Menunkatuck Audubon Society

Fifth Osprey Platform Installed at Hammonasset

2012-01-16T19:29:00.000-05:00

Two dozen hearty volunteers from Menunkatuck and Friends of Hammonasset braved the below 0°F wind chill Sunday, January 15, to install a fifth osprey platform at Hammonasset. The new platform replaces one that was in such poor condition that it had not been used for nesting in several years. The location for the nest site is about 150 yards from the Willards Island observation platform which should afford good views of nesting birds.

Photos by Shannon Schiesser and Jim Murtagh.

Film Screenings: InGREEDients, Mad City Chickens

2011-12-18T17:13:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-18T16:20:00.006-05:00

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.

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

Watch for the native plant sale brochure in March.

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

Bio Bits: Winterberry - Our Native Holly

2011-12-18T16:09:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-18T16:07:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-18T13:09:00.004-05:00

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

American Crows - Intelligent Opportunists

2011-11-14T08:53:00.001-05:00

Most people, including preschoolers, can identify the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).

wikimedia.org

A large black bird with a thick bill, the ubiquitous crow walks and flies through our lives on a regular basis. It ranges throughout Connecticut, common in urban, suburban and rural areas. It likes open areas with trees, at home in both farm country and city parks. A member of the corvid family, the crow is considered one of the most intelligent species in the bird world.

Crows are omnivores, eating anything from crops (such as corn and fruit), to insects, snakes, nestling birds, roadkill, and garbage. Families tend to travel and feed together, so where you see one crow you are likely to see more. A family unit can consist of a mated pair and their offspring from previous years, as well as this year’s young. Together they may defend a territory of about 100 acres. Watch them walk through the leaf litter at the edge of the woods or through a grassy area as they scare up insects and snakes. Carrion is also readily eaten, but since the crow is not equipped with a bill that can tear open a fresh carcass, it relies on other animals, such as vultures and mammals, to begin the process. It is not uncommon to see a flock of crows “waiting in the wings” for their turn to feed on larger carrion. The author once observed three crows follow a fisher through the woods as it searched for prey. The crows flew from tree to tree above the fisher, ready and willing to clean up any leftover scraps from the fisher’s next meal.

Dennis Riordan

Crows are opportunists, scavenging scraps from landfills, trash dumpsters, and suburban compost piles. And they have benefited from our human development in other respects as well. As we create more and more “edge habitat” by fragmenting tracts of forest, we provide these “edge predators” with the opportunity to find and plunder the nests of smaller songbirds.

As winter closes in you may notice small flocks of crows pass overhead in late afternoon. They are returning to their communal winter roost for the night. Typically, the large congregation of roosting crows will disperse from their roost trees in the morning as they spend the day in search of food. By mid-afternoon they begin to head back to the roost. Small flocks will join up at pre-roosting sites before continuing on. If you are along one of the crows’ flight paths this winter, you are likely to see them pass by on a daily basis.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

(From the November, 2011 Newsletter)

Winter Field Trips

2011-11-14T08:39:00.001-05:00

Livingston Ripley Waterfowl

Conservancy, Litchfield, CT

Sunday, November 20, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

LRWC Photo

Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy, located in Litchfield, Connecticut, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the research and protection of rare and endangered ducks and other waterfowl throughout the world. The organization maintains an aviary with a diverse collection of waterfowl from around the world for educational and research purposes.

Join Menunkatuck Audubon Society for a tour of LRWC’s aviaries, and experience a unique opportunity to view and learn about waterfowl from around the world. Please dress warmly and be prepared to spend up to two hours outside during the tour. Boots or other waterproof shoes are recommended in case of muddy conditions at the facility.

Pre-registration is required, and a $10 per person donation to LRWC is requested. To register for this trip, please contact Nina Levenduski e-mailing nina@menunkatuck.org. Carpools from the shoreline area may be set up, inquire with the leader if interested.

Winter Birdwatching at Sandy Point and New Haven Harbor

Saturday, December 3, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.

USFWS

Sandy Point in West Haven is recognized by Audubon Connecticut as an Important Bird Area (IBA), and a great place to see wintering shorebirds, ducks and other waterfowl. Join Nina Levenduski and other Menunkatuck birders for a walk on the beaches to look for wintering birds. Beginning birders welcome! Please bring binoculars and dress in layers for cold and windy conditions. Camera, hand lens, field guides, etc. are also suggested.

Optional lunch stop after the walk at a local burger/seafood joint.

Meet at the parking area at the junction of Beach Street and Second Avenue in West Haven.

To sign up for the trip, please contact Nina Levenduski by e-mailing nina@menunkatuck.org. Bad weather the day of the trip cancels.

(From November, 2011 Newsletter)

Film Screenings: Green Fire, Tapped, Living Downstream, and Ghost Bird at Peabody Museum and Blackstone Library

2011-11-14T08:34:00.001-05:00

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time

Saturday, November 12, 1:00-3:30 p.m.

Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven

Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time is the first feature length documentary film ever made about famed conservationist Aldo Leopold. The film explores Aldo Leopold’s life in the early part of the twentieth century and the many ways his land ethic idea continues to be applied all over the world today.

The film shares highlights from Leopold’s life and extraordinary career, explaining how he shaped conservation in the twentieth century and still inspires people today. Although probably best known as the author of the conservation classic A Sand County Almanac, Leopold is also renowned for his work as an educator, philosopher, forester, ecologist, and wilderness advocate.

Green Fire illustrates Leopold’s continuing influence by exploring current projects that connect people and land at the local level. The film portrays how Leopold’s vision of a community that cares about both people and land—his call for a land ethic—ties all of these modern conservation stories together and offers inspiration and insight for the future.

This film screening is part of the Quinnipiac River Watershed project.

Tapped

Sunday, November 27, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

Is access to clean drinking water a basic human right or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig’s debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water.

Tapped is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.

From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. This film is cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

Living Downstream

Friday, December 9, 7:00-8:00 p.m.

Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven

Living Downstream is an eloquent feature length documentary that charts the life and work of biologist, author, cancer survivor and cancer prevention advocate, Sandra Steingraber.

Living Downstream is based on Sandra’s book of the same name, and, like the book, documents the growing body of scientific evidence that links human health with the health of our environment.

This film screening is part of the Quinnipiac River Watershed project.

Ghost Bird

Sunday, December 18, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial 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. Millions of dollars poured in from the government while ornithologists and birders flooded the swamps to find the rare bird. Down the road, the town of Brinkley, Arkansas - itself on the brink of extinction – was transformed by the hope, commerce, and controversy surrounding their feathered friend. 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.

This film is cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the November, 2011 Newsletter)

Citizen Science: Project Squirrel

2011-11-14T08:23:00.001-05:00

No matter where you live, city or suburb, from the Midwest to the East Coast, Canada to California, whether squirrels live in your neighborhood or not, you are encouraged to become a squirrel monitor.

