, black birch foliage turns golden yellow and the fall canopy in the forest seemed to produce its own sunlight that afternoon.

Any slight rise in the trail elevation gave oaks a foothold. Most of these were red oaks, and acorns littered the boardwalk at times. Good eating and caching opportunities for chipmunks.

When I reached the pond, I found six Blue-winged Teal dabbling for aquatic vegetation. Blue-winged Teal are ducks, and they are quite small.

The teal were dabbling within vegetation along the edge of the pond. I saw them and they saw me. The teal took off across the modest body of freshwater. This was a chance for me to admire the strikingly bold powder-blue patches on their upper wings.

I got a good look at how little the teal were, when they landed amidst a flock of mallards, which dwarfed the teal.

Back on the trail, I found standing dead trees—primarily Eastern white pine—with the diagnostic oblong cavities that are excavated by Pileated Woodpeckers. Some trees were so pocked with holes, they looked like woodpecker hotels.

Only a few feet later, I heard the potent piping call of a Pileated woodpecker. I also detected the calls of Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers and of Northern Flicker, which is also a woodpecker.

On this sunny, 65-degree fall day in Southern New Hampshire, I sought solitude, and I found it on a trail untraveled.

 

Scott Turner is a Providence-based writer and communications professional. For more than a decade he wrote for the Providence Journal and we welcome him to GoLocalProv.com. 

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