October in my area means Walktober, a celebration of nature and history in The Last Green Valley, as we call the Quinnebaug-Shetucket Rivers Valley Heritage Corridor. The brochure I received in the mail last month announced that 2010 is the 20th year this annual event is being held — all the more reason to celebrate the Columbus Day holiday weekend with TLGV.

Ten of us joined Ken Hessler at 9 am this sunny but crisp fall morning, at Greenbrier Park in Oxford, about a 30-minute drive from my house, for Walk #48. Ken, a civilian forester working for the US Army Corps of Engineers, assured us that he’s one of the good guys:  he does not build dams or drain wetlands.

Originally proposed in 1936 for flood control in the Thames River Basin, the Hodges Village Dam was finally completed in 1959 (the other Corps dam nearby, Buffumville Lake in Charlton, was completed around the same time). At first, the personnel working on these projects were simply “dam tenders”; these days, the Corps’ responsibilities have expanded to include maintenance of trails and recreational facilities and protection of lakes and rivers, with input from various stakeholders, including the general public.

We began our walk at the French River canoe put-in between the Upper and Lower Wellington Ponds, which are fed by the Triphammer Branch of the Wellington Brook; Ken took us in a loop around the Upper Pond, pointing out interesting features and discussing the wildlife which are at home in these 100 acres.  At times we walked on the old Route 12, so near to the current road that we could hear the traffic. The trail is well-marked; to Ken’s left you can see the Corps-standard blaze, a blue square with a black dot in the center, indicating we are heading toward the dam.

Upper Wellington Pond is prime habitat for wood ducks, of which there are perhaps 40 to 50. One winter when the pond froze, the Corps was able to construct nesting boxes for these ducks at the proper height; they had to dig down six feet into the muck to install them.

These trees are good habitat for owls:

Other birds which inhabit this property are blue herons, swans, cormorants, golden warblers, and woodcocks.  Early in the walk, we passed a stand of hackberry, more common in northern Connecticut than here and a good food source for wildlife because the fruit ripens at the end of October and beginning of November, when other food sources become scarce.

Here is a state-certified vernal pool, which is defined as a ephemeral body of water in which fish do not breed and in which one finds obligate species, either (1) fairy shrimp or (2) salamanders or wood  frogs. A vernal pool doesn’t necessarily dry up over the summer, which this one hasn’t.

We took a short detour to see a beaver dam, which the beavers construct to increase the availability of their favorite food sources (they prefer the aspen and poplar trees, which thrive in wetlands). These industrious rodents can weigh up to 100 pounds! A beaver family, consisting of maybe eight individuals, will build a dam like this in about three days. Beavers are now quite numerous in these parts; the Corps estimates about 80 animals living along these five miles of river. In fact, they are now at the point of fighting for territory.

We’ve paused at probably the best bird-watching spot in this area.  Although it’s outside the photo frame, the town built a platform for osprey nests which you can see from this vantage point; the birds had commandeered the Little League field lights for their nests, which was not optimal for the athletes or fans, so the town hoped to lure them away to a new home.

We were on the trails for about two and a half hours, and I wasn’t even aware of time passing.  This was a good choice to start my Walktober.