Film Screenings: A Fierce Green Fire, A Last Call at the Oasis: Water

A Fierce Green Fire

Sunday, May 12, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. 

Inspired by the book of the same name by Philip Shabecoff and informed by advisors like the biologist E.O. Wilson, A Fierce Green Fire chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.

The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:

• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon
• Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals
• Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals
• Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubbertappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest
• Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change

The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima; a year and a half since stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and half a year since the wakeup call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. A Fierce Green Fire tells stories about four successful movements, then takes up the biggest cause of all, still in suspense. It gives us reason to believe change can come.

A Last Call at the Oasis: Water

Saturday, June 22, 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford

Water. It’s the earth’s most valuable resource. Our cities are powered by it, countless industries depend on it, and all living things need it to survive. But it’s very possible that in the near future, there won’t be enough to sustain life on our planet.

The global water crisis will be the central issue facing our world this century. We can manage this problem, but only if we are willing to act now. Last Call at the Oasis is a powerful new documentary that shatters myths behind our most precious resource. This film exposes defects in the current system, shows communities already struggling with its ill-effects and highlights individuals championing revolutionary solutions during the global water crisis. Firmly establishing the global water crisis as the central issue facing our world this century, the film posits that we can manage this problem if we act now.

The film series is cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut.

(From the May 2013 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)

Menunkatuck and SEANET Will be Partnering for Beached Bird Surveys

Menunkatuck Audubon Society will be partnering with SEANET in organizing volunteers for beached bird surveys along the Connecticut shore from Madison to West Haven. 

The Seabird Ecological Assessment Network (SEANET) is a citizen science program that brings together interdisciplinary researchers and members of the public in a long-term collaborative effort to identify and mitigate threats to marine birds.

SEANET was initiated by the Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine, in collaboration with the Lloyd Center for Environmental Studies in Massachusetts, during Autumn 2002. Since this time, the project has expanded to beaches throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 

SEANET volunteers conduct year-round beached bird surveys in order to identify and record information about bird mortality along the east coast of the United States. Data collected by hundreds of SEANET volunteers are used to examine the spatial pattern of bird carcass deposition and how it varies across time.

These surveys provide baseline information about bird mortality and can help to detect mass mortality events due to oil spills, algal toxins, and disease outbreaks. Marine birds can serve as indicators of ecosystem and human health; monitoring the threats they face and their mortality patterns can teach us about the health of the marine environment.

Photo: W. Stanton

Amy Hopkins and Dennis Riordan have identified about 27 beaches in the Chapter area that could be surveyed, fifteen that meet the SEANET protocol of being one kilometer long and another 12 that could be combined in pairs to make about 1 km. We are now looking for people who are interested in participating in the SEANET surveys. SEANET volunteers must conduct surveys at least twice every month, close to two weeks apart. If you are only able to walk once a month, but still want to participate, we will pair you up with another volunteer so that you will generate twice monthly walks between you. If you are interested in becoming a SEANET volunteer, go to goo.gl/HI2Nw and complete the form.

Even if you aren’t a Seanetter, SEANET wants your information should you come across a SEANET tagged bird. The volunteers place orange cable ties on the wings, legs and beaks of the birds they find. Many of the volunteers also affix individually numbered aluminum tags. If you find a bird that you suspect was tagged as part of the project, please don’t disturb, move or throw it away! SEANET collects data on how long dead birds stay on the beach, and whether they move up and down

the coast with the tides. If you find a SEANET bird, please leave it where it is, snap a photo if you can, note the tag number (if present) and send the info along to Sarah Courchesne via email (sarah.courchesne@tufts.edu).

For the latest SEANET news and updates, visit the SEANET Blog.

(From the May 2013 newsletter)

Bio Bits: How To Feed And Clean A Turkey

As breeding season gets underway and gobbling can be heard in our woodlands and meadows, we notice the wild turkey’s (Meleagris gallopavo) activities. This bird is native to North and Central America and was domesticated in Mexico centuries ago. In the sixteenth century Spanish conquerors brought some of these domesticated birds back to Spain where they continued to be bred in captivity. 

These turkeys were later introduced to France and England. European colonists eventually brought the turkey full circle – back to America as a domesticated version of its wild American cousin. 

Wild turkeys feed on seeds and nuts, as well fruits, leaves, insects (like grasshoppers) and even small vertebrates (like salamanders). In the fall and winter acorns, hickory nuts and beechnuts become the mainstay of the wild turkey diet. All food consumed by the turkey, including seeds, nuts and crunchy insects, pass through the turkey’s gizzard, the hard muscular section of the stomach. The gizzard grinds the food with the aid of “grit,” such as sand or small pebbles, which the turkey ingests for this very reason. In experiments it was found that a turkey’s gizzard could crush an object that required more than 400 pounds of pressure per square inch!

