Film Screenings: InGREEDients, Mad City Chickens

inGREEDients

Sunday, January 22, 2012, 2 p.m.

Blackstone Library, Branford

Do you know what partially hydrogenated oil is? What does zero grams of trans fat per serving really mean? Do you know what is in the food you eat on a daily basis? Registered nurse and filmmaker, David Burton knows. Ride along on this culinary roller coaster as David sets the table with a cornucopia of leading researchers and the most respected scientists and healthcare professionals in the world. What you will discover is an alarming connection between what you put in your mouth and some of the most disgusting, unpalatable, and life-threatening ailments known today!

With cutting edge animations rarely achieved in independent filmmaking, inGREEDients will entertain, inspire, educate and at times frighten audiences of all ages. If you could see one movie this year that could save your life....This is that movie!

Mad City Chickens

Sunday, February  26, 2012, 2 p.m.

Blackstone Library, Branford

Mad City Chickens is a sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical look at the people who keep urban chickens in their backyards. From chicken experts and authors to a rescued landfill hen or an inexperienced family that decides to take the poultry plunge—and even a mad professor and giant hen taking to the streets—it’s a humorous and heartfelt trip through the world of backyard chickendom.

These films are cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the January 2012 Newsletter)

A Plant Sale for the Birds

The excitement created by our recent project of planting native trees and shrubs at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary has not worn off. We’d like to share our experience with our members and the public, so next spring Menunkatuck Audubon will hold a plant sale.

And not just any plant sale. In an effort to discourage the continued planting and spread of invasive garden species, and to promote native plants that provide valuable food for birds, Menunkatuck will offer several native trees and shrubs that produce delicious fruits for some of our much loved birds.

Shadbush Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) blooms in early spring with a profusion of small white flowers. This tree is adaptable to a wide variety of habitats, from wet swampy areas to dry uplands. Shadbush, or shadblow or Juneberry, grows from 10 to 20 feet tall and flowers best in full sun. It suckers quite freely. The hard red fruits ripen in June, providing an early summer feast for many species of birds, including scarlet tanager, rose-breasted grosbeak, American robin, hermit thrush, red-bellied woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, cedar waxwing, blue jay, and gray catbird. 

Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is a hardy shrub that grows to about 8 feet in height, and half that in width. It can tolerate both wet and dry soils.  Full sun produces the most fruit. Nice leaf color in the fall. It has small white flowers that produce clusters of bright red berries later in the summer that attract several birds, including wild turkey, black-capped chickadee, eastern meadowlark, and cedar waxwing. 

Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum)  is a multi-stemmed tree with a rounded growth habit, growing to about 10 feet tall and wide. Umbels of creamy white flowers bloom in late spring, with deep blue clusters of fruits in the summer.  Likes moist soils and is a good plant to use on wet sites for mass border plantings. The fruits attract many birds, including wood duck, wild turkey, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, gray catbird, thrushes, northern mockingbird, and northern cardinal.  

Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) is a shrub dogwood with a multi-stem habit and grows to 10 feet or more.  Umbels of white flowers bloom in late spring. The late summer fruit are round white drupes that can be quite spectacular.  The stems turn a brilliant scarlet red in the winter, dramatic against snow cover. This dogwood likes moist soil and is an excellent plant to use for stream bank stabilization. Adaptable to other soil types as well. Birds attracted to the fruit include wild turkey, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, brown thrasher, eastern bluebird, purple finch, and white-throated sparrow. 

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) ‘Jolly Red’ can grow 10 to 15 feet in height. Its tiny white flowers bloom in June; you’ll need at least one male plant to pollinate the female plants to produce berries. Unlike other hollies, the dark green leaves are deciduous and its bright red berries crowd its bare winter stems, making a spectacular show. Winterberry is a plant of wet areas, but will do reasonably well under dry conditions.  Acid soil is preferable, and full sun will produce the most berries. It is a favorite of many bird species including American robin, hermit thrush, eastern bluebird, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and white-throated sparrow. 

Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)  is a twining vine with round to oval leaves.  The lovely, tubular flowers make quite a show in late spring to early summer and are a favorite of ruby-throated hummingbirds. Prefers well-drained neutral soil. Encourage vine to climb a trellis or other support. Two varieties available: ‘Alabama Crimson’ blooms are darker red than usual type; ‘Manifich’ is orange with a clear yellow throat.  

