Project Limulus: 2012 Horseshoe Crab Population Survey Summary

I am sorry to report that it was a disappointing spring for Menunkatuck’s Project Limulus  volunteers, especially after last year when we tagged 975 crabs.  Our total tagged for this year was only 240.  The crabs just weren’t there!  This would have been of greater concern to us had we not learned that Short Beach in Branford was crawling with them!  Heather Smiarowski, a Beach Captain for The Branford Land Trust, reported that they almost had more crabs than they could handle.  I wondered if Guilford’s lack of crabs could have been due to reconfiguration of the bottom of the Sound caused by Hurricane Irene.  I asked Dr. Mark Beekey, one of the Sacred Heart professors in charge of Project Limulus, and he said that it is not unusual for the crabs to show up in an area one year and then go somewhere else the next year.  We don’t know why this happens. Finding answers to questions like this is one of the reasons we are doing the study.

Recapture numbers were considerably less in Guilford as well.  A recapture is a crab which has already been tagged.  We found only 61 recaptures compared to 262 found last year.

Guilford’s Project Limulus team surveyed the two beaches at Indian Cove a total of 21 times.  We also met on two extra days for tagging only.  Crabs were tagged at the following Guilford beaches: Indian Cove Public, Indian Cove Private, Shell Beach, Joshua Cove, and Grass Island.  Our 2012 survey period began on May 3rd. and ended on July 1st.  We found the greatest number of crabs on May18th.  It is interesting to note that horseshoe crabs were sighted by volunteers as early as April 15th.   This was approximately one month earlier than the past 3 years and was probably related to the mild winter and warmer than average spring temperatures.  One hypotheses to explain our lower crab numbers this year was that we had missed a couple of weeks of tagging because the tags weren’t available until the beginning of May.  This idea, however, seemed to be negated by the fact that Branford continued to find large numbers of crabs throughout May and June. 

I think it is also interesting to note that during the actual beach surveys, which follow a prescribed protocol according to specific dates and tides, the number of crabs counted,(165), was not significantly different from last year’s count of 171.  I don’t know how to explain this.  All of my seasoned volunteers agreed that we really did see less crabs this year. 

New this year, were two visits to local schools.  Accompanied by a pair of live horseshoe crabs,my husband, Vaughn, and I gave presentations about Project Limulus to the students at the King-Robinson Magnet School in New Haven and at Rockville High School in Vernon.  It was great to see the students "getting up close and personal" with the horseshoe crabs! 

  

I can’t say thank you enough to my great team of volunteers for their time, enthusiasm, and dedication.  Here’s hoping that the crabs will decide to come back to Guilford next year!   I look forward to seeing you then.

We are always happy to have new volunteers.  If you are interested, please contact judy@menunkatuck.org.  For more information about Project Limulus, go to info@projectlimulus.org. 

                                       2010                     2011                  2012

Total crabs tagged-       370                       975                    240

Total recaptures-             26                        262                      61

                                        2010                    2011                  2012

Total crabs counted 

during surveys -              151                      171                    165                   

2010

Indian Cove Public Beach              Indian Cove Private Beach    

Single males-4                                  Single males-13

Single females-1                               Single females- 4

Pairs-30                                              Pairs-19

Female with 2 males-2                    Female with 2 males-3

Female with 3 males-0                    Female with 3 males-4

Total crabs-71                                   Total crabs-80

2011

Single males-19                              Single males-6

Single females-9                             Single females-1

Pairs-41                                            Pairs-13

Female with 2 males-7                  Female with 2 males-1

Female with 3 males-1                  Female with 3 males-0                                                                                                                 Total crabs-135                               Total crabs-36

                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                      

2012

Single males-15                               Single males-7

Single females-4                              Single females-3

Pairs-27                                             Pairs-31                      

Female with 2 males-5                   Female with 2 males-0

Female with 3 males-0                   Female with 3 males-0

Females with 4 males-1                 Female with 4 males-0

Total crabs-93                                  Total crabs-72

Three Chapter Area Schools Embrace Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program

Michelle Frankel and Taralynn Reynolds describe a program for children

King-Robinson Magnet School in New Haven and Melissa Jones Elementary School and Abraham Baldwin Middle School in Guilford are embracing the Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program.

Melissa Jones students admire the Habitat Recognition sign that the school was awarded for its adoption of the Audubon At Home healthy habitat program.

The Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program develops healthy schoolyard habitats for children and wildlife by providing schools with the guidance, training, and resources to create habitat for wildlife on the school grounds and integrate place-based nature education into the curriculum. The program is well aligned with the children and youth programmatic priorities at the schools. Access to a schoolyard habitat will provide all children at the school with access to nature on a daily basis and help them understand the connections between making healthy choices for themselves and for the environment. Activities will build skills in inquiry, observation, and math using experiential techniques, enabling children to be more successful at school. They will have the opportunity to work with adults, play leadership roles and make positive decisions by participating in the Garden Stewardship committee. Family education activities will provide opportunities for families to nurture and support children’s learning and encourage families to make healthy choices at home.

