Menunkatuck Supports ‘Adopt a Book’ in Guilford

The Guilford Library recently put out the call seeking donations toward the purchase of new books for their children’s room. Menunkatuck Audubon answered that call to ‘Adopt a Book.’ Working with Suellen Heinrich at the library, we chose ten nature-related books to donate:

• Backyard Birds – Peterson Field Guide
• Birds of Prey – Peterson Field Guide
• Bring On the Birds – Susan Stockdale
• Can We Save the Tiger? – Martin Jenkins
• Frog In a Bog – John Himmelman
• Hatch – Roxie Munroe
• Olivia’s Birds – Saving the Gulf – Olivia Bouler
• Roscoe and the Pelican Rescue – Lynn Reed
• Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian – Margarita Engle
• Thunder Birds – Nature’s Flying Predators – Jim Aronsky

Book plates will be placed in each of these books with the Menunkatuck Audubon Society named as donor. Share them with a favorite kid this summer when you visit the Guilford Library.

Thank you to our members, whose support made this donation possible.

New Birders’ Log Box at Hammonasset

Thanks to board member, John Picard, Menunkatuck has a beautiful new wooden box to store our Birders’ Log, newsletters, and our revised Birds of Hammonasset State Park Checklist. (Grateful thanks to Frank Gallo for working with us to revise the list, which now includes all 328 species of birds seen in the park.)

Publish Post

Please remember to record your bird sightings in the log after birding in the park. Birders can check the list to find what has been seen in the park recently, and to know where to look. The records are compiled at the end of the year and sent to Audubon CT and the CT Ornithological Association.

Happy birding.

Project Limulus Update: They're back!

A group of 12 Project Limulus volunteers met at Indian Cove on Sunday night,May 15th., at 9:40 and the crabs were finally there. We counted 6 during the actual survey but we were able to tag a total of 17. Sixteen crabs were tagged at the public beach and 1 was tagged at the private beach.

We are doing the survey by simple count now rather than dividing the beach into quadrats as we did during the last 2 years. We just walk through the water along the length of the beach, from the water's edge to 3 meters out, and tally single males, single females, pairs, and females with 2 or more males. After completing the survey we tag, tag, tag! Mark Beekey and Jennifer Mattei ( Sacred Heart profs in charge of the study ) decided to change the protocol for beaches measuring under 150 meters. It is much quicker and doesn't require as many people. It felt great to be out there again, getting up close and personal with the horseshoe crabs! We are hoping to count and tag many more crabs over the next few weeks now that their spawning season is under way.

Field Trip to Hammonasset

Nina Levenduski led a morning trip to Hammonasset Beach State Park this morning.

Sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and dunlin were feeding along the beach below the east pavilion. Common and red-throated loons were numerous off-shore with a couple coming within 20 feet of the beach. Off the breakwater were four common goldeneye. Meigs Point gave good looks at a female common eider. Along the moraine trail more loons were sighted and two common mergansers were seen in Clinton Harbor. Four black-bellied plovers were on the rocks off the end of the moraine trail and a harbor seal was bobbing in the water. Back at the Nature Center parking lot was a flock of horned larks.

Bird list:

American Black Duck

Mallard

Common Eider

Common Goldeneye

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-throated Loon

Common Loon

Black-bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Purple Sandpiper

Dunlin

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

American Crow

Horned Lark

Black-capped Chickadee

Carolina Wren

Northern Mockingbird

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

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.

Project Limulus Update

Here is the final data for the 2010 horseshoe crab spawning season:

We surveyed 2 beaches in Indian Cove, Guilford, CT. We did the survey a total of 27 times during April, May, June, and July. We counted a total of 151 crabs.

Indian Cove Public Beach:

Single males- 4

Single females-1

Pairs- 30

Female with 2 males- 2

Female with 3 males- 0

Total crabs- 71

Indian Cove Private Beach:

Single males- 13

Single females- 4

Pairs- 19

Female with 2 males- 3

Female with 3 males- 4

Total crabs- 80

We counted the most crabs on the night of May 25th. during the full moon. The peak of the spawning season was May 25th. through May 29th.

Our volunteer group tagged a total of 370 crabs. 130 crabs were tagged in Indian Cove and the rest were tagged at Great Harbor, Jacobs Beach, Grass Island, Tuttles Point,Chaffinch Island, and Chittenden Park.

We reported 26 recaptures ( crabs which have been previously tagged ). One of the most interesting ones was found by Nina Ellison. It was a male which had been tagged in VA in 1999.

Thanks again to all of the Project Limulus volunteers. I will contact everyone in the spring. Now that we have such a dedicated and well-trained team, I'm looking forward to tagging even more crabs next year. I would like to try adding some extra sessions which would be just for tagging crabs at other Guilford beaches.

Project Limulus Update

Another horseshoe crab spawning season has come to an end. You may still see an occasional crab cruising around at the beach, but the crab " love fests " of May and June are now just a memory.

Survey period number five began on June 24th. On a glorious morning full of sun and sea, we were joined by a girl scout troop, and Camden and Justin Blumberg, ages 8 and 6, respectively. They are the youngest members of our team. The kids quickly learned the survey protocol, manning the ropes and recording the data like old pros. We didn't find any crabs during the survey but I had found one earlier, a large female. They all got to hold her and I got to share all of the wonderful things I have learned about horseshoe crabs. Shane Gallimore, a high school student, who was also doing the survey for the first time, got to tag and release her back into the Cove.

No crabs were counted during the June 26th. surveys. However, thanks to a suggestion from Project Limulus team members Stephanie Donaldson and Mary Heffernan, we did take part in an environmentally important event called " Hands Across the Sands". It was an international peaceful gathering to oppose off-shore drilling and support clean energy. Most of the Indian Cove beach-goers joined us in this show of support. Pam Johnson, Senior Staff Writer for the Guilford Courier, wrote an article for the July 8th, edition. She included a photo by by Stephanie Donaldson. It was just one of many cool things which have happened as a result of my involvement with Project Limulus and Audubon. ( To access the article, go to zip06.com/guilford ).

That night, Lesley Orlowski,Lauren Orlowski, and Tom Kelly took over the 11:30 p.m. survey so I could have a night off. They tagged 4 crabs. Thanks guys!

No crabs were seen during the daytime survey on June 28th. and the 12:30 a.m. survey was cancelled due to the weather, the late hour, and the lack of crabs.

We did the survey two more times, on July 9th. at night and July 11th. in the morning. As we expected, there were no crabs. This officially ended our 2010 survey. I got busy sending data to Mark Beekey at Sacred Heart University. I want to congratulate my taggers; Jim Murtaugh, Lorrie and Terry Shaw, Melanie Tolley, Tom Kelly, Ann Delaney, and Katie Day for promptly returning their data and extra tags. Mark Beekey said we were the first team to have all of our tagging data in and tags accounted for.

In my next blog I will present a breakdown of the data for the year. Thank you so much to all the volunteers for your time and dedication. It has truly been a pleasure working with you and getting to know you.