Squirrels are useful organisms to study because they are active during the day and everyone has an opinion about them. Additionally, squirrels can be important indicators of local ecology because they are resident in small territories and active year round, they require a range of resources that are also important to many other urban animals, and their populations rise and fall with the same predators and environmental conditions that affect our neighborhood wildlife.

What to do: Take a look around your home, office, school, or anywhere you are and, whether you see squirrels or not, visit projectsquirrel.org/ and click on the green button to submit your observations. We want to know where squirrels are as well as where they aren’t.

How often: You can submit as many observations from as many places as you like. It’s most effective to submit at least one observation per site per season but the more observations the better.

Who: Anyone of any age can participate. Make it an office game or a classroom project, compare notes with friends in other states, get your family involved—everyone can observe nature.

For complete details, visit projectsquirrel.org/.
(From the November, 2011 Newsletter)

Quinnipiac River Watershed Is Focus of Project to Improve Water Quality

2011-11-14T08:19:00.001-05:00

http://qrwgis.newhaven.edu/watershe.htm

Menunkatuck Audubon Society has partnered with Audubon Connecticut, Yale Peabody Museum, and other local environmental organizations on a project to raise awareness among legislators, homeowners, and the general public about ways to reduce both non-point and point sources of pollution and to improve habitat for birds and other wildlife within the Quinnipiac River Watershed. Improving Water Quality and Wildlife Habitat in the Quinnipiac River Watershed will promote legislative, municipal, corporate and personal actions to improve water quality and habitat for wildlife in the QRW through a combination of (1) legislative forums in New Haven and Wallingford, (2) a film series coupled with panel discussions to be held at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, and at venues in Wallingford and Meriden, and (3) outreach materials to be displayed and disseminated at a wide range of venues.

Funded by a grant from the Quinnipiac River Fund to Audubon Connecticut, the project will address the need to reduce non-point and point sources of pollution and to improve habitat for wildlife by providing people with the tools, resources, and motivation to take on actions that can make our homes, schools, businesses, and municipal spaces in the Quinnipiac River Watershed healthy and vibrant while also providing sustainable habitats for birds and other wildlife. Improving habitat for wildlife also improves natural infrastructure for reducing non point source pollution.

The project is part of the Audubon At Home in Connecticut program of Audubon Connecticut, part of the larger National Audubon Society’s mission. The goal of the AAH program in Connecticut is to inspire people to incorporate conservation actions into their daily lives by providing the support and resources necessary to do so, in order to conserve birds, wildlife, and habitat. AAH educates the public on water conservation and water quality issues, encourages reduction of pesticides and other harmful chemicals, removing invasive plant species and replacing them with native plants that support wildlife naturally.

The film screenings at the Yale Peabody Museum are:

• Vanishing of the Bees, October 26 The film starts at 6:30 with the doors opening at 5:30.

• Green Fire, Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time, November 12

Doors will open at 1:00. After the screening of the film you will have a chance to ask local environmental leaders questions about their work and address concerns about the Quinnipiac River.

• Living Downstream, December 9

The film starts at 6:30 with the doors opening at 5:30.

• The Work of 1,000 will be shown during the Peabody’s annual Earth Day celebration.

Visit the Peabody website for complete details.

Representatives from local environmental organizations (please see below for a complete list of organizations) will be at each of the film screenings to speak with the public about the Quinnipiac River Watershed and the work they are doing to protect its valuable natural resources.

Local environmental organizations involved in the project include Audubon Connecticut, Menunkatuck Audubon Society, Quinnipiac Valley Audubon Society, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Connecticut Fund for the Environment/Save the Sound, Quinnipiac River Watershed Association, and The Watershed Partnership.

The Quinnipiac River Fund was created “to improve the environmental quality of the Quinnipiac River and the New Haven Harbor and the watersheds of these water bodies, and otherwise to benefit the environment of these resources.” The fund was established in 1990 by a court settlement of litigation between the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Upjohn Company, concerning wastewater discharges from the Upjohn Company’s plant in North Haven. The Upjohn Company was required to pay $1.2 million dollars over a three year period. This money was used to establish a permanent fund. The net income from this fund is used to fund projects that will improve the quality of the Quinnipiac River Watershed.

(From the November 2011 Newsletter)

2011-09-04T17:31:00.004-04:00

It was an exciting and astonishing season for the Menunkatuck Project Limulus team. Last year we tagged a total of 370 horseshoe crabs, so when Professor Mark Beekey of Sacred Heart University asked me how many tags I thought I could use this year, I optimistically said 600. Little did I know that I would have to request more tags twice during the season. We ended up tagging a grand total of 975 crabs!

One may conclude from this information that there were more crabs at our beaches this year. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. One reason for the increase in numbers tagged was having more independent taggers this year than last year. Another reason was the extra days the group spent on the beaches during the peak of the spawning season. Between May 25th. and May 28th. we tagged 281 crabs. These were not regular survey days. A third reason why we tagged more crabs was because we had more well trained volunteers this year who were able to tag the crabs as we counted them during the survey of the beach.

Guilfordʼs Project Limulus team surveyed the two beaches at Indian Cove 24 times between May 1st. and July 1st. We also assembled at the Cove beaches 5 extra times for tagging only. We had 8 independent taggers who covered most of the beaches in Guilford. We were more likely to find crabs during the day this year than last year, but we continued to find the most at night. We counted the first crabs of the season on May 15th. The peak of the season was May 27th., when we tagged 110 in one night.

Here is the final data for the 2011 horseshoe crab spawning season:

We counted a total of 171 crabs during the 24 standardized surveys conducted at the 2 Indian Cove beaches. We tagged a total of 975 crabs at Guilford beaches including Indian Cove, Joshua Cove, Shell Beach, Chittenden Beach, Jacobs Beach, and Grass Island. We recorded 262 recaptures (crabs which have been previously tagged). Last year we only found 26 recaptures!

I am grateful to the 40 plus active volunteers for their help and enthusiasm. It was a very successful season and we had a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing all of you next year.

We are always happy to have new volunteers. If you are interested, please contact

judy@menunkatuck.org. For more information about Project Limulus, go to info@projectlimulus.org.

Total crabs tagged in 2010- 370

Total crabs tagged in 2011- 975

Total recaptures in 2010- 26

Total recaptures in 2011- 262

Total crabs counted during surveys in 2010- 151

Total crabs counted during surveys in 2011- 171

2010 Indian Cove Public Beach

Single males-4

Single females-1

Pairs-30

Female with 2 males-2

Female with 3 males-0

Total crabs-71

2011

Single males-19

Single females-9

Pairs-41

Female with 2 males-7

Female with 3 males-1

Total crabs-135

2010 Indian Cove Private Beach

Single males-13

Single females- 4

Pairs-19

Female with 2 males-3

Female with 3 males-4

Total crabs-80

2011

Single males-6

Single females-1

Pairs-13

Female with 2 males-1

Female with 3 males-0

Total crabs-36

Total crabs counted- 36

Green Sea Turtle Found Trapped in Fishing Line

2011-08-26T09:37:00.001-04:00

New London Day:

Originally mistaken for a lobster buoy, the endangered sea turtle was found with its neck and extremities bound in fishing line, covered in algae, and with a severely inflamed front and rear flipper (possibly from crab and other sea life nibbling), showing signs the turtle was trapped for a significant amount of time.

