Menunkatuck Audubon Society Annual Report 2012

Suzanne Botta Sullivan reports on the past year’s activities

I am pleased to report that 2012 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 schoolyard habitat programs, and much more. With great pride, we list here for your review the significant accomplishments achieved in 2012.

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“What struck me is that it is the individual people and the group as a whole that make what you are doing so extra special. The depth and enthusiasm of your Menunkatuck Audubon board is truly amazing. Your board has diversity of age and experience, strong ties to the community, and the expertise of professional educators.“

-Diane Lewis, Special Consultant to David Yarnold, President, National Audubon Society

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Conservation

The Hammonasset Beach State Park Purple Martin and Tree Swallow Project, begun in 2005, continues to produce outstanding results. Nesting attempts by European starlings and house sparrows have been reduced and astonishingly high success rates for both the purple martin colonies and the tree swallows has followed (180 purple martin fledged and 151 tree swallows fledged).

A fifth osprey platform was installed in the Park. Nesting ospreys used all of the new platforms. 

Two kestrel nest boxes were installed at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary with additional boxes planned for other sites in Guilford.

Terry Shaw completes the installation of a kestrel nest box at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary.

Grants from the Audubon Collaborative Grant and the Environmental Professionals’ Organization of Connecticut program provided funds for supporting our partner Northeast Connecticut Kestrel Project with nest box predator guards and radio tracking equipment.

In partnership with the Madison Conservation Commission Menunkatuck continued the Dune Restoration Project at West Wharf in Madison. Additional beach grass plugs were planted. 

Dune grass plugs are planted at the West Wharf dune in Madison.

Additional fishing line recycling bins were installed at boat launches and fishing spots.

Citizen Science

Menunkatuck concluded its partnership with the Connecticut Amphibian Monitoring Project (C.A.M.P.) monitoring a 2.5 square mile area for amphibians. The statewide study sponsored by the Connecticut DEEP and Connecticut Science Center ended its 15-year data collection.

Our partnership with the Project Limulus horseshoe crab tagging surveys had more than 60 volunteers conduct 21 surveys.

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

A partnership with the Seabird Ecological Assessment Network was initiated. SEANET recruits volunteers to survey beaches for sick and dead seabirds.

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 were shown at the Yale Peabody Museum and at venues in the Wallingford area. A public forum with area legislators was also held. The project is supported by a grant to Audubon Connecticut from the Quinnipiac River Fund.

Another new partnership is with Balloons Blow, an organization that publicizes the harmful effects of balloons on wildlife and the environment.

A rusty blackbird got entangled in balloon string.

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. 

The Audubon at Home Schoolyard Habitat Program included construction of a large courtyard planter for a hummingbird/butterfly garden at King-Robinson. Audubon Connecticut was awarded a grant by the Carolyn Foundation to partner with Menunkatuck on expanding the program by establishing a wildlife meadow, equipment purchases, and teacher training.

The planter at King-Robinson is constructed with Timbersil, a non-toxic treated wood, and cedar.

Melissa Jones Elementary School in Guilford was given an AAH Healthy Habitat award for its schoolyard gardens and environmentally friendly school culture. 

Melissa Jone Elementary School students pose with the Audubon at Home Healthy Habitat sign.

Abraham Baldwin Middle School in Guilford had an AAH habitat assessment in May and during the summer implemented many of its recommendations. Sue Kennedy obtained grants from the Guilford Fund for Education and the Guilford Foundation. With the assistance of students from the Guilford High School Environmental Club a courtyard was converted from an area overgrown with day lilies to a garden with diverse bird and butterfly attracting plants. Art and science teachers used the garden during the fall for curriculum-related studies. 

A Baldwin student sketches in the new school garden.

Film Series

Film screenings continued in partnership with Audubon Connecticut and the Blackstone Library. Eight independent documentaries on environmental issues were shown to excellent reviews.

Among the films shown was Mad City Chickens.

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 Colombia, ticks, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and the Connecticut River watershed. Our meetings are free and open to the public.

Field Programs

This year Menunkatuck provided four exciting field programs, including a woodcock search at Durham Meadows, a spring trip to the Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in Litchfield, and a fall walk at Hammonasset.

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. 

Volunteers

Menunkatuck volunteers contributed more than 700 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 2013 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

Film Screenings: A Sense of Wonder, The City Dark, and Green Fire

A Sense of Wonder

Sunday, September 23, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring, the 2012-2013 film series starts with A Sense of Wonder.

When pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her love of privacy, Carson’s convictions and her foresight regarding the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into a very public and controversial role.

Using many of Miss Carson’s own words, Kaiulani Lee embodies this extraordinary woman in a documentary style film, which depicts Carson in the final year of her life. Struggling with cancer, Carson recounts with both humor and anger the attacks by the chemical industry, the government, and the press as she focuses her limited energy to get her message to Congress and the American people.

The City Dark

Sunday, October 28, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

The City Dark chronicles the disappearance of darkness. The film follows filmmaker (and amateur astronomer) Ian Cheney, who moves to New York City from Maine and discovers an urban sky almost completely devoid of stars. Posing a deceptively simple question—“What do we lose, when we lose the night?”—the film leads viewers on a quest to understand how light pollution affects people and the planet. In six chapters weaving together cutting-edge science with personal, meditative sequences reflecting on the human relationship to the sky, The City Dark shines new light on the meaning of the dark. 

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

Saturday, November 25, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

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.

The film series is cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

Film Screenings: Unnatural History of the Kakapo, Ghost Bird

The Unnatural History of the Kakapo

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

Blackstone Library, Branford

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

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

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

Ghost Bird 

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

Blackstone Library, Branford

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

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

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

These films are cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the March 2012 Newsletter)

Film Screenings: InGREEDients, Mad City Chickens

inGREEDients

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

Blackstone Library, Branford

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

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

Mad City Chickens

Sunday, February  26, 2012, 2 p.m.

Blackstone Library, Branford

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

These films are cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the January 2012 Newsletter)