NEXT@ Stamford Museum & Nature Center

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center is hosting one of the most significant exhibitions ever to be displayed in its galleries.  Gather Up The Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection, on exhibit through April 24, is an extraordinary exhibition of more than 200 Shaker objects collected over 40 years by Faith and Edward Deming Andrews. This exhibition offers a truly unique opportunity for visitors, as the quality of the materials in it is unsurpassed. The exhibition is based on the holdings of Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts and is making its first stop on the start of its national tour at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.

Cobbler’s Bench, Andrews Collection, Hancock Shaker Village.

As fascinating as the objects are, a key element in the exhibition is that each and every object in it was collected by the Andrews. Starting in the early 1920s, this dedicated couple pursued the acquisition and preservation of everything relating to the Shakers, convinced that their cultural and spiritual values represented a unique and valuable chapter in American culture. With perseverance and uncommon zeal, they managed to amass the most significant collection of Shaker objects ever assembled. In their later
years, the Andrews worked tirelessly to ensure that their collection be used mainly to educate, and there is certainly much to learn from their priceless legacy. Today, Shaker aesthetics are well known: their superb, clean lines exert a powerful appeal on modern sensibilities. Although the Andrews prized the exquisite furniture, they also “gathered up the fragments,” every label, box, stand, basket, music sheet, tool and fabric illustrative of the Shaker way of life.

Pride of place in the exhibition belongs to several “gift drawings,” ink and watercolor renditions of images derived from individual visions. These fragile and beautiful drawings have been described by Christian Goodwillie, curator of collections at Hancock Shaker Village, as “among the greatest treasures of American folk art.”

Gather Up The Fragments: The Andrews Shaker Collection is organized by Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA and toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.

We’re excited to announce the arrival of three new Jacob ewes – Bee, Lucy, and Isla, to our Heckscher Farm family!

Bee is one and a half years old with two horns and black and white markings on her body. She has a patch of black over her left eye.

Lucy and Isla are two and a half year old twins with black over both eyes and muzzle. An easy way to tell them apart is their horns – Lucy has two while Isla has four.

Jacob Sheep are an old world breed popular for their soft and durable wool. In 1985, Jacob Sheep were considered to be an endangered breed. As of 2009, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has listed the American population of Jacob Sheep as a “threatened breed” and conservation priority. The most distinguishing features of the Jacob Sheep are their four horns, although many have as few as two or as many as six horns! Both males and females are always horned, and the rams tend to have larger, more impressive horns.

We are proud to help conserve this wonderful breed and hope you will enjoy them! Come say hello to Lucy, Isla, and Bee on Heckscher Farm this winter

Looks like we are in for some great fall weather this weekend! Why not head over to Stamford Museum & Nature Center’s annual Harvest Festival on Sunday, Oct. 17, from 11 am to 4 pm?!

There’s something for everyone at this annual celebration of fall’s bounty. We’ll have plenty of demonstrations including apple cidering, chair caning, flaxing (how to make linen), corn husk dolls, and antique apple and farm tools, to name a few. Vote for your favorite scarecrow in our scarecrow contest, try your luck in our new haystack surprise (finder’s keepers!), participate in our interactive story time, see who’s new at Heckscher Farm, check out the Robert Deyber exhibition (it’s the last day!), get your face painted, visit the exotic animals at Animal Embassy, enjoy some freshly popped popcorn, and make a craft to take home. Did we  mention all of the activities we just told you about are FREE with admission? We’ve also got a kids costume parade at 1 pm, and FREE prizes for kids who arrive in costume!

For a nominal fee, you can take a hay wagon ride, purchase some fall goodies like cauldron-cooked corn on the cob, cider doughnuts, and fancy cookies, buy a pumpkin from our pumpkin patch, purchase spring bulbs for planting, grab lunch from the Food Tent on the Meadow, or try out our NEW apple slingshot!

Admission is $5 for Members, $10 for Non-Members.

