The Best Attractions In Marstons Mills

Bridge of Flowers - Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

We visited the beautiful Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts on a perfect fall day. The abandoned trolley line bridge was transformed into a garden pathway that the town’s gardeners and volunteers have maintained for more than 80 years. A must see if you are ever in the area!

Skunknett River/Bumps River Road, Osterville, MA

Skunknett River Wildlife Sanctuary, a MA Audubon property.

• One of five Mass Audubon Sanctuaries on Cape Cod (three in Barnstable: Great Marsh, Long Pasture and Sampsons Island);
• There are 147 acres and about one mile of trails;
• Along these tree-lined trails, visitors will witness nature reclaiming former mill sites and explore a fragrant Atlantic White Cedar swampland;
• There are three historic mill sites and abandoned cranberry bogs at this site; in the 19th century Skunknett Brook was dammed for a mill, but the marsh has since recovered. At low tide visitors will see remains of Atlantic White Cedar stumps, a testament to the hardiness of this type of wood;
• The name Skunknett is Algonquin for fishing place for eel (American eels may be seen in the sanctuary’s waterways);
• On the Overlook Trail, walkers will see West Pond and quite possibly black-crowned night-herons, ospreys and migrating ducks;
• Along the narrow Holly Trail (named for the surrounding American hollies), the Trail is the site of a vernal (spring-time) pool.
• The unique wetlands within the Sanctuary are breeding sites for a variety of amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates (many of these depend on temporary bodies of water — such as vernal pools — for their existence. In March and April, visitors will see the central floating island in this pool (otherwise known as a “doughnut” vernal pool, a quaking bog in the middle of a vernal —a disappearing or spring ephemeral — pool. One can also listen for chorusing male wood frogs here at during early springtime.
• Permanent water bodies, such as West Pond, are home to fish, which will consume the amphibious, reptilian and invertebral creatures' eggs and larvae, this these vernal pools are vital;
• Since Skunknett’s three dams were breached, Atlantic White Cedars (increasingly rare along the Atlantic coast), are re-generating along the swamp’s moist edges. Here visitors can see these cedars of varying sizes while enjoying the air redolent of their unique fragrance;
• In 1994, a storm and subsequent flooding blew out the old earthen dams to four ponds here: North, South, West and Mill. Probably some of the ponds had existed, some were man-enhanced. Their waters had been used for 200 years: one use was for a grist mill; a 2004 report to the Town of Barnstable mentions that, “North and South Ponds were dammed in the late 19th C. for stocking with fish. The area was also flooded in part for cranberry bogs;
• Skunknett is listed on the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species program's BioMap 2 as core habitat where two state-listed threatened species dwell: water willow stem borer and scarlet bluets (described by the state as about an inch long with red eyes and an orange body);
• There are also sundews returning, cardinal flowers, rose pogonias, bog orchids, turtleheads, and ladies tresses; Robert Buchsbaum, regional science director for the Audubon Society’s southeast district, suggests that pine barrens buckmoth may be here as well, another protected species. Not to mention the great blue herons that hang out here, with other birds and animals;

Information courtesy of William DeSousa-Mauk, DeMa Public Relations