Retrieve your fishing line. There are fishing line recycling bins located at popular fishing spots.

(New London Day photos.)

Osprey with Hook and Monofilament Line

2011-07-29T20:05:00.004-04:00

Barb Walker of Clearwater (FL) Audubon Society posted this on the Osprey Migration Group page.

Rescuers were called to St. Petersburg Beach regarding this osprey with a hook and monofilament line entanglement. He is able to fish and eat but if he weakens and comes down to the ground we will know it and will grab him. He is being monitored by area residents, nearby workers and volunteers.

The photos were taken by volunteer Wendy Meehan (used with permission).

Fishing line and birds do not mix.

Topsmead Bird Walk

2011-06-28T15:14:00.003-04:00

It was a good day for bobolinks at Topsmenad on Sunday. We had 30+ in the three fields we hit.

Trip list:

Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Yellow Warbler
Prairie Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Japanese Barberry and Lyme Disease

2011-06-20T13:00:00.006-04:00

An article in the New London Day describes a link between the invasive Japanese barberry and Lyme disease.

Jeffrey Ward, chief scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Department of Forestry and Agriculture, and experiment station scientist Scott Williams have been doing research on the relationship between Japanese barberry, ticks that carry Lyme disease and deer overpopulation.

A highly invasive plant that forms dense canopies in forests - particularly those with high deer populations that eat most every other plant - Japanese barberry also creates moist, cool shelters that harbor ticks that carry the Lyme disease bacteria, Ward's and Williams' research has shown. Hot, dry conditions suppress tick populations.
At 28 study areas, including a parcel along Lord's Cove in Old Lyme, the two have been studying various aspects of the triangular relationship between ticks, deer and barberry, and spreading their message to land conservation organizations about the best methods for ridding forests of barberry. Deer serve as hosts for adult ticks, while the barberry functions as a nursery for ticks in their juvenile stages.
Williams said tick abundance in barberry-infested areas is 67 percent higher than those where native plants are predominant. Also, the percentage of ticks that carry the Lyme bacteria is higher - 126 infected ticks per acre versus 10 per acre in barberry-free areas, Williams said, though the reason for that is as yet unclear. After barberry removal, Ward said, tick populations drop as much as 80 percent.

Go here for the full story.

Judy Knowles Talks about Horseshoe Crabs on WPKN

2011-06-13T17:17:00.003-04:00

Menunkatuck's Project Limulus coordinator Judy Knowles was interviewed about the horseshoe crab research study on WPKN this afternoon. The interview is archived at http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/listen/20959 and begins at about 15 minutes.

King/Robinson Students Experience Raptors from A Place Called Hope

2011-06-06T20:28:00.008-04:00

The students at King/Robinson Magnet School in New Haven experienced live raptors from A Place Called Hope Raptor Rehabilitators today. In two programs, one for the Pre-K to Grade 4 students and the other for the Grade 5 to Grade 8 students, Christine Cummings and Todd Secki brought out five birds of prey.

An eastern screech owl and a great horned owl were the birds used to describe the unique features of owls. A red-tailed hawk and a broad-winged hawk showed the similarities and differences between the largest and one of the smallest hawks found in Connecticut.

The upper level students also got to see a barn owl in its second performance since coming to A Place Called Hope. The barn owl showed little of the shyness that Christine and Todd thought it might and gave the students a good show.

Menunkatuck Joins in Fishing Line Recycling Program

2011-05-30T15:36:00.003-04:00

Menunkatuck has installed these cool fishing line recycling bins at several locations within our chapter area. Please deposit all fishing line you use (or find) into these bins to protect birds and other wildlife from entanglement. The bins will be emptied and the fishing line collected to be recycled by the following volunteers and town/state staff.

Guilford Town Marina - maintained by marina staff
Lake Quonnipaug boat launch, Guilford - maintained by Lorrie Shaw and Cindi Kobak
Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison (5 locations within the park) - maintained by park staff
Madison/Guilford boat launch off Neck Road – maintained by Bob Kuchta

We plan to install several more recycling bins in the future at fishing sites in Branford and West Haven. If you know of an appropriate site and would like to volunteer to maintain a bin, please contact Cindi Kobak at program@menunkatuck.org.

Menunkatuck Supports ‘Adopt a Book’ in Guilford

2011-05-26T18:47:00.002-04:00

The Guilford Library recently put out the call seeking donations toward the purchase of new books for their children’s room. Menunkatuck Audubon answered that call to ‘Adopt a Book.’ Working with Suellen Heinrich at the library, we chose ten nature-related books to donate:

Backyard Birds – Peterson Field Guide
Birds of Prey – Peterson Field Guide
Bring On the Birds – Susan Stockdale
Can We Save the Tiger? – Martin Jenkins
Frog In a Bog – John Himmelman
Hatch – Roxie Munroe
Olivia’s Birds – Saving the Gulf – Olivia Bouler
Roscoe and the Pelican Rescue – Lynn Reed
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian – Margarita Engle
Thunder Birds – Nature’s Flying Predators – Jim Aronsky

Book plates will be placed in each of these books with the Menunkatuck Audubon Society named as donor. Share them with a favorite kid this summer when you visit the Guilford Library.

Thank you to our members, whose support made this donation possible.

New Birders’ Log Box at Hammonasset

2011-05-23T12:01:00.001-04:00

Thanks to board member, John Picard, Menunkatuck has a beautiful new wooden box to store our Birders’ Log, newsletters, and our revised Birds of Hammonasset State Park Checklist. (Grateful thanks to Frank Gallo for working with us to revise the list, which now includes all 328 species of birds seen in the park.)

Publish Post

Please remember to record your bird sightings in the log after birding in the park. Birders can check the list to find what has been seen in the park recently, and to know where to look. The records are compiled at the end of the year and sent to Audubon CT and the CT Ornithological Association.

Happy birding.

Project Limulus Update: They're back!

2011-05-18T21:07:00.002-04:00

A group of 12 Project Limulus volunteers met at Indian Cove on Sunday night,May 15th., at 9:40 and the crabs were finally there. We counted 6 during the actual survey but we were able to tag a total of 17. Sixteen crabs were tagged at the public beach and 1 was tagged at the private beach.

We are doing the survey by simple count now rather than dividing the beach into quadrats as we did during the last 2 years. We just walk through the water along the length of the beach, from the water's edge to 3 meters out, and tally single males, single females, pairs, and females with 2 or more males. After completing the survey we tag, tag, tag! Mark Beekey and Jennifer Mattei ( Sacred Heart profs in charge of the study ) decided to change the protocol for beaches measuring under 150 meters. It is much quicker and doesn't require as many people. It felt great to be out there again, getting up close and personal with the horseshoe crabs! We are hoping to count and tag many more crabs over the next few weeks now that their spawning season is under way.

