View allAll Photos Tagged hammonassetstatepark
Cornell's range map shows Belted Kingfishers live year-round in CT. In early October this one had attracted a small crowd of birders at the salt pond at Meig's Point. Periodically it flew off the rock and dove into the pond. (I did not catch any action shots.)
Belted Kingfishers live mostly on a diet of fish including sticklebacks, mummichogs, trout, and stonerollers. They also eat crayfish and may eat other crustaceans, mollusks, insects, amphibians, reptiles, young birds, small mammals, and even berries. A kingfisher looks for prey from a perch that overhangs water, such as a bare branch, telephone wire, or pier piling. When it spots a fish or crayfish near the surface, it takes flight, dives with closed eyes, and grabs the prey in its bill with a pincer motion. Returning with its prize, it pounds the prey against the perch before swallowing it head first. It may also hover above the water instead of searching from a perch. As nestlings, Belted Kingfishers digest the bones and scales they consume, but by the time they leave the nest they begin disgorging pellets of fish skeletons and invertebrate shells.
Late afternoon before sunset.
note: This is Hammonasset State Park, Meigs Point, in Madison CT, not Clinton.
30th September 2012., Clinton, Connecticut, USA
Seen during the "Connecticut street rod association's" charity event at Hamonnasett state Park on 30th September 2012
More information on the club, can be found here ...
"Mr No Respect" is a Modified pulling tractor, which its owners tell me they have decided to sell. It runs on alcohol and uses approx 9 gallons for a 300 foot sprint
Full details of the team running this behemoth with contact details and a history can be found on their website here .......
This seagull was actually missing his right leg from the shin down. We could only speculate how this little guy became an amputee. I felt bad for him as he was hopping around on his good leg.
We swung into Hammonasset State Park after dinner last night to see if the swans had returned to the pond. They have not, but there were black ducks and hooded mergansers way in the back.
Male on sign at edge of salt marsh. Hammonasset State Park, Madison, CT. 6 May 2021. © Frank Mantlik
Adult in flight. Hammonasset Beach S.P., Madison, Connecticut, USA. 24 February 2020. © Frank Mantlik
They have a perfectly good nest on the other side of the pond, but on this rainy afternoon they must have thought a spare nest would be a good thing. (Or maybe they were practicing their nest-building skills.) The new location, though, is right next to a picnic area so they are not likely to end up using it.
"Nest an open bowl in a large mound of aquatic vegetation, grasses, and rushes, lined with softer vegetation and a little down. Usually placed on mound on bank, island, or reed bed." - www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mute_Swan/lifehistory
Here is a video I made of the "event." www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-AEyBGu6g I got a kick out of applying Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Swans" - it adds a little drama, don't you think?
Celastrus orbiculatus - Asiatic bittersweet *invasive*
The endless entanglement of bittersweet vines never ceases to amaze me...
Feeding on fruit of Red Cedar. 14 November 2021. Hammonassett Beach State Park, Madison, Connecticut. © Frank Mantlik
I shot this a while ago on a beach in Madison, Connecticut--just a father and son enjoying the beach at sunset. There is a free tutorial on Taking Better Sunset Photos on my site. Copyright 2008 Jeff Wignall
A low shrub in a damp woods - any idea what it is? I'm thinking maybe Early Azalea, aka Roseshell Azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum).
My dad unearthed an old seine net from the basement so we brought it out to Hammo to see what we could catch. We caught a bunch of cool stuff, but the weirdest were the pufferfish! I had no idea there were puffers this far north. This one is Chilomycterus schoepfi, the striped burrfish, but it's only a baby. Apparently they're more common in southern waters. We also caught a bunch more of these little white-bellied puffers, but I stupidly didn't take any pics of those.
After two rainy days, this past Wednesday was gorgeous... most of the day. I decided after work I would head to Hammonasset to try out my recently repaired Tamron 150-600. It began clouding up as we left the house... and the first raindrops hit the windshield as we pulled off the exit in Madison. I decided I could still take photos from the relative shelter of my car window. Well, duh! Raindrops do impact photo quality. So I don't know but what maybe the lens repair made it worse (!). I'll have to try it another day.