Fairfield beaches are much different than most environments in Burlington, Vermont. After immersing myself in my favorite beach in Fairfield, Connecticut for at least an hour, I was able to notice things about the natural environment that I had never thought about prior to this visit.
I walked up and down the small strip of sand that is sandwiched between two jetties and observed the way the sand felt underneath my boots. Even on a cold winter day the concentration of the sand is obviously going to be considerably different than that of the soil lining the river banks of the Winooski river. Even so, I was surprised by the amount of larger rocks still present in the sand; sand is often assumed to be tiny grains of weathered rocks or shells but when I took time to actually examine what was beneath my feet I discovered that on this particular beach the sand is less of a grainy mix of material and is more separated by grains and larger materials like shells, rocks, pebbles etc.… This makes sense due to my towns history of being greatly affected by recent storms. Hurricanes Irene and Sandy left a great deal of debris along all of the beaches and tore up a lot of what used to be the landscape of this area.
I also saw tracks of a canine animal that was not a domestic dog which is unusual for this beach because usually the beach is crowded with pet dogs. I was intrigued by these tracks and followed them to the golf course behind the parking lot of the beach, eventually making a guess that this animal could be a small fox. I found this to be pretty interesting because even though it is a significantly different environment to my Burlington phenology spot, both places are spots that foxes like to roam.
I usually only notice a mass amount of seagulls at this beach but during my hour long visit I did happen to see a morning dove which is a fairly common species in the neighborhood I live in, but it was interesting to see it flying around with the large crowds of aggressive seagulls that flock all Fairfield beaches. Back in Burlington I often see crows, woodpeckers, chickadees, and other far more interesting birds to watch, but I wasn’t expecting these to be on the beaches near me so the lack of bird diversity was not surprising.