Field Trip to Hammonasset

2010-12-18T21:06:00.003-05:00

Nina Levenduski led a morning trip to Hammonasset Beach State Park this morning.

Sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and dunlin were feeding along the beach below the east pavilion. Common and red-throated loons were numerous off-shore with a couple coming within 20 feet of the beach. Off the breakwater were four common goldeneye. Meigs Point gave good looks at a female common eider. Along the moraine trail more loons were sighted and two common mergansers were seen in Clinton Harbor. Four black-bellied plovers were on the rocks off the end of the moraine trail and a harbor seal was bobbing in the water. Back at the Nature Center parking lot was a flock of horned larks.

Bird list:

American Black Duck

Mallard

Common Eider

Common Goldeneye

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-throated Loon

Common Loon

Black-bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Purple Sandpiper

Dunlin

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

American Crow

Horned Lark

Black-capped Chickadee

Carolina Wren

Northern Mockingbird

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

Hammonasset Fall Planting

2010-11-07T12:05:00.005-05:00

Twelve volunteers spent the morning of November 6 planting 210 native trees and shrubs at Hammonasset Beach State Park. An Audubon Collaborative Grant supplemented with money from the Friends of Hammonasset Unilever Grant were used to purchase the plants and the mulch that was put around the plants.

Project Limulus Update

2010-08-04T22:16:00.002-04:00

Here is the final data for the 2010 horseshoe crab spawning season:

We surveyed 2 beaches in Indian Cove, Guilford, CT. We did the survey a total of 27 times during April, May, June, and July. We counted a total of 151 crabs.

Indian Cove Public Beach:

Single males- 4

Single females-1

Pairs- 30

Female with 2 males- 2

Female with 3 males- 0

Total crabs- 71

Indian Cove Private Beach:

Single males- 13

Single females- 4

Pairs- 19

Female with 2 males- 3

Female with 3 males- 4

Total crabs- 80

We counted the most crabs on the night of May 25th. during the full moon. The peak of the spawning season was May 25th. through May 29th.

Our volunteer group tagged a total of 370 crabs. 130 crabs were tagged in Indian Cove and the rest were tagged at Great Harbor, Jacobs Beach, Grass Island, Tuttles Point,Chaffinch Island, and Chittenden Park.

We reported 26 recaptures ( crabs which have been previously tagged ). One of the most interesting ones was found by Nina Ellison. It was a male which had been tagged in VA in 1999.

Thanks again to all of the Project Limulus volunteers. I will contact everyone in the spring. Now that we have such a dedicated and well-trained team, I'm looking forward to tagging even more crabs next year. I would like to try adding some extra sessions which would be just for tagging crabs at other Guilford beaches.

Project Limulus Update

2010-07-24T19:21:00.002-04:00

Another horseshoe crab spawning season has come to an end. You may still see an occasional crab cruising around at the beach, but the crab " love fests " of May and June are now just a memory.

Survey period number five began on June 24th. On a glorious morning full of sun and sea, we were joined by a girl scout troop, and Camden and Justin Blumberg, ages 8 and 6, respectively. They are the youngest members of our team. The kids quickly learned the survey protocol, manning the ropes and recording the data like old pros. We didn't find any crabs during the survey but I had found one earlier, a large female. They all got to hold her and I got to share all of the wonderful things I have learned about horseshoe crabs. Shane Gallimore, a high school student, who was also doing the survey for the first time, got to tag and release her back into the Cove.

No crabs were counted during the June 26th. surveys. However, thanks to a suggestion from Project Limulus team members Stephanie Donaldson and Mary Heffernan, we did take part in an environmentally important event called " Hands Across the Sands". It was an international peaceful gathering to oppose off-shore drilling and support clean energy. Most of the Indian Cove beach-goers joined us in this show of support. Pam Johnson, Senior Staff Writer for the Guilford Courier, wrote an article for the July 8th, edition. She included a photo by by Stephanie Donaldson. It was just one of many cool things which have happened as a result of my involvement with Project Limulus and Audubon. ( To access the article, go to zip06.com/guilford ).

That night, Lesley Orlowski,Lauren Orlowski, and Tom Kelly took over the 11:30 p.m. survey so I could have a night off. They tagged 4 crabs. Thanks guys!

No crabs were seen during the daytime survey on June 28th. and the 12:30 a.m. survey was cancelled due to the weather, the late hour, and the lack of crabs.

We did the survey two more times, on July 9th. at night and July 11th. in the morning. As we expected, there were no crabs. This officially ended our 2010 survey. I got busy sending data to Mark Beekey at Sacred Heart University. I want to congratulate my taggers; Jim Murtaugh, Lorrie and Terry Shaw, Melanie Tolley, Tom Kelly, Ann Delaney, and Katie Day for promptly returning their data and extra tags. Mark Beekey said we were the first team to have all of our tagging data in and tags accounted for.

In my next blog I will present a breakdown of the data for the year. Thank you so much to all the volunteers for your time and dedication. It has truly been a pleasure working with you and getting to know you.

Baby Willets Rescued

2010-06-30T09:31:00.004-04:00

Menunkatuck member John Pfitzner was at the right place at the right time to rescue a pair of baby willets last week. Greg Hanisek chronicled the event:

The baby Willets were about to become a meal if they didn’t get squashed first. But John Pfitzner had other ideas. John was driving on Route 1 near Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison when he saw the small chicks out in the open, exposed and eyed up by some hungry crows. They were trying to cross Route 1, which presented its own perils, but John was able to collect them in a bucket, as shown in his photograph here. He saw their parents land in a field at the former Griswold Airport Property next to Hammo, so he deposited the little ones near the place where the adult birds landed.

Project Limulus Update

2010-06-26T22:22:00.002-04:00

Our fourth crab census began on June 10th., during the new moon. No horseshoe crabs were seen during the morning survey. At the 10:00 p.m. survey we counted only one crab. The crabs began to appear after the survey, which is often the case. We were able to tag 8 and we had two recaptures. Recaptures are crabs which have been previously tagged.

On Saturday, June 12th., Project Limulus volunteer, Nina Ellison graciously agreed to be in charge of the morning survey. She and the rest of the very competent team conducted the survey and again found no crabs. That night we only counted one pair, and tagged 4. It seems that we are now past the peak time for spawning.

On Monday, June 14th., the a.m. survey yielded nothing, as usual. The crabs in Indian Cove are definitely creatures of the night! Amy Hopkins took charge of the 1:10 a.m. survey, giving Vaughn and me the night off to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Thank you Amy, Leigh, Katie, and Nina for coming out to count crabs in middle of the night. That is true dedication! They had success, counting 10 crabs, tagging 6, and finding 3 recaptures.