Lowbush Blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium - myrtilloides) is a wonderful little groundcover that is not too fussy as to soil type.  Grows to about 18 inches tall, with shiny leaves. White urn-shaped flowers in early summer produce small blueberries in August. Birds known to enjoy the bonanza include wild turkey, scarlet tanager, American robin, eastern bluebird, northern flicker, gray catbird, blue jay, and orioles.

Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) is a 6 to 8 foot shrub with glossy leaves that turn spectacular colors in the fall, including dark mahogany. Though it grows in dry, open fields, it is happiest in wet, boggy areas where soil is peaty and acidic. White urn-shaped flowers in early summer produce delicious berries in mid-summer that are loved by wild turkey, scarlet tanager, most thrush species, black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, gray catbird, blue jay, eastern towhee, and orioles. 

Possumhaw  Viburnum (Viburnum cassinoides/nudum), aka Witherod, grows about 8 to 10 feet in height and produces flat-topped clusters of small white flowers in early summer. Its fruits turn from green to pink with purple centers as summer progresses. Peaty damp soil is preferred; it can grow along the edge of ponds in very wet conditions. Also adaptable to drier soils.Wild turkey, brown thrasher, American robin, eastern bluebird, northern cardinal, pileated woodpecker, and cedar waxwing eat the fruits.

Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) ‘Wentworth’ grown in full sun can be quite spectacular when in bloom with its showy white 3 to 4 inch wide flower clusters.  This large shrub grows 8 to 10 feet in height with a spread of about the same.  It has three lobed, shiny leaves and likes moist soil with good drainage.  Bright red fruit clusters mature in September and can hang on the plant into the winter, providing food for wild turkey, various thrushes, cedar waxwing, and northern cardinal.  

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Though many of these plants grow in the understory in the wild, all will produce more flowers and fruit when grown in full sun.

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Watch for the native plant sale brochure in March.

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Images: Hermit thrush - beidlerforest.blogspot.com/, fruits -  www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/.

Bio Bits: Winterberry - Our Native Holly

The striking winterberry (Ilex verticillata) is a deciduous native holly of our local wetlands that really shows off its vibrant red berries after its leaves have dropped in the fall. The berries persist on the dark branches well into the winter, providing lovely contrast against a snow-covered backdrop, as well as an important food source for a variety of birds, including eastern bluebirds, American robins, hermit thrushes, white-throated sparrows, cedar waxwings, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. 

Photo: Cindi Kobak

Look for this shrub in low, damp areas where it creates fifteen-foot-high thickets. Stands of winterberry growing close to roadsides will invariably be “pruned” by people collecting the branches to add to holiday greenery. Let’s hope some were left for the birds!

Winterberry, like other holly species, requires the pollination of a female plant’s tiny white flowers by a nearby male plant (growing within 50 feet) in order to produce berries. Bumblebees love winterberry nectar and pollen and help in the pollination process. 

Winterberry is an excellent native species to add to your garden plantings, not only for the color it adds to a winter landscape, but also for the nourishment it provides to our native birds. 

It will be one of the native shrubs offered for sale this coming spring at Menunkatuck’s Native Shrubs and Trees Plant Sale.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

(From the January 2012 Newsletter)

Citizen Science: CoCoRaHS

CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, its aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. This is a community project.  Everyone can help, young, old, and in-between. The only requirements to join are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can effect and impact our lives.

Each time a rain, hail or snow storm crosses your area, volunteers take measurements of precipitation from as many locations as possible. These precipitation reports are then recorded at the web site www.cocorahs.org. The data are then displayed and organized for many of the end users to analyze and apply to daily situations ranging from water resource analysis and severe storm warnings to neighbors comparing how much rain fell in their backyards.

Visit www.cocorahs.org for more information.

(From the January 2012 Newsletter)

Menunkatuck Audubon Society Annual Report 2011

Suzanne Botta Sullivan reports on the past year’s activities

I am pleased to report that 2011 was another outstanding year for Menunkatuck Audubon Society. With your financial support and the hard work of the Chapter Board members and many volunteers we have conducted a vast array of programs, field walks, and conservation studies, worked on habitat restoration, initiated Audubon at Home schoolyard gardens,  and much more. With great pride, we list here for your review the significant accomplishments achieved in 2011.

Conservation

The Hammonasset Beach State Park Purple Martin and Tree Swallow Project, begun in 2005, continues to produce outstanding results. With close monitoring, nesting attempts by European starlings and house sparrows have been interrupted and astonishingly high success rates for both the purple martin colonies and the tree swallows has followed (125 purple martin fledged and 135 tree swallows fledged).

