Burying Hill Beach
Burying Hill Road, Westport, Fairfield
County, Connecticut
2.39 acres
Westport Parking Emblem or Daily Parking Fee Required Memorial Day to Labor Day. Lifeguard in season. No dogs allowed in summer season.
Located just east of Sherwood Island.
Directions:
US 95 north to Exit 18; turn left onto the Sherwood Island Connector; pass over US 95; turn right onto Greens Farms Road; turn right onto Burying Hill Road.
sand and rock beach, picnic area with grills, changing area, wildlife area along canal that borders beach entrance
Trails:
11/05/2005. On a warm, beautiful day (very much above the usual seasonal temperature), Rosemary Cooney, Sarah-David Rosenbaum, dog Sonar and I toured this small beach. Burying Hill Road was almost flooded out on this day at high tide. We learned from a local that the tide hardly ever came up this high. There is salt marsh along the road, but we could not see that much of it because it was mostly under water.
The beach is small, but there is a small walking strip of peebly beach heading along the sea wall holding the cliffs safe from the waters of the Long Island Sound. After touring the beach and Burying Hill Road, we walked up the green-lawned hill to the top of the cliff overlooking the sea wall and the Sound. There was some vegetation along the edges of the circumference of the green lawns. Once again, it did not take long to take the plant list for the park and beach. Dr. Patrick L. Cooney.
PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick Cooney, Sarah-David Rosenbaum, Rosemary Cooney
* = plant blooming on date of field trip, 11/05/2005
Trees:
Acer platanoides (Norway maple)
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Acer saccharinum (silver maple)
Acer saccharum (sugar maple)
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Betula populifolia (gray birch)
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)
Fraxinus americana (white ash)
Gleditsia triacanthos (honey locust)
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Pinus sp. (pine)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Pinus thunbergii (Japanese black pine)
Prunus serotina (black cherry)
Shrubs:
Elaeagnus umbellata (autumn olive)
Forsythia sp. (golden bells)
Iva frutescens (marsh elder)
Juniperus sp. (horizontalis) ? (juniper)
Ligustrum sp. (privet)
Lonicera morrowii (Morrow's honeysuckle)
Myrica pensylvanica (bayberry)
Rhus glabra (smooth sumac)
Rosa carolina (pasture rose)
Rosa rugosa (wrinkled rose)
Rubus phoenicolasius (wineberry)
Rubus sp. (blackberry)
Vines:
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata (porcelainberry)
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asiatic bittersweet)
Hedera helix (English ivy)
Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy)
Herbs:
Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard)
Allium vineale (field garlic)
Arctium sp. (burdock)
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Atriplex hastata (halberd-leaved orach)
Cirsium vulgare (bull thistle)
Cichorium intybus (chicory) *
Lespedeza capitata (round-headed bush clover)
Limonium carolinianum (sea lavender)
Linaria vulgaris (butter and eggs) *
Oenothera biennis (common evening primrose)
Oxalis sp. (yellow wood sorrel) *
Phytolacca americana (pokeweed)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Silene latifolia (white campion) *
Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet nightshade)
Solidago sempervirens (seaside goldenrod)
Taraxacum sp. (dandelion) *
Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
(tomato)
Grasses:
Eleusine indica (zipper grass)
Panicum virgatum (switch grass)
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little blue stem grass)
Spartina alterniflora (salt marsh cord grass)
Spartina patens (salt meadow cord grass)
(horticultural grass)
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