Live Raptors at King/Robinson

2010-06-18T17:38:00.006-04:00

Horizon Wings Raptor Rehabilitation and Education visited King/Robinson Magnet School in New Haven on June 18. Mary-Beth Kaeser and Jeanne Wadsworth brought an American kestrel, a broad-winged hawk, a peregrine falcon, and a great-horned owl to show the school's students.

American Kestrel

Broad-winged hawk

Peregrine falcon

Great-horned owl

Highlights of the presentation:

Project Limulus

2010-06-05T09:21:00.003-04:00

Jim Murtagh's photos of horseshoe crab tagging.

Project Limulus Update

2010-06-02T21:17:00.004-04:00

It has been a busy week for the counters and taggers of Indian Cove! We began our third survey session on May 25th. We didn't see any crabs during the day but that night they were everywhere. The water was murky, with zero visibility, but we could feel the crabs with our feet as we walked through the water, surveying the beach. We would then reach into the water to touch the crabs to determine whether they were singles or pairs. We even found females who had two mates. It was like a treasure hunt and everyone was pretty excited. We counted a grand total of 89 crabs! We also tagged 13 crabs, which doesn't seem like very many but we have a rule that we don't disturb any pairs which are buried in the sand. That's an indication that they are busy laying and fertilizing their eggs. We found 4 crabs which had been previously tagged elsewhere. We call these recaptures. It's a very important part of the study to report any recaptures. It gives the researchers information about where the crab has been and about it's condition and longevity. If you find a crab with a tag you should call the phone number on the tag and report the tag i.d. number, the date , and the location where you found it.

On Thursday morning, May 27th, we again found no crabs. On Thursday night I was all set to head out with the group when I received a request from Menunkatuck to join fellow board members, Shannon Schiesser and Jim Murtaugh for a filming of Scott Tucker's cable access program, Expedition New England. My husband, Vaughn, said he would fill in for me at the Cove survey, so I met the others at Circle Beach in Madison at 11:45 p.m. I met Scott, his daughter Daphne, his friend Ron, and Ron's son Jerome. We found plenty of crabs, tagged a few, had fun looking for them, and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous full moon. I'll let you know when the show is supposed to air. The Indian Cove group did beautifully without me, counting 28 crabs, tagging 16, and recording 1 recapture.

Saturday, May 29th was the final day of the full moon session. Still no crabs during the day. They really do like the nighttime better and who can blame them; a quiet beach, moonlight reflecting on the water, it's pretty romantic! We had a large group on Sat. afternoon, including a number of kids, which was great. We were sad to find a dead female crab but she did make it possible for us to have tagging practice. Everyone who wanted to try tagging a crab was able to do it. All of the kids got a chance to tag and to hold her and I got to tell them all of the "cool stuff" about horseshoe crabs. That night we met at 12:40 a.m. Kudos to all of the volunteers who were able to stay awake until then! We only found 6 crabs during the survey but we tagged 26 afterwards. That's the most we've tagged at the Cove so far. There were 6 recaptures.

Some of our team members are tagging on their own as well. Jim Murtaugh and his daughter, Eryn, Lorrie Shaw,and Sue Coale have tagged over 100 crabs at Trolley Rd. beach. Melanie Tolley has tagged 25 or more at Grass Island and Ann Delaney has tagged as many at Indian Cove.

Our team has grown to over 40 members. It's a wonderful group of dedicated and interesting people. I'm delighted to see how smoothly they can now do the survey and tagging with out me. Maybe I should take a vacation....

Project Limulus Update

2010-05-18T20:45:00.003-04:00

Since my last blog post, so much has transpired. Thanks to the article in the Guilford Courier and a most enjoyable and informative presentation about Project Limulus by Professor Mark Beekey of Sacred Heart University, our team now has 34 new members!

We conducted our survey on Guilford's Indian Cove beaches, twice a day on May 11th, May 13th, and May 15th. This survey period coincided with the new moon. We met just before the high tide; during the day and again at night. Although we didn't see any crabs on the first two days, the volunteers were wonderfully enthusiastic, and interested in learning the survey protocol.

On the third day, Saturday, May 15th, we met at 12:30 in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day at the beach but there were still no crabs to be seen! Then on Saturday night, at about 1:00 a.m., a group of 9 "night owls" gathered on the dark, moonless beach, and there were the crabs! They were serenely doing what nature had programed them to do every spring for over 400 million years. We tagged 7 crabs and counted 16 altogether.

Our next survey session begins on May 25th, during the full moon. We're hoping for good weather and many more close encounters of the "crabby" kind.

Purple Martins at Hammonasset Beach State Park

2010-05-17T11:54:00.002-04:00

Menunkatuck's Purple Martin Project at Hammonasset Beach State Park is the subject of John Picard's article in the Spring 2010 Edition of Purple Martin Update, the publication of the Purple Martin Conservation Association. The four-page lead article describes the progress made since the old wooden houses were replaced in 2005.

Well done, John.

Judy Knowles in Guilford Courier

2010-05-02T10:10:00.004-04:00

Here's the link to the article about Judy Knowles and Project Limulus.

Project Limulus Update

2010-04-30T20:41:00.004-04:00

This was a good week for the Menunkatuck Project Limulus team. Ned, Melanie, Vaughn, and I managed to get out on the beach to do the survey twice. We didn't expect to find any crabs yet because it's still very early in the season, so we were surprised when we spotted a horseshoe crab at the water's edge. We made note of him on our data sheet and then took him further out into the water to release him. ( We would have tagged him also, but we didn't have our tags yet. ) Unfortunately, he didn't seem well because he couldn't unfold his shell, couldn't walk, and he kept tipping over onto his back. Among the other mollusks which were living on his shell, were some good sized blue mussels. We wondered if he was an elderly crab, coming into the beach to die.

On Wednesday, April 28, Melanie, Ned, Vaughn, and I went to a planning meeting for Project Limulus at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. Jennifer Mattei and Mark Beekey ( Sacred Heart professors in charge of the study ) spoke with us about the data they have collected so far and the plan for the study this year. There were 11,000 crabs tagged in 2009, many by volunteers like us!

The best thing that happened for the horseshoe crabs this week was that Pam Johnson, Senior Staff Writer for the Guilford Courier, wrote a wonderful article about Project Limulus. The timing was perfect to publicize our need for more volunteers and also the upcoming presentation all about horseshoe crabs and Project Limulus. For info. on the May 7th program, please refer to Menunkauck's Home Page. If you would like to read the article from the Guilford Courier, go to www.zip06.com, then select Guilford.

My team members and I are looking forward to the next survey period which will be May 11th through May 15th. We're delighted that we'll have 3 new volunteers joining us at that time. I have also just received several inquiries as a result of the newspaper article. Yay! The more the merrier!

