Narragansett, lunchtime walk

May 1, 2008

I walk in the woods at lunchtime once or twice a week, but only some are worth writing about. These woods are not spectacular. They are nice, but far from the better walks in Rhode Island. Today I start in the woods behind the old church near the scene of the crime (read my first blog entry about that).

The weather is a bit too chilly and breezy to walk comfortably in a T-shirt, but that's what I do. The cemetery is unoccupied today, as expected, and the walk to South Ferry Road is uneventful. I cross and start on the dirt access road in order to distance myself from the URI construction noise. What I discover is that the wind whips unhindered down the wide path, so I turn into the woods at the first trail. This is a good decision. The wind is lower and the scenery is better. The Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) has spread quite a bit and is even invading the footpath. I notice that the green carpet disappears deeper in the woods. I guess the ground away from the paths gets less light. Mayflower goes where it's wanted. Flower buds are starting to appear.

I stop to take a closer look at some of the other plants putting out foliage. The leaves of a shrub are opposite, that is they appear on both sides of each stem at regular intervals, rather than alternating left, right, left, like most plants. There is a handy term "madcap horse" to remember the plants with opposite leaves. MAD is an acronym for Maple, Ash, Dogwood. Cap refers to the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. Horse refers to the wonderful tree Horse-chestnut. Viburnums were once considered part of the Caprifoliaceae family but have recently moved to the Adoxaceae family. All that aside, Madcap Horse works well if you assume CAP refers to both honeysuckle and viburnums. I see two distinct shrubs with opposite leaves. One with smooth edged leaves and one with serrated leaves. I'm guessing they both are viburnums. The path cycles back onto the access road. I cross the paved road like last time and continue in the direction of Bonnet Shores.

I notice a bone fragment at the along the path. It's about a third of a lower jaw. It's old enough to have been defleshed. It's too large to be rodent or cat. The teeth are very distinctive and certainly not canine. In the absence of actual knowledge, I am guessing deer. Not keen to put body parts into my pocket, I leave it trailside. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow with a bag. I know people who know about such things.

Not twenty steps from the bone I am startled when a snake crosses the path. I try to get a close look but quickly it's in the underbrush. Was it two feet long? Three? I can't be sure. It's dark brown with light brown stripes. I assume it's a garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) but the DEM web page has a good document about native snakes. A closer match is the related Eastern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus). See http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/risnakes.pdf for a great description of Rhode Island snakes.

I continue further than I had last time but I run short of time and turn around. Past where I found the bone I notice a circle of stones just off the path. Stone walls cross the area quite a bit, giving evidence of it's pastoral and agricultural past. It warrants closer inspection but there is no easy access to it. I'll investigate this later. I continue to the dirt access road, across South Ferry Road, past the old church, past the now infamous cemetery, back to work.