Citizen Science: Old Weather

In order to have the most accurate computer models for weather and climate forecasting accurate data from the past is needed. One under utilized resource is the extensive records contained in the weather observations contained in ships’ logs.

The British Library holds an extensive collection of logs from the ships of the English East India company in the period from the 1780s to the 1830s. About half of the logbooks for those ships that traded between the UK and India or China have measurements that are useful to scientists.

While Charles Darwin was taking notes on the Beagle that he would use for his great work on evolution, Robert FitzRoy, the Captain, and his crew also recorded the weather in their logs of the records at every point the ship visited.

Late 19^th and early 20^th century Antarctic expeditions provide data for the southern hemisphere where data is otherwise hard to come by.

And Arctic and worldwide weather observations made by United States ships since the mid-19^th century are contained in their ships’ logs.

Excerpt from a ship’s log.

By taking part in Old Weather (oldweather.org) you can help scientists recover these Arctic and worldwide weather observations made by transcribing ships’ logs. These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and will improve our knowledge of past environmental conditions. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and tell the stories of the people on board.

Historic measurements allow scientists to reconstruct weather patterns and extremes from the past allowing them to identify changes in the Earth’s climate over time.

USS Jamestown, one of the ships whose logs are to be transcribed.

With more information about historical weather variability, we can improve our understanding of all forms of weather variability in the past and so improve our ability to predict weather and climate in the future.

Scientists will input weather readings into a database in order to identify weather patterns and extremes. This allows them to test climate projections of how the Earth’s weather will develop in the future against how the climate has behaved in the past.

The numbers themselves give us recordings of temperature and pressure at a particular location - wherever the ships were. Hundreds or thousands of points’ location data from ships can be fed into computer models of the atmosphere, and out of that computer model of the atmosphere comes a weather map.

But instead of feeding in the current data to look at the future, scientists will put in the data from the past - or some of the variables - and reuse the model and the understanding of the physics of the ocean atmosphere system that’s in the models to reconstruct all the other variables that are interrelated physically. The result is a 3D picture of the weather all over the globe.

If we’re worried about extreme weather - unusual events, very large heat waves - then that perspective, that extra length of our records - give us more information about how likely events like that are to occur in the future.

The more people that take part in Old Weather, the more accurate the extracted data will be. Each logbook will be looked at by more than one person allowing mistakes and errors to be filtered out.

For more information and to register to transcribe the records go to oldweather.org.

(Reprinted from September 2014 Newsletter.)

Horseshoe Crab Numbers Increase in Project Limulus Survey

Judy Knowles Reports

Last year there was a significant drop in the number of crabs counted during the standardized survey. The average number of crabs was less than half of what it was in 2010, 2011, and 2012. During those three years the average number of crabs counted was 7.13; last year the average was 3.06 crabs per survey. This year our average was up to 10.24 crabs per survey! This is a huge increase and I am cautiously optimistic. The reason for my caution is that we had one night survey on May 30 when the group counted an unusually large number of crabs during the survey, a total of 97 between the two beaches. We have never counted that many during a survey before! That one night made our average for the season much higher than it would have been had we not gone out to the beaches that night.

The 2014 survey season began on May 12 and ended on June 29. The Project Limulus volunteers surveyed the two beaches at Indian Cove a total of 17 times. Tags were in short supply for Sacred Heart’s Project Limulus and we were only given 100 tags. We didn’t have enough tags for individual taggers this year. All of the crabs were tagged by the group in Indian Cove with the exception of 2 crabs from Joshua Cove (Trolley Rd.), which volunteer Ann Delaney and I tagged when we took them to visit the first and second grades at Kasimir Pulaski Elementary School in Meriden. We used all 100 tags and we could have used more had they been available.

The total number of crabs counted this year was 174. Last year the total was 49.

Recaptures are crabs which are already tagged. Our recapture total was low this year with only 10 recaptures compared to 34 last year. This is puzzling and I have no guess as to why this happened.

My subjective opinion is that we did see more crabs this year, both during the day and night surveys. Let’s hope that this trend continues next year.

I would like to thank all of the volunteers for their enthusiasm and dedication. I would not be able to continue to do this study without your support and encouragement.

(Reprinted from September 2014 Newsletter.)

Summer Field Trips

Topsmead State Forest (IBA)

Litchfield

Sunday July 13, 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Back by popular demand! Formerly the summer estate of Miss Edith Chase of Waterbury, Topsmead State Forest consists of acres of meadows, wooded lanes, woodlands, wetlands, and maintained gardens. There are many walking trails, picnic areas and viewing blinds, and the park is a great place to see nesting Bobolinks, Meadowlarks, sparrows, hawks and other birds in summer. Beginning birders welcome!

