Almanac, May 6, 2005

I spent part of yesterday afternoon looking for turtles with a herpetologist in a marsh that forms the headwaters of a tributary of a tributary of the Sound. In an area where red maple swamps and vernal pools and man-made ponds are common, there's nothing else around like this marsh -- broad, open, protected by rocky ridges of oak forest. We found only one turtle -- a spotted turtle hatchling -- and one turtle track in a tiny apron of muck. At 4:30, as we started back toward our cars, the sound of a bird stopped us. Raven? We listened and it called again and again from the woods to the south. A common raven indeed, though not so common at all around here.