Film Screenings: Unnatural History of the Kakapo, Ghost Bird

The Unnatural History of the Kakapo

Sunday, March 25, 2012, 2 p.m.

Blackstone Library, Branford

This is a story about a family living with a terrible curse. Adults are plagued by infertility and the young are vulnerable to disease. But this family is no stranger to adversity; they are a family of kakapo. Once thought extinct, they’re now the world’s rarest and strangest wild parrot.

Today there’s only one breeding population left in the entire world and the normally guarded conservation project that protects it has opened its doors and given a documentary maker unprecedented access to the Kakapo Recovery Program. The timing is perfect, modern science thinks they’ve uncovered the reason behind the curse and the recovery team think they’ve found a way to lift it.

With the help of a Spanish avian artificial insemination expert, some old men and a team of dedicated conservationists and rangers, a cure is almost within reach. But the battle to save the kakapo is far from over and the kakapo themselves still have a hand to play.

Ghost Bird 

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

Blackstone Library, Branford

Set in a murky swamp overrun with birders, scientists, and reporters, Ghost Bird explores the limits of certainty, the seductive power of hope, and how one phantom woodpecker changed a sleepy Southern town forever.

In 2005, scientists announced that the Ivory-billed woodpecker, a species thought to be extinct for 60 years, had been found in the swamps of Eastern Arkansas. Now six years later, the woodpecker remains as elusive as ever. Ghost Bird brings the Ivory-bill’s blurry rediscovery into focus revealing our uneasy relationship with nature and the increasing uncertainty of our place within it.

Ghost Bird is being screened again because the December showing was suspended due to a flawed DVD. 

These films are cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the March 2012 Newsletter)

Bio Bits: The Other Dogwoods The Other Dogwoods

As we eagerly await spring and the showy “blossoms” of the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), many people may not realize that several other native dogwood species can be found in Connecticut’s woodlands, thickets, and wetlands. Though not as showy as the flowering dogwood, they all provide an abundance of late spring blossoms and summer fruit so important to insects and birds. It’s time to get to know and appreciate our lesser-known dogwoods.

Members of the dogwood family can be identified as such by their distinctive foliage: the primary veins on dogwood leaves radiate from the midrib in a curve toward the leaf tip. While the leaves of each species may differ in size and shape, their veins all form this same basic pattern. All of our local species have opposite leaves (leaves are paired opposite one another along the branch), except for the alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), which, as its name suggests, bears leaves that alternate along its stems. 

Silky dogwood leaves and flower.

Clusters of small green or white flowers form on the ends of the branches, but unlike those of the flowering dogwood, our other dogwoods’ flowers are not surrounded by large white or pink bracts. Most bear flat-topped flower clusters, except for the gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa), which has loose cone-shaped clusters. Several species of native bees, wasps, butterflies, and beetles find dogwood blossoms irresistible. While the insects busily feed on nectar and pollen, they help to pollinate the plants, which can then produce fruit.

Silky dogwood fruit

Most of these dogwoods are considered shrubs, varying in size from only three to ten feet tall. Again, the exception is the alternate-leaved, which can reach heights of twenty-five feet in its upland woodland habitat. While not gaining the height of their cousin, the red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea) and gray dogwood will spread to form thickets. A welcomed sight in winter, the red osier’s striking red branches provide some much-needed color along a chilly stream or woodland swamp. The silky dogwood (Cornus amomum) also thrives in wet areas and bears blue berry-like clusters of fruits, while the red osier’s fruits are an opaque white. White fruit on red stalks identifies the gray dogwood along hedgerows and thickets; the alternate-leaved dogwood’s mature fruit is a deep purple on red stalks. 

Whether red, white, blue, or purple, a dogwood’s fruit will provide an important food for local and migrating birds this summer and fall. Wood ducks, wild turkeys, northern flickers, eastern bluebirds, and northern cardinals are some of the colorful avian visitors attracted to dogwoods.

We will be offering both silky dogwood and red osier dogwood for sale this spring at our Native Plant Sale for the Birds. Please visit our website for ordering information.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Photos: www.hort.uconn.edu/plants

(From the March 2012 Newsletter)

Citizen Science: IPANE

Invasive species exhibit these biological traits

• grow rapidly
• produce seeds early in the growing season
• produce massive amounts of seeds or propagate vegetatively
• produce chemicals that prohibit the growth of other plant species
• adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions

These characteristics result in the invasive plants overwhelming native ones to the detriment of native insects which are unable to use the non-natives as a food source. As is described in the article on page 1, native insects are vital for sustaining bird populations.

You can help identify locations with invasive plants as a volunteer for IPANE.

