Newport This Week

NATURE: The Joy of Finding a Quiet Place to Enjoy

The Joy of Finding a Quiet Place to Enjoy


Above, Parker Farm entrance.

Above, Parker Farm entrance.

Last weekend, I went looking for quiet. Not silence per se, but a sincere reduction in the noise of traffic, landscapers and emergency vehicles that are part of life on Broadway. Not having the time or patience to drive to Vermont or even Exeter, I crossed the bridge to Conanicut Island and headed up East Shore Road to Parker Farm.

There are approximately 45 land trusts in Rhode Island, a state comprised of only 39 cities and towns. According to the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, whether managed by a municipality or a nonprofit organization, these entities protect more than 55,000 acres of forest, farmland, wetlands and other habitats in our small state. While a lot of these properties are protected through conservation easements on private land, many others have trail systems that are open to the public.

In 2000, Bertram Parker donated just over 48 acres to the Conanicut Island Land Trust to be protected in perpetuity and open to the public for walking. Accessible from East Shore Road, the property extends west to North Main Road and encompasses field, forest and wetland habitats. And sometimes on a weekend, it is a place to find the elusive quiet that I needed.

Left, an American kestrel (Photo by Chris Powell)

Left, an American kestrel (Photo by Chris Powell)

It is easy to miss the little parking lot that is tucked next to a gated driveway leading to yet another fancy Jamestown mansion, but once you find it, it is easy to park and walk along the edge of the drive to the woodland trails. As I headed out, the crows greeted me with their boisterous caws as they flew overhead, and the ever present Carolina wren scolded me from the shrubby edges, making me smile at the sound.

On the right is a field habitat that the land trust volunteers keep open by mowing on a regular basis. I kept my eye out for the redtailed hawk that likes to hunt mice in the field, but she proved elusive, and I meandered on.

Past the big house, the gravel drive turns to dirt road blocked by a wooden gate to keep motorized vehicles out of the woods. As I walked past the gate, I stopped and listened again, testing the air for the presence of noise versus the sounds of nature. Branches scraped against each other in the breeze, a small creature rustled around under the leaves, and in the distance, I heard the “tap-tap-tap” of a woodpecker at work. Lovely.

Nature lover Lauren Parmelee of Newport is senior director of education at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

Nature lover Lauren Parmelee of Newport is senior director of education at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

Walking on, I came across a new trail junction with a sign pointing left and indicating the beginning of the South Trail Loop. The loop, recently completed by land trust volunteers, must have taken hard work to clear through an understory full of green briar brambles and fallen tree limbs.

I send out a silent thank you to the volunteers who give us a place to ramble.

As in many woodlands in Rhode Island, there are a lot of dead and dying trees at Parker Farm. Stressed by disease and insect infestations, many of our native trees are dying prematurely, which does not bode well for healthy forest ecosystems. Woodpeckers, however, thrive when there are standing dead trees, and as I walked along the South Loop trail, I heard the shrill calls of red-bellied woodpeckers and the sharp note of downy woodpeckers as they moved about.

The loop trail winds up back on the primary trail, so I continued west to my favorite part of the refuge, the Cedar Loop. I always enter this grove of cedar trees with a feeling of hope and possibility, because you never know who you will find feeding or sheltering in the evergreens. One snowy winter day last year, I counted 12 northern cardinals in the trees!

On this day, black-capped chickadees were busy feeding in the cedars, and white-throated sparrows were scratching around in the leaves. As always, I carefully checked the chickadee flock for other hangers-on, and I was rewarded to see a tiny, golden-crowned kinglet flitting about. Weighing an average of 0.2 ounces, these olive-and-gray feathered pixies have a black-andwhite striped face and a golden patch on top of their head. Kinglets are hard to find and harder to focus on, because they never stop moving, often hovering in the air to pick insects off a leaf. If you have good hearing, their high-pitched “tsee” notes will give them away.

Rounding a curve, I startled a white-tailed deer who was resting in the grove. She looked hard at me before bounding off, her white flag flying. It is hunting season, but there is no hunting on Parker Farm, so she probably didn’t go far.

When I was growing up in the 1970s, there were very few deer in eastern Connecticut, and I clearly remember the first time I saw them near my house. Now it is so common to see them and think of them as over-populated nuisances that we might forget to notice their grace and beauty.

Finishing the Cedar Loop, I went left on the Conanicut Connector trail that brought me back to the field without having to back track. The only bench at Parker Farm is located along this trail, and I sat for a while to rest. This side of the property borders the Jamestown transfer station, and while open, it was not busy. Behind me, instead of truck noise, I heard a song sparrow singing a bit of his spring song and a late catbird mewing in the shrubbery.

The connector trail goes through wet woods, and the land trust has recently changed the path of the trail and put in new boardwalks and bridges. These upgrades are appreciated, since I usually emerge from this red maple swamp with wet shoes.

Back in the field, I scanned the sky for the hawk and saw her soaring in big circles overhead. Her broad wings and rusty tail kept her aloft in the wind without having to flap, while her sharp eyes looked for movement in the grass, quietly searching for her prey.

The trail map for Parker Farm can be found at conanicutlandtrust.org. If you are interested in knowing more about the land trusts in Rhode Island, or are looking for new places to explore, check out the Rhode Island Land Trust Council at rilandtrusts.org.

My journey left me feeling refreshed and with a renewed appreciation for the near silence of the outdoors. During the busy holiday season, a journey outdoors to any of the numerous conserved land spaces can provide a muchneeded time for quiet.

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