Menunkatuck’s Been Getting Ready for Spring with Cleanups and New Nest Boxes

Ospreys like to decorate their nests with colorful trash, including balloons, plastic bags, rope, fishing line, and the like. To lessen the possibility or them getting entangled, the nests at Hammonasset Beach State Park were cleaned out while the birds were wintering in South America.

A new purple martin house was installed at Hammonasset to accommodate the increasing numbers of matins in the colonies. The houses at the Nature Center were moved closer to the marsh in preparation for the new Nature Center building.

With all 31 tree swallow nest boxes at Hammonasset used last year and tree swallows trying to nest in the purple martin house at the Guilford Salt Meadow Sanctuary, we installed 14 new boxes at Hammonasset and nine at the Sanctuary. The boxes use John Picard’s starling-proof design with a top slit instead of a traditional hole.

(From the May, 2014 newsletter.)

Balloons Kill

• More than twenty years ago Audubon magazine warned of the hazards of releasing helium balloons.
• In 1990 a Connecticut state law was enacted prohibiting the inten­tional release of ten or more helium balloons within a 24-hour period.
• Today, many people know of the dangers to wildlife that helium balloons cause and they cringe at the sight of even a single balloon, intentionally or accidentally, sailing upward into the sky.

And yet...

• High school graduations routinely distribute helium balloons for outdoor dis­plays to honor the graduating seniors.
• Children are encouraged to let loose helium balloons in celebration of a fundraising event for a worthy cause.
• A recent road race within our chapter area distributed well over 100 bal­loons on ribbons to participants to release simultaneously while town and state dignitaries looked on.

The Menunkatuck Audubon Society believes it is time to refresh the public's memory as to why that little law passed in 1990 is so important and why it needs to be enforced and obeyed.

Balloons kill wildlife. Whether intentionally released as a promotional event, or carelessly let loose from an outdoor celebration, or accidentally escaped from the grasp of a child, a helium balloon can travel very far in a short period of time. (One was documented to have traveled 150 miles in less than four hours after escaping from a realty office.) Eventually the balloon deflates and descends back to earth or sea and begins to wreak its havoc on nature.

Here's a quiz:

1. What does a deflated helium balloon look like in the ocean?

2. What is the favorite food of some species of endangered sea turtle?

If you answered 'jellyfish' to both those questions you now understand the problem.

Sadly, sea turtles, whales, seals, sea birds, and other marine creatures die ev­ery year from ingesting or becoming entangled in discarded plastics, including balloons. Plastics clog or fill the digestive tracts of these animals, causing them to starve to death.

On land a deflated balloon trailing a ribbon becomes a hazard to many species of wildlife, including osprey chicks. Notorious trash collectors, adult ospreys add balloons, fishing line, kite string, plastic bags, and other human garbage to their nest. The nest becomes a death trap for their young, who become hopelessly ensnared in our carelessly discarded trash.

Whether accidental or deliberate, balloon releases are a form of pol­lution that can easily be stopped if more people are made aware of the dangers they pose to wild­life. We ask everyone to help spread the word.

Read more about the threat posed by balloons and download balloon information posters at balloonsblow.org.