What a perfect way to spend a fall day! Hope to see you here on Sunday!

The Shippan Designer Show House, 422 Ocean Drive West in Stamford

Shippan’s first Designer Show House will benefit the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.

The house, located at 422 Ocean Drive West, is being transformed by some of the best designers in the area. There are over 25 design spaces to check out, including a greenhouse!

Come see how this…..

……….looks now!

The Shippan Designer Show House is open Sept. 26 through Oct. 31. Hours are: Tues. – Sat. 11 am to 5 pm; Sun. Noon to 5 pm (closed Mondays). Admission is $30 per person (no pets or children under age 6 are permitted) and includes a copy of the Show House Journal.

Join Mary Green, certified Kundalini Yoga instructor, for an exciting yoga series set in Bendel Mansion (main building) and surrounded by the natural world. The series begining Aug. 9, “Remembering Your Highest Self,” covers all the basic elements of a Kundalini Yoga practice including meditations, mantras, mudras, physical postures and breath work. Explore energetic anatomy, and discover how to maximize vitality, creativity and stamina.

Kundalini yoga is for anybody – from advanced practitioners to first time exercisers – and every body type. Come as you are, and leave seeing the world through new eyes! Bring a mat and blanket if you have one. The series lasts 8-weeks from 6:30 pm to  8 pm, (no class Sept. 6), and drop-ins are welcome.

Certified through KRI, Mary trained with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in Rishikesh, India. For more information or to register, please contact Mary at 203.613.2779 or marygreenyoga@gmail.com.

Members: $105 for the series or $15 per class / Non-members: $140 for the series or $20 per class

What can get to be 40 or more pounds, has been around for 40 million years and is the single most asked about animal for spring wildlife phone calls?  A large reptile that might be in your yard digging a nest right now, the common snapping turtle. 

A baby snapping turtle. Photo by Lisa Combs.

Snapping turtles are our largest freshwater reptile and one of only two species of snapping turtles in the country (the other being the alligator snapping turtle which resides in the southern US).  They also are one of the most notorious animals out of all scaled critters that call Connecticut home—usually eliciting a shudder just by shear mention.

Despite their bad reputation, snapping turtles are fascinating and shy creatures.  Their best-known characteristic, the lightning fast strike, is used both for catching food and protection.  Unlike other turtles, their bottom shell, or plastron, is small and narrow and affords no protection, requiring an alternate method of defense.  Although this ‘snapping’ may be more defensive and less malicious, it is still not something with which to mess.  An adult snapping turtle’s beak easily exerts enough pressure to sever a finger! For most of the year, these shy reptiles remain hidden, doing their jobs beneath the waters of local lakes and ponds.

Each year however, around the first of June, female snapping turtles emerge from their watery homes to search for an area to dig their nests.  This journey can take them for distances of 2 miles or more (the longest known migration was 10 miles round trip!), often crossing roads, driveways and gardens.  This migration is the cause of most human-turtle interactions. Females will often dig false nests before making their final selections, usually choosing a sunny spot in loose sandy soil.  After over an hour of digging, the female will deposit roughly 25-60 (sometimes up to 100) ping pong ball-sized eggs and then begin the return trip to the water.  Despite all of this hard work, it is estimated that up to 85% of nests will be destroyed by predators, many often in the first night.

 Baby snapping turtles, the size of a half dollar, emerge around the beginning of September.  Sometimes they will over winter in their nests, if not they will head out to seek the nearest body of water.  Snapping turtles are omnivorous, eating a variety of meat and plant sources, with young turtles feeding on insects, tadpoles and carrion.  Reports of heavy snapping turtle predation on baby waterfowl is often exaggerated (fish such as largemouth bass are often true culprit).  Large adult snapping turtles, up to 75 years in age, often rely mostly on plants and carrion for their diet since they are easier to catch! 

