Two wetlands connected by a very short stretch of river looked like a pair of spectacles on the map, providing the name for this brook. There's a boardwalk into the southern wetland at the Woodcock Nature Center on Deer Run Road at the Wilton/Ridgefield town line. A recently-constructed trail going northwest from the Nature Center's main loop trail gives access to the short "river" section and also gives a good view of the northern wetland.

Half a mile south, at the end of Gilly Lane, an earthen dam has been constructed to hold water in the wetlands during a flood. A pipe allows a safe amount of water to flow under the dam, but the water will back up when the flow becomes excessive.



Woodcock Nature Center on Deer Run Road in Wilton.
(The only nature center in the Norwalk watershed.)




The nature center building and Woodcock Pond.




The dam (foreground) and the pond at Woodcock.




Boardwalk over Spectacle Brook's southern wetland.




Beech grove on trail at Woodcock Nature Center.



Spectacle Brook Flood Control Area, above the dam.
The concrete structure allows water into a pipe...




Same spot, water flowing out of the pipe, below dam.


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