A fifth Osprey Platform was built and is waiting for a predator guard before it is installed in the Park. Funding for the materials for the platform came from  generous gift from one of our members. All of the new platforms were used by nesting ospreys; unfortunately, only two fledged, the rest having been taken by great horned owls.

The project to Clear Willards Island of Non-native Invasive Plants continues with Menunkatuck and the DEEP working together to prepare the area for planting native shrubs.

An Audubon IBA Grant and an Audubon Collaborative Grant provided funds for planting 440 native fruit- and berry-bearing plants at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary.

In partnership with the Madison Conservation Commission, Menunkatuck started a Dune Restoration Project at West Wharf in Madison. Non-native invasive plants were removed, beach sand was added, and 8100 beach grass plugs were planted. 

Menunkatuck continues as a partner in Connecticut Amphibian Monitoring Project (C.A.M.P.) monitoring a 2.5 square mile area for amphibians. The monitoring is part of a statewide 15-year study sponsored through the Connecticut DEEP and Connecticut Science Center. Two years remain on this study to establish a base line of data on amphibian populations in Connecticut. Volunteers are trained to identify the 22 species of amphibians native to Connecticut and on how to use standard amphibian census techniques like frog call surveys, salamander cover searches, and night road transects for migrating amphibians.

Our partnership with the Project Limulus horseshoe crab tagging surveys had more than 40 volunteers conduct 24 surveys and tag 975 horseshoe crabs, almost triple last years’s total.

Fishing line recycling bins were installed at six area boat launches and fishing spots.

Advocacy

Menunkatuck partnered with Audubon Connecticut, Quinnipiac Valley Audubon Society, and other conservation organizations in Improving Water Quality and Wildlife Habitat in the Quinnipiac River Watershed. A series of films is being shown at the Yale Peabody Museum and at venues in the Wallingford area. Public forums with area legislators are also scheduled. The project is supported by a grant to Audubon Connecticut from the Quinnipiac River Fund.

Education and Outreach

The Birdathon was held in May. The day was a great success. Menunkatuck and The Audubon Shop participated together and a total of more than 100 species were counted. 

Menunkatuck continued to support King/Robinson Magnet School in New Haven. In June we sponsored two programs by A Place Called Hope live birds of prey program. In October we provided the transportation for 140 6th, 7th, and 8th graders to travel to Hammonasset to study the ecology of Long Island Sound. 

Audubon at Home

Menunkatuck began Audubon at Home activities in the Chapter area. Two AAH schoolyard gardens were begun. Lorrie Shaw obtained a grant from the Guilford Fund for Education to convert two areas at Melissa Jones Elementary School to hummingbird and butterfly gardens. A grant from the National Resource Conservation Service is being used to establish a hummingbird and butterfly planter garden at King/Robinson Magnet School in New Haven. 

Film Series

Menunkatuck began a series of film screenings in partnership with Audubon Connecticut and the Blackstone Library. Eight independent documentaries on environmental issues were shown to excellent reviews.

General Public Meeting

Public programs are held monthly on the second Wednesday of each month (except July and August). Last year the meetings featured a variety of topics and speakers, including programs on birding in Iraq, live raptors from A Place Called Hope, a trip to Namibia and Botswana, and a close look at invertebrates. Our meetings are free and open to the public.

Field Programs

This year Menunkatuck provided seven exciting field programs, including a duck/eagle hop along the Connecticut River, a woodcock search at Durham Meadows, a spring trip to the RWA Big Gulph Recreation Area in North Branford, and a fall trip to the Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in Litchfield.

Newsletter 

The newsletter is printed six times per year. In addition to informing our members and friends about Menunkatuck’s activities and events we include Cindi Kobak’s “Bio-bits” natural history essays. The Newsletter also includes tips on going green and information about upcoming events in our chapter area. Citizen Science highlighted six opportunities for helping scientists with their research.

Web Site

Menunkatuck maintains a web site that features a blog, a photo gallery, and a variety of educational information and links. We are also on Facebook with frequent posts with photos, event notices, and links to bird and environmental articles on the Internet. Menunkatuck’s web site featured birds for Audubon’s Birding on the Net contest.

Volunteers

Menunkatuck volunteers contributed more than 650 man-hours to conservation, advocacy, education, and outreach activities.

Conclusion

Menunkatuck continues to be a leader in environmental education, conservation, and advocacy. Please join the Menunkatuck Board in making 2012 a truly banner year. If you can become more involved please e-mail me at president@menunkatuck.org or speak to any Board member at any event.

~Suzanne Botta Sullivan