If you are lucky enough to have a female snapping turtle choose your family’s habitat to start theirs, the best thing to do is nothing.  The nesting process may take a few days and females may hang around a few more before heading back to the water (sometimes it is tiring keeping house!).   For those wanting to help prevent predation, a cage of chicken wire can be formed around the nest site, although this will require daily checking of the nest in late August/September to make sure the hatchlings can get through the wire.  Overall, try to enjoy the privilege of sharing your space with an animal that walked the earth with the dinosaurs!

Stamford Museum & Nature Center’s 13th Annual Flights of Fancy Wine Tasting takes place this Friday, June 4 at the Museum’s main building. This event makes it super easy – and super delicious – to help support the SM&NC. Sample the area’s best food, complimented by top flight wines provided by BevMax from 6:30 pm to 10 pm. Don’t miss scrumptious creations from BUtterfield 8, A Dash of Salt, David’s Soundview Catering, Frank & Julio’s Complete Event Planning, Fratelli Market, Illy Coffee, Michael Joseph’s Fine Foods, Napa & Co., Rosie, Shelly’s on the River, Susan Kane Catering, Sweet On You, and Tawa Indian Cusine.

That’s not all! There will be a silent auction and a live auction, emceed by Dan Malloy. Here’s a sneak peek of some of the top notch items featured in the auctions:

Silent Auction Platinum Table Highlights:

• Artist Steve Gerberich’s Chandelier – “Heavy on the Olives” (above)
• Meet & Greet with the Harlem Globetrotters
• Tickets for the Broadway production of Jersey Boys
• French Vichy Poster by Henri Gray
• Luxury New York Yankee tickets

Live Auction Highlights:

For tickets or more information call Carol at 203.977.6548.

Members: $100 | Non-Members: $125 (parking and admission included)

Hope to see you here on Friday night!

A Pileated woodpecker pokes its head out of its nest at Stamford Museum & Nature Center. Photo: Will Kies

With her fiery red head and infectious laugh she would be a catch in any neck of the woods.  In this case, the woods do happen to be actual ones, a corner of the 80 acres of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center.  And this particular red head belongs to the largest woodpecker to call the Museum (as well most of North America) home, the Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). 

The forests of SM&NC are home to six of Connecticut’s seven woodpecker species, but none are as unforgettable as this crow-sized, Woody Woodpecker inspiration.  Hikers are often treated to glimpses of their white wing linings in flight or hear the loud, laugh-like calls ringing through the trees.  This spring, observant visitors have gotten exceptional views as one resident pair have excavated a nest in a beech tree very near one of the Museum’s roads.

Photo by Will Kies

New large oval nest cavities are made by Pileated woodpeckers each year.  Previous years’ abandoned cavities are essential for the survival of other species, making the Pileated a hero to fellow forest dwellers and, because it alters its habitat for the benefit of other animals, a keystone species to scientists.  Both the male, distinguished by his red forehead and mustache, and the female work on the nest cavity, which can take up to six weeks to finish.  The female will lay one to six white eggs in the wood chip-lined cavity and both birds will help with incubation, with the male often taking the entire night shift.  Hatchlings, blind and totally dependent on their parents, emerge in about three weeks. 

Young woodpeckers will stay with their parents all summer, learning the ways of the pileated world.  At first, they will be fed a diet of regurgitated insects but soon they will learn to make their own feeding cavities and to use their long sticky tongue to catch carpenter ants and beetle larvae.  Young Pileateds will also discover the seasonal berries and nuts at the museum that will round out their diets, important information since they remain in SM&NC’s forests all year.  The extended period that the family stays together is vital to the young birds and greatly increases their chance for survival.   In September, the parents and children will part ways; the latter will head out to claim their own neck of the woods.  Next spring, the cycle will begin again.

As spring unfolds into summer, there will be many families, including our Pileateds, who will explore the forests of the Stamford Museum & Nature Center.  With all that SM&NC has to offer, there are so many reasons that the members of your nest should come and join them! 

- by Lisa Monachelli, Senior Environmental Educator at Stamford Museum & Nature Center