Place-based nature education is critical to the development of an environmentally aware citizenry. At a time when passive indoor activities and restrictions on outdoor play dominate children’s out-of-school time, youngsters have little direct experience in nature. There is an urgent need for place-based learning about the natural world, particularly in urban areas. Richard Louv documented the nationwide epidemic of “nature deficit disorder,” linking lack of nature exposure to rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression. The American Association for the Advancement of Science urges teachers to take science out of the textbook and into reality.

Audubon Connecticut has been awarded a grant for $23,314 from the Carolyn Foundation to develop the Schoolyard Habitat Program at King-Robinson. The grant will expand on the three-year partnership Menunkatuck has had with King-Robinson to enable the establishment of a large wildlife meadow, development of a Schoolyard Habitat Educator’s Guide, teacher training, and field trips for the school children.Carolyn Foundation to develop the Schoolyard Habitat Program at King-Robinson. The grant will expand on the three-year partnership Menunkatuck has had with King-Robinson to enable the establishment of a large wildlife meadow, development of a Schoolyard Habitat Educator’s Guide, teacher training, and field trips for the school children.

This slope at King-Robinson Magnet School will be transformed into a meadow.

The Guilford schools have each received grants from the Guilford Fund for Education.

Melissa Jones school social worker Lorrie Shaw was awarded $3500 in 2011 and has used the funds to establish a native wildflower and shrub garden that was used by the K-4 students as part of their classwork. She was also able to purchase binoculars and field guides for the students to use. Melissa Jones was awarded the Audubon at Home Habitat Recognition Award for its commitment to establishing the school as a healthy habitat.

Baldwin science teacher Sue Kennedy received $3500 this year. With the help of students from the Guilford High School Ecology Club, a monoculture courtyard area has been transformed into a garden space with native perennials and fruit bearing shrubs. A sloped area that has been ignored and is overgrown with non-native plants will become a meadow with pollinator-friendly plants. Additionally, Sue will be purchasing binoculars and field guides.

This courtyard at Baldwin Middle School is being converted from a garden of day lilies to one with a variety of native perennials and fruit-bearing shrubs.

The courtyard garden is starting to take shape.

The Schoolyard Habitat Recognition Program addresses core content standards and outdoor environmental education provides the perfect format for students to improve their scientific inquiry skills. The students will have the opportunity to describe basic natural phenomena such as the seasonal changes in plants or the life cycle of insects found in the garden.

Melissa Jones students study plants and insects in the garden.

Students will be able to use the wildlife gardens to develop authentic research projects, such as examining factors that affect plant growth, seed preferences of birds at feeders, and parental care at nest boxes. Students will use the appropriate tools including hand lenses, binoculars, tape measures, and simple data collection sheets. Students could have ‘magic spots’ where they go every week to observe seasonal changes of the gardens. Such hands-on experiences encourage students to set questions for themselves rather than simply to respond to questions set by teachers and engage in authentic research and learning experiences.

The Schoolyard Habitat gardens provide an outdoor learning space in which the students can improve their scientific inquiry skills

The first step in adopting the Audubon Schoolyard Habitat Program is an assessment of the school campus habitat followed by recommendations for making it more wildlife-friendly. Contact Taralynn Reynolds (treynolds@audubon.org) for more information about having your school become part of this exciting program.

Michelle Frankel is a Conservation Biologist and Taralynn Reynolds is the Audubon At Home Coordinator for Audubon Connecticut.

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.

It Glides Through The Air With The Greatest Of Ease

The southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans) may be common in our area, but few people have ever seen one since this tiny forest sprite is a creature of the night. 

There are two species of flying squirrel in Connecticut. The southern species lives in deciduous and mixed forests of the eastern United States, from southern Maine to northern Florida. The northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) prefers coniferous forests and can be found in Canada, as well as northern and mountainous regions of the U. S. The only area of Connecticut where it resides is in the higher elevations of the northwest corner.

Flying squirrels are our only nocturnal squirrels. They become active at dusk, emerging from a nest in a hollow tree, an old woodpecker hole or a nestbox. The nest is lined with bark, leaves, moss and feathers. In summer a nest is sometimes built of leaves and twigs on the outside of the tree. And occasionally you may find that flying squirrels have taken up residence in your nice, warm attic. 