Project Limulus Update

2010-04-20T14:06:00.009-04:00

It's Spring again! The time when one's thoughts turn to .... horseshoe crabs! Beginning on April 26th we will again be counting and tagging spawning horseshoe crabs on the Guilford beaches. This is part of an ongoing study being conducted by Sacred Heart University to assess the health and stability of the horseshoe crab population in Long Island Sound.

We are looking for volunteers, also known as citizen scientists, to help with this study. You don't have to make a commitment; it doesn't have to involve a lot of time. It's easy! We'll show you what to do. All ages are welcome. Come have fun with us on the beach and get up close and personal with a living fossil; the horseshoe crab.

If you would like to volunteer or if you have any questions, please contact Judy Knowles at 203-453-9053 or e-mail me at judy@menunkatuck.org. For more information about Project Limulus go to www.projectlimulus.org

Helping Connecticut's Bats

2010-04-20T13:17:00.015-04:00

Updated.

White-nose Syndrome continues to ravage bat populations. The Hartford Courant reports today:

It's the grim news that wildlife biologists have dreaded all winter: Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection will confirm this morning that population counts of hibernating bats show that they continue to be decimated by the disease known as white-nose syndrome, and that some species might even be threatened with extinction.
"The numbers are devastating for Connecticut bats," said one DEP official. "The onslaught of white-nose just won't stop."

Since White Nose Syndrome was discovered in a New York cave in February 2006, bat populations throughout the northeast and several mid Atlantic states have been devastated with more than one million bats dying from what researchers believe is linked to this fungus.

The fungus found on the bats has been identified as Geomyces destructans and typically appears on the faces and wings of hibernating bats, but is virtually never seen on the bats once they leave the caves. It is not known how the fungus adversely affects the bats or if it truly is the cause of their deaths. Hibernating bats commonly awaken during the winter to hydrate themselves with moisture that condenses on their fur. However, affected bats awaken more frequently which uses up much of their fat reserves.

Consequently, in mid-winter the bats become hungry and awaken to hunt for food. Of course, there are no insects flying in January or February and the bats generally die from starvation or freeze to death.
WNS has affected all five of our cave bat species here in Connecticut. Since these cave bats are long-lived animals (some can live 20 years or more) and their reproductive rate is slow – usually one pup per year, to recover from the more than one million bats that have already succumbed to WNS, will take many years. Until researchers understand the disease better, little can be done to mitigate it.

Researchers are hard at work, however, and you can help. The Connecticut DEP Wildlife Division biologists are interested in the location of summer bat maternity roosts where female bats gather together to give birth and raise their young. By conducting at least two bat surveys, your data can be added to that of other citizen scientists and provide researchers with more information than they could gather on their own. Wildlife Division biologists may want to conduct extended research at selected roost sites. The time that it will take to find the roost exits, count the bats and record your findings should only take a few short hours for the entire process. You do not need to be able to identify which species of bat you are counting.

The bat roost surveys consist of at least two counts of bats leaving the roost for a night's hunting. One count should be done between the last week of May and the third week of June before pups begin to fly. This count will help determine the number of females in the roost. The second count should be done between July 4 and July 31 after most pups begin to fly. This count will help determine the reproductive rate of the roost.

If you want to help researchers with summer bat counts, the complete protocol for the surveys and the survey forms can be found here.

For more information contact licensed bat rehabilitator Linda E. Bowen at linda@cmsincorporated.net or CT DEP Wildlife Division biologist Christina Kocer, christina.kocer@ct.gov.

Updated

The Connecticut DEP reported today on the winter bat hibernacula surveys:

Jenny Dickson, DEP Supervising Wildlife Biologist, said, "White Nose Syndrome continues to have a catastrophic effect on bats. Just three short years ago, one of Connecticut’s largest hibernacula had over 3,300 wintering bats. This year fewer than a dozen remain—all but one showed active signs of WNS. The outlook for their survival is grim.”

The DEP says visits to other winter hibernacula – caves and mines where bats hibernate– revealed similar mortality rates. Another large site showed a 95% decline in bat numbers since a winter count in 2007. The only positive note from the 2010 surveys was that only three of the remaining bats at that site showed visible signs of the fungus....

Dickson said the DEP is asking the public to report any known summer bat colonies by calling (860)675-8130 or via email to Wildlife Technician, Christina Kocer at christina.kocer@ct.gov . As bats continue to return to maternity sites and summer roosts, the agency would like to hear from people about changes in the number of bats they are seeing or even about bat colonies that once existed and do not return to their previous homes. [Emphasis added.]

Image: Little Brown Bat with White-nose Syndrome by Marvin Moriarty/USFWS

Earth Hour 2010

2010-03-23T14:30:00.003-04:00

From Earth Hour:

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments around the world will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. In the U.S. where we are already feeling the impacts of climate change, Earth Hour sends a clear message that Americans care about this issue and want to turn the lights out on dirty air, dangerous dependency on foreign oil and costly climate change impacts, and make the switch to cleaner air, a strong economic future and a more secure nation. Participation is easy. By flipping off your lights on March 27th at 8:30 p.m. local time you will be making the switch to a cleaner, more secure nation and prosperous America.
Since its inception three years ago, Earth Hour’s non-partisan approach has captured the world’s imagination and became a global phenomenon. Nearly one billion people turned out for Earth Hour 2009 – involving 4,100 cities in 87 countries on seven continents.
Last year, 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch, joining iconic landmarks from around the world that went dark for Earth Hour.

Shorebird Data Needed from 2008

2010-02-04T21:06:00.002-05:00

Jennifer Mattei and Mark Beekey, researchers at Sacred Heart University, are studying predation on horseshoe crab eggs at Milford Point and Sandy Point (New Haven Harbor). They set out artificial horseshoe crab nests to test what types of predators will eat them for five days at the end of May and the middle of June 2008. We would like to know what species of shorebirds were observed during May 15th through June 30th, 2008 by experienced birders. If anyone has any lists of shorebird species from that time period that they would like to share, please send the information to:

Jennifer H. Mattei, Ph.D. matteij@sacredheart.edu
Associate Professor,Department of Biology
Sacred Heart University,Fairfield, CT 06825
203-365-7577
www.projectlimulus.org

(Reposted from February Newsletter - Audubon Connecticut)

Bald Eagle Visits King/Robinson

2010-01-29T23:17:00.011-05:00

When I visited King/Robinson the other day, Cliff gave me copies of the videos he and Anizya took of a Bald Eagle that visited the school on January 13. The eagle was in a tree about 150 m from Mrs Sullivan's science classroom. As the students watched and recorded, the eagle plucked and ate a gull that it had flown in with.

Hawk with Breakfast

2010-01-28T10:42:00.020-05:00

Back in December, early in the morning, we were walking to school and saw a Red-tailed Hawk eating a gull right in front of our school. So Mrs Sullivan said to get the scope and take pictures before it left. Here they are!

