EPOC Awards Menunkatuck $450 Grant

EPOC awarded $450 to Menunkatuck to improve the rooftop butterfly garden at the Barnard Nature Center in New Haven.

(From the May, 2014 newsletter.)

Menunkatuck Uses Solar-powered Sound Systems to Attract Purple Martins, Chimney Swifts

Menunkatuck Audubon Society installed a solar-powered sound system at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary to attract purple martins to establish a new colony. A second system was installed at Hammonasset Beach State Park to attract chimney swifts to nest in the artificial chimney at the shorebird pool bird blind.

At the Sanctuary the purple martin house has had fly-over martins every spring, but none have nested. Again, there have been fly-overs of chimney swifts, but no nesting.

Solar-powered sound system at the Guilford Salt Meadows Sanctuary.

According to the Purple Martin Conservation Association, “The Dawnsong has proven to be one of the most powerful tools used today to attract martins to a new site. It is the recording of ASY (after second year), or adult black male martins singing a song in the predawn hours that is used to lure subadult martins (those that were raised last year) to their colony site. Anyone that uses this tape can tell you that IT WORKS.” Research by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Department of Natural Resources in Minnesota shows that playing recordings of Chimney Swift vocalizations results in swifts investigating artificial chimneys. 

An ASY purple martin (left) perches next to a decoy as it investigated the apartment.

The challenge with using sound recording at both the Sanctuary and at Hammonasset is that there is no access to a source of electricity. The solution is to use a solar-powered sound system. A suitable sound system is used by Audubon’s Project Puffin in Maine and by other seabird restoration projects that are typically located on isolated islands with no electricity. Murremaid Music Boxes builds custom sound systems for attracting birds throughout the world.

The solar panel for the chimney swift tower sound system is mounted on the roof of the bird blind.

Funds for the two sound systems came from an Audubon Collaborative Grant, a mini-grant from the Connecticut Ornithological Society, and matching funds from our members’ donations.

The Sanctuary sound system has attracted purple martins to investigate the apartments, however as of June 26, there are none nesting. The system at Hammonasset was installed late in the migration season and has not attracted any swifts. It will be used again during fall migration when swifts roost communally. Research indicates that swifts will use fall roost sites for nesting.

Further developments will be reported in the newsletter.

(From the July 2013 newsletter)

Menunkatuck has received two grants for kestrel restoration in Connecticut.

Menunkatuck has received two grants for kestrel restoration in Connecticut.

Audubon Connecticut Grant is for $1550

Audubon Connecticut awarded us $1550 for kestrel next boxes and baffles for the mounting poles. We’ve partnered with Tom Sayers and the Northeast Connecticut Kestrel Project on his project to rebuild the nesting population of American kestrels in Connecticut.

Tom’s 55 kestrel boxes are not protected from climbing predators. This Audubon grant will provide for raccoon baffles for the boxes. Additionally, ten new kestrel boxes will be built and installed in the Menunkatuck Chapter area. The grant will be matched with funds from the generous contributions of our members. 

The American kestrel, a robin-sized falcon, was listed as “threatened on Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern Species List in 2004, primarily due to a lack of information, coupled with a perceived decline in nesting and migrating numbers and diminishing habitat.” (CT DEEP)

About five years ago, Tom Sayers created the Northeast Connecticut Kestrel Project (NECKP) nest box program in northeastern Connecticut. The research shows that the single greatest factor in helping improve kestrel numbers are well run nest box projects tailored specifically for this species.

EPOC Awards $3960

The Environmental Professionals’ Organization of Connecticut (EPOC) awarded us $3960 for radio tracking Tom’s kestrels.

At approximately 15 days old, all young birds are banded with federal metal leg bands which they wear for life. If those birds are recovered on either their northern breeding grounds or southern wintering grounds (through netting programs, found dead, etc.) their bands can be traced back to the original banding site, yielding very important data about their movements throughout the year. 

But leg band recovery rates are typically only 1-2%, yielding very small data sets. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has shown a great deal of interest in Tom’s work, but the limited data from the project to date has only been marginally useful in helping direct their efforts towards better land management practices for this species throughout the state.

Tom is determined to improve the quality and quantity of data which his program is generating to help improve management practices aimed at helping this species. Currently, it is not known where the young birds immediately disperse to or how far they go while still in Connecticut or if the birds returning to the boxes in the spring are the same adults from the previous year, other adults new to the area, or previously fledged young birds from that box or some other box in the study area. 

Radio telemetry can provide the answers to these questions and a myriad of others. Basically, the young birds are fitted with transmitters which are then monitored by following them in the study area, and beyond, with a handheld receiver. Getting accurate data on their post-breeding dispersal patterns and site fidelity (which birds are actually occupying the boxes the next spring) is immensely important when making management decisions about land use, the direction, literally and figuratively, that expanded nest box projects should take, and where new nest box projects should be established.

In addition, there are two other university and grant-funded kestrel researchers on the east coast who will be starting up their first ever radio telemetry work with kestrels in the upcoming season to help answer exactly the same research questions referred to earlier. Hawk Mountain, a nationally renowned raptor research center in Pennsylvania, has asked Connecticut to coordinate telemetry work with them as they move forward with their inaugural telemetry work in the upcoming season. To be able to compare/analyze telemetry data sets from three different east coast projects would allow researchers to make great strides in answering some of the questions that need to be answered for more effective conservation and management decisions regarding this threatened species.

The EPOC grant will provide for the purchase of 20 light-weight radio transmitters that will be fixed on the birds’ backs. Using telemetry equipment (antennas and receivers), Tom and DEEP and university researchers will be able to track the movement of the kestrels both in Connecticut and as they migrate.

Audubon Connecticut—an operating unit of the National Audubon Society—is one of Connecticut's premier conservation and environmental education organizations. Its top-notch staff of seasoned professionals works hard to carry out the Audubon mission within the state—protecting birds, other wildlife and their habitats through education, research, advocacy and land protection.

EPOC represent the interests of Connecticut's Licensed Environmental Professionals (LEPs) by providing information, training and updates regarding the LEP program in Connecticut. EPOC welcomes the participation of all members in our activities and recognizes the strength of drawing on a membership of diverse careers, interests and backgrounds.

The EPOC Grant Program provides non-profit and not-for-profit environmental advocacy groups, community based groups and environmental education organizations, funding for local projects that benefit the environment on an annual basis. This year they awarded a total of $9020.

Photos: Tom Sayers

Hammonasset Fall Planting

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.

SWEP Grant for King/Robinson School

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.