Photographer: Hong Wan
September 2025
Brockway Hawthorne preserve
Mushroom colony on a tree
Walking tree
Photographer: Hong Wan (Honorable Mention)
September, 2025
Brockway Hawthorne preserve
Photo taken on a Tuesday land trust hike. The unusual look of the tree caught my eyes, the possible reason for this shape could be that the tree was grown initially on a dead tree log, when the log rotten away, you got a tree with “legs”.
Native Bee Balm in the Grassy Hill Preserve
Photographer: Rochelle Davis
August 2025
Grassy Hill Preserve
The Grassy Hill Preserve showcases native plants that mix with the nearby human built environment.
Lady’s Tresses, a CT native orchid
Photographer: Rochelle Davis
July 2025
Grassy Hill Preserve
This orchid is about 12" high and hard to spot but so worth looking for. It is one of dozens of orchids native to Connecticut (Genus Spiranthes).
Monarch caterpillar in Grassy Hill Preserve
Photographer: Rochelle Davis (Photo of Distinction)
August 2025
Grassy Hill Preserve
The preserve is filled with butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and also full of monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the butterfly weed and the monarch caterpillars eating away on the plant. The upside of not mowing fields with butterfly weed from May through September is that the monarchs can feed and make more butterflies.