Cliff

grade: 8th

Volunteers Needed for the Wood Duck Nest Box Cleaning

2010-01-24T12:26:00.002-05:00

The Wildlife Division of the Connecticut DEP will be maintaining wood duck nest boxes during the next several weeks and would appreciate assistance with this project. Generally, the nest boxes are located on frozen water bodies. Assistants work with Division staff and hike through the woodlands to the wetland, walk on the ice to the box, and clean old nesting material from the box. The project needs to be completed in time for the return of the wood ducks and the new nesting season. If you are available during the workweek and would like to offer your assistance with this project, please contact Koert Riley at james.k.riley@ct.gov. or Stephanie at 860-675-8130 (Sessions Woods).

Duck-Eagle Hop

2010-01-24T12:14:00.000-05:00

A few Menunkatuck members and friends birded the Connecticut River from Saybrook Point to Haddam on Saturday, January 23. A chilly breeze at Saybrook Point was bearable due to the number of ducks in the river. Close side-by-side looks at Common Loon and Red-throated Loon made the field mark comparison very clear. Long-tailed Ducks were numerous.
Across the river at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex, we saw four deer "walking on water" as they attempted to use a sandbar to go from Nott Island to the mainland. When the water got too deep for them, they returned to the island.
Deep River Landing gave us good looks at Common Goldeneye and Great Cormorant. And at Haddam we finally got a look at a Bald Eagle soaring above the Goodspeed Opera House. As it turned in the sky, the sun shone on its white head and tail, and its yellow talons glistened.
The list for the day was:

Mute Swan, Canada Goose, American Black Duck, Mallard, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Loon, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Great Cormorant, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Downy Woodpecker, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, European Starling, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, fSong Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco

Free Willy 3

2010-01-10T17:34:00.005-05:00

This morning, over 100 volunteers spent two chilly hours cutting invasive shrubs and vines from Willards Island at Hammonasset Beach State Park.
When the work time was complete, volunteers went to the Meigs Point Nature Center for lunch and Christine and Todd Secki showed some of the raptors they rehabilitate at A Place Called Hope.
Thanks to the following local businesses for their supplying the food:

Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale, Madison - Clam Chowder
Friends and Company, Madison - Vegetarian Chili and Fresh-baked Bread
Grand Pizza, Clinton - Stuffed Italian Breads
Cohen's Bagel Shop, Madison - Fresh-baked Bagels
Coffee Break Restaurant, Clinton - Fresh-brewed Coffee
Savvy Tea, Madison - Fresh-brewed Tea
Bishop's Orchards, Guilford - Apple Cider
Madison Chocolates, Madison - Assorted Desserts

Photos by Shannon and Kelley Scheisser.

Volunteers Needed for the 2010 Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey

2009-12-23T17:12:00.001-05:00

The Wildlife Division of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection is looking for volunteers to assist with the 2010 Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey in Connecticut. The 2010 survey period target date is Saturday January 9, from 7:00 -11:00 AM.
Bald eagles migrate south from the northern states during winter to areas of open water where they are able to catch fish, their main food item. Cold weather conditions, which keep most waterways to the north covered with ice, mean that higher numbers of eagles will be counted in Connecticut.
If you would like to participate in the 2010 survey, please contact Wild- life Division biologist Julie Victoria by email only (julie.victoria@ct.gov) and provide your name and mailing address.

Pre-storm Hammonasset Bird Walk

2009-12-20T10:51:00.004-05:00

A small group of hearty Menunkatuck members and friends braved the cold and wind ahead of the snow storm to bird Hammonasset Beach State Park on Saturday. The trip took us from the Nature Center parking lot to the jetty, the overlook and on to the moraine trail.
The list: Red-throated Loon, Common Loon, Canada Goose, American Black Duck, Mallard, Common Eider, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Northern Gannet, Great Cormorant, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin, Ring-billed Gull, Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Horned Lark, House Wren, European Starling, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch.

Dennis, Nina (trip leader), Kelvin, Ray from California

Brumby

Missing: John

Dennis, Nina, Ann, Ray

Brumby, Daisy

Guilford Salt Meadow Sanctuary Osprey Platform

2009-10-26T09:28:00.003-04:00

On October 25, 2009, a group of Menunkatuck members and friends installed an osprey platform in the marsh at the Guilford Salt Meadow Sanctuary. The platform was constructed by Guilford High School students Ryan and Megan as part of their capstone project.

Public Invited to Tour Former Griswold Airport Property

2009-10-15T10:47:00.016-04:00

From the Town of Madison Board of Selectmen:

MADISON, CONN., October 12, 2009 - The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national land conservation nonprofit, recently announced that it had reached agreement to purchase 42 acres of land known as the Griswold Airport Property from Madison Landing Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Leyland Alliance, LLC. Town officials and TPL invite Madison residents to the first of two site tours of the property, to be held this Sunday, October 18th, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. The second tour of the property is scheduled for Saturday, November 7th, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

The tour will be structured as an "open house," with two guided walks offered at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. The walks will be guided by Patrick Comins, Audubon Connecticut's Director of Bird Conservation, and Heather Crawford, a member of the Madison Conservation Commission.

The 42-acre property, located on the Boston Post Road, is adjacent to Hammonasset State Park and includes prime wetland habitat, upland forest, and significant frontage along the Hammonasset River. The former airport property was sold to LeylandAlliance in 2007 and permits to construct 127 units of housing on the land were subsequently granted.

The conservation goals for the property are to maintain the land as natural open space with walking trails and viewing areas along the river, with the potential to restore a portion of the grasslands to accommodate a variety of birds. On the front portion of the property, closest to the Post Road, Town officials potentially envision several recreational fields for use by Town families and possibly a small area reserved for future commercial use compatible with a park.

"TPL is delighted to bring this opportunity to the voters of Madison, and we encourage families to come out and see all that this land has to offer. Conservation experts will be on hand to discuss the conservation values of this unique property," said Alicia Betty, Project Manager for The Trust for Public Land.

Under the terms of the agreement, the property would be purchased for $9.7 million, with a closing scheduled for April 1, 2010. Also under the agreement, the town has forty-five days to decide whether or not to offer Madison voters a referendum to authorize a bond to cover $8 million of the purchase price. The Town will likely add as much as $1 million to the $8 million bond to cover demolition and renovation costs which would fund the initial conversion of the airport into a park. Such a referendum is expected later this fall.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit organization which works with others to conserve land for people to enjoy as working landscapes, parks, gardens, and natural areas, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. TPL has protected over 6,000 acres of open space, watershed land, working farms and forestland, and historic resources in 40 communities across the state. For more information, please visit www.tpl.org/connecticut.

Other sources for more information are Stop Griswold OverDevelopment and the Save The Griswold Airport Property Facebook Group.

Photos from Save The Griswold Airport Property.

Sandy Point Bird Walk

2009-09-20T13:10:00.006-04:00

Saturday, September 19, was a perfect day for a morning bird walk at Sandy Point in West Haven. With a cloudless sky and light winds a group of Menunkatuck members joined Nina Levenduski for a leisurely three hour walk.

