Falkner Island is a 2.87-acre (1.16 ha) crescent-shaped island located in Long Island Sound 3 miles (5 km) off Guilford, Connecticut, United States. The island has been visited by the Native Americans for thousands of years. Its Quinnipiac name is "Massancummock", meaning "the place of the great fish hawks". In 1641, Henry Whitfield and the founders of Guilford purchased the island from the Mohegan tribe's sachem, Uncas, as part of a transaction for the land east of East River. Purchased by the Stone family in 1715, it remained in the family until it was sold to the government in 1801.
Aerial view after Hurricane Sandy
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches 110 mi (180 km) from the East River and the Throgs Neck Bridge in New York City, along the North Shore of Long Island, to Block Island Sound. A mix of freshwater from tributaries, and saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound is 21 mi (34 km) at its widest point and varies in depth from 65 to 230 feet.
Long Island Sound, highlighted in pink between Connecticut (to the north) and Long Island (to the south)
Long Island Sound at night as seen from space
James Goodwyn Clonney, Fishing Party on Long Island Sound off New Rochelle, 1847
Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are the only aquatic turtles to reside in brackish water, which makes the Long Island Sound estuary a special habitat for the Northern subspecies.
