Ecology

Wildlife

Raccoon prints in the mud

A curious Woodchuck in Englesby Brook

Pileated Woodpecker sign

Birds:

Black-capped Chickadee making a nest

Pileated Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Nesting Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Crow
Gull
Barred Owl
Mallard 

A spider found in a culvert along Englesby Brook

Spiders and insects: 
Different spider species

Water Strider
Dragonfly larva
Snow Fleas (Collembola)
Firefly larva

Mammals:

Domestic Dog
Woodchuck 

Fox

Grey Squirrel

Garlic Mustard, an invasive herbaceous plant

Red Squirrel
Raccoon
Muskrat

Fish and amphibians:

Dace Fish

Green Frog

Plants

Trees and Shrubs:

American Elm (Ulmus americana)

American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)

Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)

Yellow Birch (Betula alleghaniensis)

White Birch (Betula papyrifera)

Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum)
Boxelder Maple (Acer negundo)
Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) 

Cottonwood (Populus sp.)

Butternut (Juglans cinera)

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

American Basswood (Tilia americana)
Musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana)
Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)
Oaks (Quercus sp.)
Ash (Fraxinus sp.)

Bitternut Hickory (Carya cordiformis)

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Herbs:

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica)

Ostrich Fern  (Matteuccia struthiopteris)
Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

 

  

Crescent Woods

Crescent Woods is a public natural area that lies between Shelburne Road to the West and Crescent Road to the East. A diverse collection of trees and animals within the woods each tell a story. There have been auditory signs of Barred owls and Pileated woodpeckers, as well as prints of a few small mammal species. If you look closely on the enormous sugar maples in Crescent Woods, you can see tap scars from when these trees were tapped for maple syrup. In the brook itself you can find Green frogs and Dace fish, and if you look a bit more carefully you may even see some aquatic invertebrates. This unique area is explored by many Englesby Brook Watershed residents, and has a substantial network of paths.


Englesby Magnetism
Iron bacteria is a group of about 18 different types of aerobic bacteria that derive their energy from feeding on dissolved ferrous iron. In the process, they excrete insoluble ferric oxide - a reddish-orange, gelatinous slime that appears at the surface of groundwater seeps, in streams, and also in domestic water wells and plumbing. Englesby Brook features some notable colonies of these iron bacteria, and one neighbor of the brook shared stories of using magnets to collect the iron deposits generated by the naturally-occurring micro-residents of the Englesby. This idea inspired a catchy, organic marketing slogan for the subject of our study: "Englesby Brook... it's magnetic."

 Firefly larva

 Flowering Bloodroot

Red Fox scat???

Ostrich Fern fiddleheads

Mallard pair

Mayfly

Red Admiral

Interesting tracks

Muskrat tracks

Near-flowering Trout Lily

White-throated Sparrow