Whalebone Cove Preserve

© Chapter Staff

Why You Should Visit
Visitable only by small boat, this freshwater marsh is one of the most undisturbed and biologically significant in the region. It contains one of the largest stands of wild rice in Connecticut, providing a seasonal feeding area for various birds.

Location
Lyme

Hours
Dawn to dusk

Size
25 acres

Conditions
This site can only be visited by canoe, kayak or other small boat.

How to Prepare for Your Visit
Please see our “Preserve Visitation Guidelines” page.

Directions

  • Launch your canoe from Gillette Castle State Park, immediately north of the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry dock on the east side of the river. 
  • Paddle downriver, careful to keep well clear of the ferry and its wake. 
  • Enter Whalebone Cove to your left.

What to See: Plants
Whalebone Cove is studded with grasses and reeds, and surrounded by oak, hickory, and hemlock trees. It is the location of one of the largest stands of wild rice in the state, providing a seasonal feeding area for various birds. Whalebone Cove is also home to several rare marsh plants, and other colorful plants that are not rare: pickerel weed, cardinal weed, wild iris, and wild roses.

What to See: Animals
Birds sighted at Whalebone Cove include green and great blue herons, sora rails, least bitterns, long-billed marsh wrens, Carolina wrens, white-eyed vireos, Canada geese, common mergansers, red-tailed hawk, marsh hawks, eastern bluebirds, brown creepers, mockingbirds, myrtle warblers and various woodpeckers. Mallards, wood and black ducks also nest and feed in the area.

In fall and early spring, osprey hunt the shallows. Tides keep the cove's mouth free of ice in winter, affording easier fishing for bald eagles, which winter in the area. The saucer-shaped nests of largemouth bass and bluegill are visible in the sandy-bottomed channels in early July.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site  
Whalebone Cove is one of the most undisturbed and biologically significant freshwater tidal marshes on the Connecticut River.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
In 2001, the Connecticut chapter purchased 4.2 acres that includes tidal marsh and sloping wooded land on the north side of Ferry Road and Whalebone Cove.