Patches of bare dry ground are attractive to wild turkeys not only for the grit they offer, but also as sites for dust baths. Loose dusty sand is an ideal medium in which to look for signs of wild turkey bathing activity. A flock will spend a good deal of time at the site as each turkey takes a turn, lowering its body to the ground while flinging sand onto its back with its wings. Puffing its feathers allows the sand to reach all the turkey’s skin and feather surfaces. A vigorous shake, some preening of feathers, and the turkey is ready to resume its daily activities, perhaps leaving behind footprints and wing impressions in the dust for an observant person to discover. 

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Photos: Wikimedia

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

The Atlantic Flyway

Roughly 10 percent of Americans live within 50 miles of Long Island Sound.  As part of the Atlantic Flyway Saving Important Bird Areas strategy Audubon is leading an ambitious effort to restore the Sound’s health in a way that supports populations of priority waterbirds and shorebirds while balancing the needs of nature and people. 

Sound Vision, a two-year action plan to protect and restore the Sound developed by the Long Island Sound Citizens Advisory Committee, combines restoration projects with unified legislative efforts. Science plays a key role in Audubon’s efforts in the Sound, exemplified by Audubon Connecticut’s work to assess breeding success and identify optimal nesting locations that will ultimately benefit American Oystercatchers, Piping Plovers, Saltmarsh Sparrows, Roseate Terns, and other priority bird species.

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

Citizen Science: Nature’s Notebook

The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with far more data than they could collect alone.
                   

Nature’s Notebook is a national plant and animal phenology observation program of the USA-NPN. You can join thousands of other individuals who are providing valuable observations that scientists, educators, policy makers, and resource managers are using to understand how plants and animals are responding to climate change and other environmental changes. Observations by participants like you are already helping researchers detect early leaf-out in forests from St. Louis to Maine in response to unusually warm winters and springs. 

There are four easy steps to get started observing plants and animals in your area:

• Learn about the plants and animals you can observe
  Find out which species in your area are on the list - learn more about them and the phenophases to look for. (Examples of springtime phenophases that interest scientists include flowering, leaf unfolding, insect emergence, and bird, fish, and mammal migration.)
• Learn how to observe
  Learn how to select a site, select your plants and animals, and record your observations.
• Sign up to be an observer
  Become an official participant and set your username and password. All you need is an email address and Internet access.
• Log in to Nature’s Notebook
  As you collect data during the season, log in to your account at Nature’s Notebook and enter your observations.

Go to www.usanpn.org/participate/observe for complete information.

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)

Invasive Plants Destructive to the Environment; Natives Are More Suitable Alternatives

With spring and a new gardening season coming in a few weeks, it is an ideal time to consider the invasive plants in our landscape and native plants that are suitable alternatives.

The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group defines an “invasive plant as a species non-native to the ecosystem under consideration, and whose introduction, whether accidental or intentional, causes or is likely to cause harm to the environment, economy or human health.”

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) was introduced into North America from eastern Asia. With fragrant flowers, the ability to grow in adverse conditions, and fruit that is eaten by dozens of bird species, autumn olive has been promoted as an ornamental and wildlife plant. 

If so many birds love its fruit, what is the problem with autumn olive? With the potential for a mature plant to produce as many as 66,000 seeds annually, it can quickly become the dominant plant in an area, outcompeting native plants. It also has allelopathic properties. It releases growth-compounds from its roots and other plants that try to establish themselves absorb the chemicals and die. Few insects feed on autumn olive  giving it little value for spring migrating and nesting birds.

Autumn olive. Photo: nps.gov

Three other plants introduced into North America from Asia, Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), winged euonymus (burning bush) (Euonymus alatus), and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), can also become dominant plants in the landscape. They are especially harmful in the forest understory where they shade out native plants and result in a monoculture. And again, they do not support the insects that birds need for their growing chicks. 

Japanese honeysuckle. Photo: hort.uconn.edu/plants

More suitable native plant alternatives for these non-native plants include several of the plants that are included in Menunkatuck’s Plant Sale for the Birds. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), and highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) all have berries that provide food for wildlife with the additional benefit of flowering in May, June, or July, attracting insects that nesting birds can feed their chicks. An alternative to Japanese honeysuckle is trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), a native vine that is attractive to ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Trumpet honeysuckle. 

Photo (color adjusted): hort.uconn.edu/plants 

Karen Bussolini will discuss more ideas for Landscaping with Native Plants: Healing Our Home Turf at Menunkatuck’s March 13 program. 

(From the March 2013 Newsletter)