Simsbury - Great Pond

I am trying to make sure we get outside to enjoy these nice fall days because I know it won't be too long before things take a decidedly colder turn.  Today, we ventured over to Great Pond, part of Massacoe State Forest in Simsbury, CT.  My motivation for heading to Great Pond today was to check out some trees as part of the Outdoor Hour Challenge.  I knew we would be able to find a pretty good stand of red pine and I wanted to compare the bark to pitch pine.

The walk around the pond is just a bit over a mile.  We took our time, taking pictures and trying to identify trees.  The tree identification wasn't wholly successful because many of the trees had already lost their leaves.  I did have some success with my new book, Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast, but I need a lot more practice.

Nice fall color.

Early on in our walk, B spotted a tree that a beaver had started work on.  We'll have to come back next month and check it out when the Outdoor Hour Challenge focuses on mammals.  One question I have about the beaver lodge is whether the entrance is always under water even when the water level is very low like it is now.

Busy as a ...

...beaver.  Must need it for his lodge.

Great Pond is known to be a bird watcher's paradise.  Today, we saw a lot of Canada geese and some mallards, but not much else.  I was kicking myself for not bringing my binoculars.

A lot of Canada geese on a pretty shallow pond.

Seems like we are past peak foliage.

Almost half way around the pond, we came to the stand of red pine.  Red pine is identifiable from its needles.  They are quite long and come in bundles of two.  I love the bark of the red pine - flaky, with a redish-grayish color.  In my Bark book, the range map indicates that this pine is native to northern New England, but there is a small area shown in this part of Connecticut, I assume specifically for Great Pond.  About 20 acres of red pine were planted here in the 1930's.

I still have a hard time identifying red pine from pitch pine just by looking at the bark.  If I had two trees next to each other, maybe it wouldn't be as difficult.  I think the red pine is a bit flakier and the flakes of the pitch pine curl away from the trunk.  More study to be done.

Red pine.

Red pine grove.

Before we left the house, I had said to B that I hoped we would find some witch-hazel.  I had recently seen a post on Along the New England Trail where Teresa had found some witch-hazel in bloom.  To me, this makes witch-hazel kind of unique, blooming in the fall and even winter.  I did find some witch-hazel, but the first few had no flowers.  We came to another area with several trees and my son spotted the blooms.  They are kind of bizarre looking.  My Eastern Trees guide indicates that seedpods can be found at any time of year.  I didn't notice any, but I didn't look either.  I was focused on the flowers.

Witch-hazel blossom.

We wrapped our hike with a walk through a very nice white pine grove.  Towering trees, but then large areas of young trees, so it is like you are going through a green walkway.

This was a very enjoyable hike and it was nice to get out of the house.  The next couple of days look like they are going to be rainy, so I am glad we took advantage of the nice weather today.