the Way of the Turtle

WHERE'S THE WATER?
2.8 Mile Walk at Trustom Pond NWR
Saturday, December 8, 2012

Ended up passing on leaving early for Rome Point - the weather forecasts all called for rain, which meant I wouldn't want to bring along my good camera... and if I'm going to see the seals, I want that extra zoom.

By the time I got going, I only had enough daylight left to stop at one park, so I decided Trustom Pond was my best bet - all three times I've been there it's always been a treat. I was a little bit concerned by the on-and-off showers on the drive down, but once I crossed into Rhode Island the sun started peeking through the clouds. When I got to Trustom Pond the one other person there was leaving - a whole National Wildlife Refuge all to myself, how cool is that?

After watching the birds at the feeders for a little bit, I started out by heading to Otter Point. Spent a few minutes watching a few ducks and a pair of muskrats in the small farm pond along the way. Not as many birds in the trees along the path as during the summer, but that's to be expected in December.

What I wasn't expecting was the condition of the huge coastal pond.

The shallows to the west of Otter Point were mostly open to the air - a big mud flat with a few trickles of water running through it. The other parts of the pond had very, very low water levels. The last time I was here in the fall, the pond was alive with ducks, gulls, swans, coots, cormorants, and scaups... waterfowl everywhere. Today I saw a few small groups of mallards.

From there I headed back through the woods over to Osprey Point, where of course things were just as bad. I did spot a few more birds far out in the pond - a group of cormorants and a blue heron, and across the pond a few geese and a flock of gulls. Given the comparable sizes, I suspect they were Black-backed Gulls.

By then the sun was starting to go down, so I headed back through the woods and along the field to the parking lot. Spotted a couple of rabbits along the path just before I got back to the visitors center.

As I drove to Newport to crash for the night, I couldn't help wondering what had happened. As far as I knew, the pond wasn't tidal, and even if it was - I was there near high tide. I could hear the ocean breakers crashing on the far side of the barrier beach. A little research after dinner gave me the explanation...

Hurricane Sandy.

Apparently one of the effects of the storm was a breach on the barrier beach, as shown in this set of photos from the National Fish and Wildlife Service. Saltwater poured into the freshwater pond, then much of the water poured back out when the storm surge receded. Along the way many of the freshwater fish in the pond died from the newly brackish water. While it's certainly possible that the lack of waterfowl is because it's almost a month later than the last time I was here in the late fall (perhaps they've migrated further south by now) it seems likely that the changes to the pond have also had a major impact, from loss of food and habitat to the higher salinity of the water.

I guess only time will tell if this wonderful and somewhat unique habitat (it was the only coastal freshwater pond in RI with an undeveloped shoreline) will bounce back - tough to imagine, given that there are no significant streams that drain into the pond - or if it will become a new ecosystem quite different from what it was pre-Sandy. All I know for sure is that I'm very grateful I got to visit it several times before this happened.

JMH