Farming/Nature

Nothing Proper About the English Sparrow

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Like any decent anglophile, I’m pretty attached to all things British. What’s not to love about their polite queuing, scones and clotted cream, the royals, the BBC, a good block of Stilton and, of course, the Beatles. In fact when I am listening to the voice in my head which narrates my days, it is none other than that of David Attenborough. So it would make sense for me to embrace another export from the Motherland, the English Sparrow. But this little bird boils my blood and does not hold any affection in my heart.

Farming/Nature

Large Farm Bought

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A recent land purchase in Suffield, the second largest parcel sold in recent decades, caught the attention of residents who feared a new subdivision was coming. They were pleased to learn that the buyer was a tobacco grower, and he was already preparing the land for planting. It was Robert P. Nowak, who has seed beds on Suffield Street and fields in that vicinity near Windsor Locks, who recently bought the 157-acre Bissell Farm, extending north from Mountain Road across from Spaulding School. Located in the geographic center of the town, the new Nowak parcel, once part of the Consolidated Cigar Corporation, has an interesting history. In the heyday of shade tobacco growing almost a century ago, the Bissell Farm (named for L. P. Bissell, the most prominent tobacco baron in town at that time) was a profitable shade tobacco plantation.

Farming/Nature

Woods Walker Extraordinaire

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Geoff Whittum, who came to Suffield some years ago from his upbringing in Ellington, calls himself a Woods Walker, a delightful term that fits his avocation of exploring the natural environment in New England. Recently he’s been sharing stories of the amazing things he has found in his walks. After his well-received presentations at libraries in Bloomfield and Granby, the Kent Memorial Library sponsored his February 27 appearance at the Suffield Senior Center, where a full-house crowd was fascinated by his photos of strange and wondrous shapes of rocks. Whittum showed images of giant boulders resting precariously on two or three small ones, oddly shaped individual boulders, strange dug-outs and caves, and other challenging configurations of rocks. Adding to the fascination were his descriptions of their orientation with solar occurrences and the relationships of these odd rocks with other rocks at various distances.

Farming/Nature

Bobcats are Back!

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I’ll come clean that I spend a lot of time fantasizing when I am in the woods. But, rest assured these fantasies are mostly g-rated and they go back in time to the days of the Bering land bridge between Asia and North America and lots of cool animals sauntered over to our neck of the woods. It’s wildly exciting to ponder the presence of lumbering wooly mammoth, ground sloths, and short faced bears taking this route. And I, for one, am sorry that they are not here today as they are very much part of my trail fantasies. But, that’s the deal with fantasies; they operate best when they keep clear of reality.

Farming/Nature

Correction

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In the Observer’s March issue, two of the four birds pictured with Abby Wolcott’s article on Page 35 were misidentified by our near-sighted caption writer, and one was inadequately identified. According to the photographer, to whom we defer, they are, clockwise from the upper left: Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, and White-throated Sparrow. Regarding the Goldfinch, it is the male in spring and summer who wears that well-remembered bright yellow.