The southern flying squirrel depends on the forest trees to provide it with sustenance, such as hickory nuts, acorns and beechnuts. Seeds, berries, mushrooms, insects and bird eggs are also eaten. Since it remains active throughout the year, the squirrel will store food for the leaner winter months. 

Its soft, silky fur is gray-brown above with white undersides. Large eyes help it to see in the deep darkness of a forest night. But its most amazing characteristic is the loose skin between the front and hind legs that allows it to fly.

Well, not actually fly. The squirrel doesn’t flap these skin folds; it uses them more like a parachute or glider. It spreads its legs wide and glides from the top of a tree to the trunk of another. From a height of 60 feet, a two and a half ounce flying squirrel can glide over 150 feet. By turning its legs and body and using its flattened tail as a rudder, the squirrel easily controls where it will glide and ultimately land. Another cool trick: upon landing it immediately runs up or around the tree trunk to hide from any predator that may have observed its flight. 

Unlike our other squirrel species, the flying squirrel is quite gregarious. Groups of these squirrels are known to feed and sleep together and there are reports of over 20 squirrels denning together for the winter. If you hear high-pitched birdlike twittering in the evening, shine a light up into the trees. Perhaps a troupe of flying squirrels is passing through.  

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Image from Audubon’s Mammals: The Quadripeds of North America

Citizen Science: Neotropical Migrant Survey

USFWS

Once again Audubon Connecticut is seeking citizen scientists (volunteer birdwatchers) to participate in surveys of Neotropical migrant songbirds during fall migration, one morning per week from August 20 through October 20, 2012. Volunteers should have strong bird identification skills and at least a basic ability to identify common plants. Our priority sites for the surveys are coastal sites from Greenwich to New London as well as sites in the greater Hartford area, but people interested in conducting the surveys at other sites in Connecticut are welcome to participate as well. To volunteer or for more information, contact Lori Mott at zoogirl527@gmail.com.

The songbird surveys are part of Audubon’s new Habitat Oases for Migrating Songbirds program, which seeks to identify, improve and conserve important stop-over habitat for migrating songbirds all along the Atlantic migratory flyway, focusing on urban areas and other landscapes where there is limited quality habitat.

The program, performed in collaboration with Audubon chapters, botanical gardens, state and municipal parks departments, and other groups, engages citizen scientists in migratory songbird surveys of urban green spaces and rural forest remnants. The surveys help us to determine the characteristics of high quality stop-over habitat and which species of plants are most beneficial as food sources for migrating songbirds. Audubon and its partners are using the results of this study to:  

• Promote the protection of critical stop-over habitats by helping government agencies, corporations, land trusts, and other landowners make informed land use and land protection decisions
• Improve the quality of public and private lands as stop-over habitat for migrating birds by guiding the management and landscaping practices of natural resource managers, private landowners and professional landscapers
• Develop regionally-specific lists of “bird-friendly” native plants that may be used to guide landscaping practices in parks, gardens and backyards.

More Bad News

The  emerald ash borer has made its way into Connecticut. 

Environmental Headlines has the story: 

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station (CAES) announced today a series of strong, proactive steps aimed at preventing the spread of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a destructive beetle which has now been detected in Connecticut.

DEEP will also maintain a ban that has been in place against bringing any firewood into state parks and forests.  Wood is made available at these facilities for campers.DEEP and CAES announced earlier today that EAS was detected in Prospect, the first record of this pest in Connecticut.  There is also a second probable detection of EAS in Naugatuck State Forest, with final verification from federal officials in process....
The EAB is a small and destructive beetle, metallic green in color, and approximately 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch wide.  Adults emerge from the bark of infested trees leaving a small “D”-shaped exit hole roughly 1/8 inch in diameter.  This insect is native to Asia and was first discovered in the Detroit, MI and Windsor, Ontario regions of North America in 2002.  It has since spread through the movement of firewood, solid-wood packing materials, infested ash trees, and by natural flight dispersal.

Climate Change? Yes.

From environment360:

New NASA satellite images show that the surface of virtually the entire ice sheet covering Greenland experienced melting in mid-July, a phenomenon not seen in three decades of satellite observations. Temperatures rose so high that ice on the Greenland’s highest peak, Summit Station, turned to slush, NASA said. Until the severe melting earlier this month, the greatest extent of surface melting observed by satellites over the past three decades covered about 55 percent of the ice sheet; on July 12, 97 percent of the ice sheet experienced surface melting.

These NASA maps show how, within the space of four days earlier this month, Greenland's vast ice sheet faced degree of melting not seen in three decades of satellite observations as temperatures there rose. The image at left shows the ice sheet on July 8, with a large part of it experiencing no melting in summer, as is typical. By July 12, the surface of virtually the entire ice sheet was melting, a phenomenon not seen in three decades of satellite imaging. (NASA)