Menunkatuck Audubon Society Annual Report 2013

Suzanne Botta Sullivan reports on the past year’s activities

I am pleased to report that 2013 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, increased our partnerships, and much more. With great pride, we list here for your review the significant accomplishments achieved in 2013.

Conservation

The Hammonasset Beach State Park Purple Martin and Tree Swallow Project continued with careful monitoring of five purple martin houses with 60 compartments and 31 tree swallow boxes. Nesting attempts by European starlings and house sparrows are discouraged and as a result success rates for both the purple martin colonies and the tree swallows have flourished (143 purple martin fledged and 114 tree swallows fledged).

Grants from the Audubon Collaborative Grant ($1500) and the Connecticut Ornithological Association ($300) provided funds to help  purchase two solar powered sound systems to play recordings to attract purple martins and chimney swifts.

Four kestrel nest boxes were installed at the East River Preserve and the Dudley Preserve in Guilford. 

Our partnership with the Northeast Connecticut Kestrel Project continued with securing a $3500 grant from the Nuttall Ornithological Club’s Blake-Nuttall Fund. The grant will be used for geolocator deployment with American kestrels in an attempt to better understand the population movements of central Connecticut’s threatened falcon.

Menunkatuck expanded its role in New Haven by working with Audubon Connecticut, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Common Ground High School, and other organizations in the USFWS establishment of the New Haven Harbor Watershed Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership, the second such refuge announced by USFWS. 

We partnered with the West Haven Watershed Restoration Committee in getting an Audubon IBA Small Matching Grant for $2500 for the Sandy Point Bird Sanctuary Enhancement Project. Non-native invasive plants were removed in the fall. Native species will be planted in spring.

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Your support of Menunkatuck Audubon Society helped us secure the following grants and matching grants for us and our partners in 2013.

Audubon Collaborative Grant -  $1500

Connecticut Ornithological Association Small Grant - $300

Nuttall Ornithological Club’s Blake-Nuttall Fund - $3500

Audubon IBA Small Matching Grant - $2500

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Citizen Science

Our partnership with the Project Limulus horseshoe crab tagging surveys had more than 27 volunteers conduct 16 surveys.

Menunkatuck members participated in Audubon Connecticut’s spring and fall bird migration surveys to identify critical stopover habitat.

Advocacy

Menunkatuck took the lead on an move to institute a ban on balloons in all state parks. Balloons are a serious problem for birds and other wildlife. Menunkatuck’s proposal to DEEP for banning balloons was sent to other Audubon Chapters in Connecticut as well as other environmental groups. Seven other organizations sent letters of support.

Education and Outreach

The Birdathon was held in May. Menunkatuck and The Audubon Shop participated together and more than 100 species were recorded. 

As part of the New Haven Harbor Watershed Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership, Menunkatuck worked with local high school students in migratory bird surveys and in two invertebrate surveys.

We participated in the Yale Peabody Museum’s Earth Day program, the New Haven Migration Festival, and in the Hammonasset Festival.

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 South Africa, snakes of Connecticut, a live porcupine, and landscaping with native plants. Our meetings are free and open to the public.

Field Programs

This year Menunkatuck provided four exciting field programs, including a woodcock search at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary, a spring trip to Central Park and the New York Historical Society’s Audubon watercolors exhibition in New York, and a fall walk at Lake Saltonstall.

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. The newsletter is also available online as a PDF. Getting your newsletter electronically saves Menunkatuck about $5.00 per member.

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. 

Volunteers

Menunkatuck volunteers contributed more than 1200 man-hours to conservation, advocacy education, and outreach activities.

Conclusion

As you can see, Menunkatuck is a leader in environmental education, conservation, and advocacy. Please join the Menunkatuck Board in making 2014 an even better 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
(From the January 2014 newsletter.)

Three Chapter Area Schools Embrace Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program

Michelle Frankel and Taralynn Reynolds describe a program for children

King-Robinson Magnet School in New Haven and Melissa Jones Elementary School and Abraham Baldwin Middle School in Guilford are embracing the Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program.

Melissa Jones students admire the Habitat Recognition sign that the school was awarded for its adoption of the Audubon At Home healthy habitat program.

The Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program develops healthy schoolyard habitats for children and wildlife by providing schools with the guidance, training, and resources to create habitat for wildlife on the school grounds and integrate place-based nature education into the curriculum. The program is well aligned with the children and youth programmatic priorities at the schools. Access to a schoolyard habitat will provide all children at the school with access to nature on a daily basis and help them understand the connections between making healthy choices for themselves and for the environment. Activities will build skills in inquiry, observation, and math using experiential techniques, enabling children to be more successful at school. They will have the opportunity to work with adults, play leadership roles and make positive decisions by participating in the Garden Stewardship committee. Family education activities will provide opportunities for families to nurture and support children’s learning and encourage families to make healthy choices at home.

Place-based nature education is critical to the development of an environmentally aware citizenry. At a time when passive indoor activities and restrictions on outdoor play dominate children’s out-of-school time, youngsters have little direct experience in nature. There is an urgent need for place-based learning about the natural world, particularly in urban areas. Richard Louv documented the nationwide epidemic of “nature deficit disorder,” linking lack of nature exposure to rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. The American Association for the Advancement of Science urges teachers to take science out of the textbook and into reality.

Audubon Connecticut has been awarded a grant for $23,314 from the Carolyn Foundation to develop the Schoolyard Habitat Program at King-Robinson. The grant will expand on the three-year partnership Menunkatuck has had with King-Robinson to enable the establishment of a large wildlife meadow, development of a Schoolyard Habitat Educator’s Guide, teacher training, and field trips for the school children.Carolyn Foundation to develop the Schoolyard Habitat Program at King-Robinson. The grant will expand on the three-year partnership Menunkatuck has had with King-Robinson to enable the establishment of a large wildlife meadow, development of a Schoolyard Habitat Educator’s Guide, teacher training, and field trips for the school children.

This slope at King-Robinson Magnet School will be transformed into a meadow.

The Guilford schools have each received grants from the Guilford Fund for Education.

Melissa Jones school social worker Lorrie Shaw was awarded $3500 in 2011 and has used the funds to establish a native wildflower and shrub garden that was used by the K-4 students as part of their classwork. She was also able to purchase binoculars and field guides for the students to use. Melissa Jones was awarded the Audubon at Home Habitat Recognition Award for its commitment to establishing the school as a healthy habitat.

Baldwin science teacher Sue Kennedy received $3500 this year. With the help of students from the Guilford High School Ecology Club, a monoculture courtyard area has been transformed into a garden space with native perennials and fruit bearing shrubs. A sloped area that has been ignored and is overgrown with non-native plants will become a meadow with pollinator-friendly plants. Additionally, Sue will be purchasing binoculars and field guides.

This courtyard at Baldwin Middle School is being converted from a garden of day lilies to one with a variety of native perennials and fruit-bearing shrubs.

The courtyard garden is starting to take shape.

The Schoolyard Habitat Recognition Program addresses core content standards and outdoor environmental education provides the perfect format for students to improve their scientific inquiry skills. The students will have the opportunity to describe basic natural phenomena such as the seasonal changes in plants or the life cycle of insects found in the garden.

Melissa Jones students study plants and insects in the garden.

Students will be able to use the wildlife gardens to develop authentic research projects, such as examining factors that affect plant growth, seed preferences of birds at feeders, and parental care at nest boxes. Students will use the appropriate tools including hand lenses, binoculars, tape measures, and simple data collection sheets. Students could have ‘magic spots’ where they go every week to observe seasonal changes of the gardens. Such hands-on experiences encourage students to set questions for themselves rather than simply to respond to questions set by teachers and engage in authentic research and learning experiences.

The Schoolyard Habitat gardens provide an outdoor learning space in which the students can improve their scientific inquiry skills

The first step in adopting the Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program is an assessment of the school campus habitat followed by recommendations for making it more wildlife-friendly. Contact Taralynn Reynolds (treynolds@audubon.org) for more information about having your school become part of this exciting program.

Michelle Frankel is a Conservation Biologist and Taralynn Reynolds is the Audubon At Home Coordinator for Audubon Connecticut.