Help Clean Up New England's Largest River

The Connecticut is New England's largest river - it flows south approximately 407 miles, source to Long Island Sound.

Volunteers from Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut will turn out Oct. 19  to pick up trash and debris from the banks of river in each state.

Connecticut River Watershed Council spearheads the annual cleanup and says more volunteers are always welcome. To sign up and confirm the date for the effort, go to www.ctriver.org. (The original date in early October was postponed due to heavy rains.)

New England's Longest River Flows By

The Connecticut River starts near Canada, flows south to create the border between Vermont and New Hampshire, crosses Massachusetts and wends through some incredibly beautiful landscapes to meet Long Island Sound, some 400-plus miles.

The river feels the pull of the tides as far north as Windsor Locks.

The Connecticut River estuary and tidal wetlands is listed as one of the 1,759 wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.

Everything uphill from the river eventually washes into its waters, and then out to the sea.

Bees and Castle That 'Sherlock' Helped Build

What do bees and Sherlock Holmes have in common?

Well, a new book The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King weaves together the facts of keeping bees and breathes new life into the marvelous character that is Sherlock Holmes. Part of a series of novels by King, the book is due out in audio form soon.

By the way, playing that time-tested detective who used modern forensic methods long before they were the rage, helped Connecticut actor William Gillette build his unique (truly his own design) stone castle perched high above the Connecticut River on one of the "Seven Sisters" hills that flank the eastern side.

Gillette was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and his neighborhood, known as Nook Farm, included Samuel Clemens and his family, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and other literary and publishing notables.

It was Clemens (Mark Twain) who aided Gillette on his life path to become a famous stage actor.

Twain’s influence paved the way for Gillette to step into his first acting jobs, where his talents bloomed, winning over audiences and defining him forever. Gillette later developed into a playwright and producer as well.

The actor donned a deerstalker cap and used a curved pipe as he portrayed the detective on stage. His 30 years of performances indelibly fixed in the mind's eye as "Holmes."


More about the inside of the castle, Gillette's train and his rides along the hills of East Haddam, plus the book on bees and Sherlock Holmes, coming up.

Image of Gillette portraying Holmes, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Above, the visitor's center at the park.

Eagles Nesting on Connecticut River Now

Everything must change.

An in-place camera allowed remote observation of American bald eagles nesting on the Connecticut River using computer access.

But in July 2008, the old Barton Cove bald eagle nest blew down during a storm.

The good news is that the Barton Cove eagles are building a nest in new location on the Connecticut River. (Mated eagles nest December through February.)

Although a second EagleCam is already in place in the new nest site, a red oak, some of the wiring was knocked down when the storm took down the old nest. So for now, no live eagle cam.

The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) will not allow anyone to enter the area at this time of the season to replace the wiring or adjust the camera, to ensure that the eagles are not disturbed.

Here is a link to a recent news and eagle images hosted on the site of FirstLight Power Resources, an energy corporation of 15 power generators located at 14 sites in Connecticut and Massachusetts that is now part of Suez Energy North America, under giant multi-national energy company GDF Suez.

Other eagle cams for live viewing online include the BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI) in Maine.

Barton Cove is part of the Connecticut River Greenway State Park in Massachusetts.

Photos of 2007 eagle nesting and nest in tree, FirstLight Power Resources.

An annual nationwide Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey is coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.