Amazing amphibians at Audubon

SHARON — They sky was overcast and temperatures were brisk last Thursday, April 21, but that didn’t deter an adventurous group of young field scientists from pursuing frogs, tadpoles and other exciting amphibians at Sharon Audubon. The amphibian program was part of a three-day camp held during the Region One School District’s spring vacation. Other sessions had featured birds and insects. The morning began with a visit to the pond at Audubon, where field expert and group leader Sarah Conley introduced the crew of 16 children to the freshwater home of a host of amphibians. The budding biologists were armed with nets, screens and tanks as they fanned out along the water’s edge in search of anything slimy, squirmy, alive and elusive. Unfortunately, the catch wasn’t quite commensurate with the effort. Conley pointed out that most full-grown frogs are nocturnally active creatures. The group did find one tadpole however, along with a yellow-striped water snake, creatively coined “Bobby.” Before venturing back inside the Audubon center, the children put all the critters back in the pond.Satisfied with their exploits on the water, the youngsters then sat down at the arts and crafts table, where they made googly-eyed frogs, complete with extendable blow-out tongues for optimal fly catching. Afterward, they all participated in a fly-eating contest, to see whose frog was the hungriest — although as one member of the group reminded everyone, “It’s not really about winning or losing.”

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less