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.)

Citizen Science: Hummingbirds at Home

Hummingbirds at Home – Audubon’s New Citizen Science Project

Hummingbirds visit our yards each spring to breed, looking for nectar from our gardens and feeders. Fascinating to watch, hummingbirds captivate us with their magical feats of flight and their showy colors. The Continental US is breeding home to 14 species of hummingbirds, with a few other species making rare appearances. 

Recent science reports that flowers are blooming earlier and earlier due to climate change. Some flowers are blooming as many as 17 days before the migrating hummingbirds arrive. The impact for migrating and breeding hummingbirds is unknown. 

Building on our Christmas Bird Count (CBC) legacy and the more recent success of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), Audubon is launching a new program called Hummingbirds at Home.

Photo: Nancy Albright

Through this new program Audubon’s goal is to gather data that will help document the hummingbirds’ journey, and better understand how changing flowering patterns and supplemental feeding by people relate to hummingbirds’ migration and breeding success, and also climate change. Since nectar is critical to hummingbirds, we’re asking people to document which flowering plants hummingbirds are feeding on in their backyards as well as whether hummingbird feeders are supplied and used. The Hummingbirds at Home program will provide an opportunity for citizen scientists to help us learn how these changes in the environment are impacting hummingbirds. 

In this family-friendly program, participants will log hummingbird sightings and the flowering plants or feeders they visit, with free mobile technology or on desktop computers. Participants can also view hummingbird sightings online in real time. Scientists will use the data to better understand how hummingbirds are impacted by feeders, non-native nectar sources in gardens, shifting flowering times, and climate change. 

Do you enjoy watching hummingbirds and want to become involved in this program? You can participate at a level that fits your schedule – from one sighting to watching hummingbirds over several weekends throughout the program. To learn more about this exciting citizen science project, go to www.audubon.org/citizenscience. 

(From the May 2013 newsletter)