Pekin Duck and Peking Duck are wildly different! Peking Duck is the cooking preparation and presentation of a duck dish originated in Peking (Beijing), China, during the Imperial era and is still popular today.
Your Best Shot
“Sunset Over the Connecticut River”
Photo by Susanne Hall
The Falls
A poem by David Leff, an award-winning essayist, poet, and former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
Hydrilla
By now, knowledge that invasive plants are bad news is pretty widespread. Numerous articles and agencies cite “billions of dollars” in damages annually to agriculture and fisheries; they are the “leading cause” of population decline and extinction in animals.
Turners Falls Area Winter Birding
In March 2019, a flock of 20 tundra swans made an unexpected overnight visit to a historic canal at Turners Falls, Massachusetts, one of the Connecticut River watershed’s finest winter birding destinations. The swans, which breed in the Arctic and overwinter on the mid-Atlantic coast and other regions, delighted fortunate observers before departing the next morning.
Introducing a Regular Column About Migratory Fish in the Watershed
Some of the most historical and ecologically-significant migrations of the Connecticut River are missed by most. These are the annual migrations of fish—specifically diadromous fish.
Cold Weather Safety
“Maybe better that we die because then we won’t be embarrassed.” So muttered I to my duck hunting partner as the outgoing tide took our eight-foot pram and us, shivering and soaked to the skin, out from the mouth of the Connecticut River towards the grim waves of Long Island Sound on a freezing winter day many years ago.
VENTURE SMITH’S LONG STRUGGLE
In 1776, at the dawn of the American Revolution, Venture Smith stood on
the banks of the Connecticut River a free man. He had his own farm, his
wife and child lived with him, and he had a prosperous 130-acre farm in
the village of East Haddam. It had taken him a long time to get there, and the journey was not of his own choosing.
The Hartford Wits & the World They Made
On the west shore of the Connecticut
River, the town of Hartford bustled
in the morning light. People gathered
at the market on the town green,
in taverns, and in coffeehouses,
where a few years earlier the local
secret society might have planned a
revolution, spurred on by the demon
caffeine.
Qwannitucket
Qwannitucket, the Long Tidal River land known as the Connecticut River Valley, is the living pulse of this region currently known as New England. This article, which focuses on the lower valley of the Connecticut
River, is intended to raise awareness in modern society about the beautiful
resource that connects north to south, mountains to ocean, the swimmers, winged, four-legged, two-legged, and all the living beings known and unknown that dwell here.
A Magnificent Obsession: Our Fascination with Wildlife (Part 3)
We will now consider another source of fascination with wildlife to continue our investigation.
A Magnificent Obsession: Our Fascination with Wildlife (Part 2)
We will now consider another source of fascination with wildlife to continue our investigation.
A Connecticut River Odyssey
Book memorializes 400-mile paddle down New England’s great waterway
Living Fossil
Few fish can rival the longevity or storied ancestry of shortnose sturgeon, a primitive animal that can live up to seven decades or more, and whose ancestors literally swam with the dinosaurs. “Recently, paleontologists found a fossil record, showing remnants of a mass dinosaur killing, and there were sturgeon and paddle fish carcasses, stacked together,” Micah Kieffer, a fisheries research biologist said.
A Great Gathering
In countless numbers they assemble in the sky, in the quickening September dusk, to perform a swirling synchronized ballet. It is mesmerizing and indescribable; words cannot prepare the viewer.
Among the Birds
I still remember the first time I was handed a copy of Roger Tory Peterson’s A Field Guide to the Birds and my orientation as an incidental bird observer shifted to intentional bird identifier. I was 12 years old.
What’s for Dinner?
Quail is an upland gamebird, which, according to Wikipedia is an American term that refers to “non-waterfowl birds hunted with pointing breeds, flushing spaniels, and retrievers.” However, if you’re not “game” for dashing through field and wood and pulling shot out of your prey, thankfully there are many choices today from your local gourmet shop or butcher.
A Solitude of Space
Three miles from the Connecticut River, we stood in a circle under a tree in the garden of Emily Dickinson’s home, reading poems, passing a book around, no more than two or three feet from each other. The 1813 Amherst home built for her grandparents stood proudly in the sunshine, and the voices of another tour group filtered out.
Early Morning Row
The best time to row is early in the morning when the water is quiet and the only people on the river are morning fishermen and crabbers.
River Heroes
The car bumps over the railroad tracks and along a marsh to the end of the road. A few men in white outfits wave you over a small metal drawbridge and onto the historic 1949 Chester-Hadlyme Ferry. With a lurch, the 100-ton ferry leaves the west bank, chugging across the gently lapping waters of the Connecticut River.