The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England is a multi-faceted project designed to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about invasive plants in New England. The goals of the project are to facilitate education and research leading to a greater understanding of the dynamics of plant invasions, and to support the early detection of new invasions, which will enable rapid management responses.

The project includes a web-accessible atlas with images and descriptive information for the invasive and potentially invasive plants in New England. Collection databases constructed from herbarium specimens and current field records document the dates and locations of invasive plant occurrences, making it possible to generate maps that depict the distribution and spread of invasive plants across New England.

The intent is to provide public access to an online interactive resource that can act as an effective tool for students, researchers, land managers, conservationists, scientists, government agencies, the green industry, and the interested public.

The project is actively creating a network of trained volunteers who inventory habitats throughout New England for the presence and absence of invasive plant species. The data collected by our professionals and volunteers is used to continually update the collection databases, and plays a central role in IPANE’s goals of academic research and early detection.

Visit nbii-nin.ciesin.columbia.edu/ipane/ for complete details.

(From the March 2012 Newsletter)

Native Plants Support Native Insects; Native Insects Help Sustain Bird Populations

Most of us are aware that many birds are fond of the fruits and berries found on non-native plants as well as natives. 

One of the ways non-native plants spread and become invasive is through the guts of birds. Birds act as seed dispersers moving from one location to another taking invasive plants with them from your backyard to another backyard and often, into wild spaces.

Non-native plants ultimately cannot sustain bird populations because they do not support native insects. Native plants act as host plants and nectar sources for an insect’s entire life cycle, from larvae to adult. 

Native insects have evolved such that in their larval form they feed on a small number of plants and do not see non-native plants as food. For example, native plant expert Doug Tallamy writes that while the Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa), a species from China, supports no insect herbivores in North America, our native flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) supports 117 species of moths and butterflies! Oaks are hosts to an astonishing 532 species of caterpillars. 

Blueberry plants, such as this lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium - myrtilloides) support 288 species of Lepidoptera.

Photo: www.hort.uconn.edu/plants

Many invasive insects thrive here because birds do not recognize them as food. Perhaps you’ve heard of the gypsy moths that are destroying our hardwood forests or experienced hemlock woolly adelgid in your own backyard. Birds seek out indigenous insect species.

Spring azures are one type of Lepidoptera for which blueberry is a host. 

Photo: en.wikipedia.org/

Healthy insect populations are vital for birds during spring migration. During nesting season 96% of songbirds feed their young on insect protein.

During spring migration black-and-white warblers can be seen crawling up and down tree branches foraging for insects in bark crevices. Photo: education.eol.org

It starts with native plants. NATIVE plants + NATIVE insects = healthier bird populations.

Menunkatuck’s Native Plant Sale for the Birds offers trees and shrubs that will host native insects and feed birds. Please visit our website for ordering information. 

(From the March 2012 Newsletter)

Piping Plovers Need Your Help!

Help conserve threatened beach nesting birds in Connecticut :

• Do you have an interest in wildlife?
• Do you enjoy walking along the beaches of Long Island Sound?
• Can you spare at least two hours a month to help threatened birds in our state?

Please consider volunteering as a piping plover monitor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service!

For the last several years the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Connecticut Audubon, Audubon Connecticut, The Nature Conservancy, and Milford Point/Stratford Great Meadows Friends Group have partnered to monitor beaches between West Haven and Stratford for nesting Piping Plovers.

These migratory birds return to the Connecticut coast in March from their wintering grounds on the Gulf Coast and stay here up to five months. These beach-nesting birds are extremely susceptible to human disturbance, destruction by predators, and tidal wash outs. This annual volunteer monitoring program has made great strides over the years in enhancing the survival and productivity of plovers and terns in our state.

Volunteer monitors observe and record data for beach nesting birds at one of four locations: Milford Point near the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center; Silver Sands State Park in Milford; Long Beach in Stratford; and Sandy Point in West Haven. The primary duties involve assisting the USFWS with observation and data collection for nesting piping plovers and educating the public. Volunteers work 2-hour shifts from April until the end of the breeding season (usually in August) and must donate a minimum of 2 hours per month.

If you are interested:
Please attend the training and orientation session held Saturday, March 10, 2012 from 9am to 12noon at the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center at Milford Point.

The session will include piping plover natural history, the state of plovers in Connecticut , volunteer organization and logistics, reporting responsibilities, and beach training with simulated plovers and eggs.

For more information on the training session, directions to the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center, or to make reservations, please call USFWS Ranger Shaun Roche at (860) 399-2513 or email Shaun_Roche@fws.gov.