Twenty-four species were seen:

Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, American Black Duck, Mallard, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Black-billed Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black Backed Gull, Rock Dove, Monk Parakeet, Belted Kingfisher, European Starling, Savannah Sparrow, House Sparrow

Kestrel and Bat Houses at Hammonasset

2009-09-08T16:17:00.006-04:00

Tom Sayers and John Picard met on Labor Day to install the two new kestrel boxes at Hammonasset Beach State Park. One kestrel box is near the reclaimed salt marsh and the other is near Pavilion #1. These two boxes will be monitored for use in the Spring, we will let you know what happens.

They also installed the new bat house on a pole that Park personnel had installed for us. The new bat pole is more than sturdy and should last for years.

Death of Tree Swallows

2009-08-04T20:51:00.016-04:00

John Picard reports that three of the 31 tree swallow nest boxes at Hammonasset Beach State Park were repeatedly raided by house sparrows and the resident swallows killed.

House sparrows are attracted to the same sort of cavity that tree swallows are. And house sparrows are very aggressive.

John has been able to keep the deaths to a minimum with constant monitoring of the boxes. And the results over the last four year have shown increased fledge rates as shown in this spreadsheet.

As to the deaths this year, John has posted posted some pictures of the carnage. Warning: they are graphic.

Osprey Chicks Banded at Hammonasset

2009-07-25T16:17:00.015-04:00

John Picard describes banding six osprey chicks at Hammonasset:

When Julie Victoria, Wildlife Biologist, CT DEP Wildlife Division, asked who would like to hold the first osprey chick for banding, Ed Localio didn’t hesitate even for a moment. He took two steps forward and held out his hands. And why wouldn’t he. Ed had been looking forward to this moment for months. Nearly every day since March 7, he had been monitoring the four new osprey platforms at Hammonasset Beach State Park and reporting his findings back to the Meigs Point Nature Center.
9am: 2 osprey sitting on platform #1, one is eating a fish, looks like a flounder
10:15am: 3 osprey are flying around platform #2, not sure what is happening here, maybe a love triangle...?
Despite the ability to easily see adult osprey when they are on the platforms, it is difficult to assess from a distance how many chicks there are until they are old enough to stand up and make their presence known. Most often they stay hunkered down and try to blend in with the nest material to avoid calling attention to themselves.
So, on the morning of July 10 when Julie and Ed, accompanied by Menunkatuck Board member Shannon Scheisser, Menunkatuck Friend and volunteer Cate Nyary and I struck out into the salt marsh with a pocket full of aluminum bands and a ladder we were in eager anticipation of what we would find. The goal was to return with an empty pocket a muddy ladder and memories to last a lifetime.

Platform #1, located on Meigs Point, contained one chick which was nearly large enough to fly. Julie stated that this one could probably fly if it tried to but she wasn’t going to offer this information to the chick. Ed had his hands full with this bird.
Platform #2, located to the east of the entrance road, midway between the entrance gate and the rotary, held three osprey chicks. All three were much smaller than the chick on Platform #1. However, they all appeared to be in good health and were just as surprised to see us as we were of them. Providing food for three chicks is a demanding task which would explain why there was a freshly caught flounder tucked in the corner of the nest, possibly set aside for a late lunch. There was also an added bonus of a barn swallow nest with four young birds in it, neatly tucked into the supporting members immediately below the platform and just above the predator baffle. The clever swallows had found a place to build a nest that would not only stay dry but is raccoon proof!
Platform #3, located behind the Camp Store, had two more osprey chicks. These two birds were sharing their nest not with a flounder, but with a assortment of braided rope, ribbons, fishing line and deflated balloons. Osprey have a habit of picking up trash to place in their nest and the results can be disastrous as the birds can sometimes become hopelessly entangled. This is yet another reason to remember to dispose of fishing line, kite string, balloons…responsibly. (In the Fall, after the osprey have fledged, we will once again visit the platforms to remove any and all trash that remains in the nest.)
Platform #4, located near the Meigs Point Nature Center, was installed on June 13, too late for osprey nesting activity for this year. The osprey have been using this platform to perch, preen and eat their fish along with the willets that seem to like taking advantage of the platform as well. We are confident that this platform will be used by the osprey next year. Ed will be sure to keep us updated.

SWEP Grant for King/Robinson School

2009-07-25T16:08:00.009-04:00

Nina Levenduski reports:

Menunkatuck Audubon Society has been awarded a $900 grant from the Connecticut chapter of the Society of Women Environmental Professionals (SWEP). The SWEP grant program works to provide community-based groups with funding for local projects that benefit the environment. The SWEP grant, combined with matching grants from The Audubon Shop in Madison and the Menunkatuck Birdathon, will help to support the study of science and the natural world at King/Robinson Magnet School in New Haven. The seventh and eighth grade science classroom will be provided with a spotting scope and tripod, 15 pairs of binoculars, and a digital camera compatible with the scope. The students will share their pictures and discoveries with Menunkatuck on the website and blog.

We hope the equipment will help foster a greater appreciation of science, nature and the environment among the students.

The Connecticut Society for Women Environmental Professionals is a national non-profit professional association of individuals involved or interested in environmental law, science, business and policy. Its members are attorneys, consultants, regulators, in-house environmental personnel, and academics. Membership is open to all regardless of gender.

Project Limulus Update

2009-06-09T20:41:00.005-04:00

On Sunday night, June 7th, at 11:30 p.m., our team, consisting of myself, Ned Macomb, and my ever-willing-to-help husband, Vaughn Knowles, assembled at the Indian Cove Beaches in Guilford to count and tag spawning horseshoe crabs. Apparently, love was in the air because we counted 44 horseshoe crabs and tagged 22 before running out of tags. When we headed home to our beds at 1:15 a.m., wet, sandy, and elated, we agreed that a good time was had by all!

If you are interested in joining our survey team or starting your own at a different beach, please contact Judy Knowles at 203-453-9053.

Project Limulus Training

2009-06-02T17:42:00.007-04:00

Cindi Kobak writes:

Project Limulus has come to Guilford! Two Sacred Heart University students joined Menunkatuck volunteers on a Guilford beach at high tide one evening to train us on the proper way to tag a horseshoe crab. In the span of less than an hour, five horseshoe crabs appeared in the surf and were collected for tagging. Two were large, egg-laden females, one of which already had a smaller male clasping her. Volunteers were given tags and data sheets and will be visiting beaches over the summer months to tag and document the presence of these living fossils. For more information on Project Limulus, visit http://www.sacredheart.edu/pages/13692_project_limulus.cfm.

If you are interested in volunteering to tag horseshoe crabs in Guilford this summer, please contact Judy Knowles at 203-453-9053 or covelovers2@aol.co

Greetings

2009-05-27T10:30:00.001-04:00

Menunkatuck is now using Blogger. Board members will be posting news about recent activities. Other Menunkatuck members and Friends who would like to contribute to the blog should e-mail webmaster@menunkatuck.org.