We will spend the morning birding and walking the park’s trails, and will conclude with an optional picnic lunch and guided tour of Miss Chase’s summer house (now maintained by DEEP).

Please bring binoculars, at least 1 water bottle, and a picnic lunch/snack. Field guides, cameras and insect repellent are recommended. There are rustic bathroom facilities within the park, and bathrooms with running water/water fountains at the house. There are no admission fees for entry into the park or the mansion.

Meet the leader at 9:00 am at the commuter parking lot at exit 42 off Route 8 in Litchfield/Burlington, CT. 

Optional carpools can be set up by registering or contacting the trip leader.

For questions or to register for this trip, email nina@menunkatuck.org. You can also register online at menunkatuck.org/index.php/calendar1/registration_form/.

Bird Walk at

New Haven Land Trust’s Quinnipiac Meadows/Eugene B. Fargeorge Preserve

New Haven

Sunday July 27, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m

Menunkatuck, Audubon Connecticut, and the New Haven Land Trust are cosponsoring a one-hour bird walk through the Quinnipiac Meadows/Eugene B. Fargeorge Preserve.

Located on the Quinnipiac River, this 35-acre preserve includes tidal wetlands, coastal forest and coastal grasslands. There are two loop trails on the preserve and a bird blind overlooking the salt marsh and river.

Since the walk is during the start of fall shorebird migration, we have the potential for a good amount of bird activity.

The walk will be led by Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, Audubon Connecticut’s IBA Coordinator and Katie Blake, Audubon Connecticut’s Bird Friendly Communities Coordinator.

Following the walk there will be live raptor show with birds from the Sharon Audubon Center.

Bring binoculars and water. Field guides, cameras and insect repellent are recommended. 

From Route 80 take Quinnipiac Avenue (Route 103) south and take a right on a dirt road just after going under the railroad bridge. 

For questions email Julia.Silberman@newhavenlandtrust.org

Bird Watching at Bent of River Sanctuary (IBA)

Southbury

Saturday August 16, 8:30 a.m.- Noon

Bent of River is an approximately 700-acre Audubon sanctuary which offers 15 miles of trails and a variety of habitats such as sandy riverbanks, meadows, wetlands, vernal pools, early successional scrublands and upland forests. The sanctuary is an excellent place to observe birds, butterflies, plants, and wildlife, and to simply enjoy nature. Join Nina Levenduski for a morning of birdwatching and walking to explore the variety of this preserve. Beginning birders and nature lovers welcome! Bring binoculars, hand lens, camera, and field guides (birds & whatever else interests you), and a picnic lunch and water bottle. Insect repellent is also recommended.

Meet at 8:30 am at the parking area just inside the entrance to the sanctuary. Directions to the sanctuary: Take I-84 to exit 14, then proceed north on Route 172 for 1 mile into the village of South Britain. At the General Store, make a left onto East Flat Hill Road. The entrance to the park is 0.4 miles along on the left at the green mailbox. 

Optional carpools can be set up by registering or contacting the trip leader. 

For questions or to register for this trip, email nina@menunkatuck.org. You can also register online at menunkatuck.org/index.php/calendar1/registration_form/.

From the July 2014 Newsletter.

Bird Migration Film Epic Journeys Will Start 2014-2015 Programs

Each year millions of shorebirds make an amazing round-trip journey between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Join us on September 10 when filmmaker Shawn Carey presents his documentary Epic Journeys which looks at three shorebird species — Red Knot, Piping Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper—and the challenges these species face during each of their monumental annual treks.

Shawn Carney

The film asks burning questions: What is being done to help protect these shorebirds and their habitat? How can the public help with their conservation? And where can one go to best see each of these species en-route to their destinations?

Shawn Carey is a resident of Boston, MA and has been photographing birds and other wildlife for about 20 years. He’s been teaching wildlife photography for Mass Audubon for over 12 years.

Taped entirely in Connecticut, Connecticut Reptiles takes viewers on a video adventure that shows the remarkable variety of the state’s native snakes, turtles, and lizard, and the natural places they inhabit. On October 8, naturalist Brian Kleinman will present his film with incredible insights into each animal’s unique adaptations, lifestyles and place in local landscapes. He will also bring some live reptiles.

Brian Kleinman

On November 12 naturalists and photographers Barbara and Peter Rzasa will present Iceland’s Birds, Flowers and Wildlife, a slide show of several Icelandic flora and fauna that can be found while traveling Iceland’s 832-mile long Ring Road.

Peter Rzasa

Iceland is often called “The Land of Fire and Ice” because of the many volcanoes, glaciers and spectacular waterfalls that populate the country. The country is also a noted birder’s paradise famous for its population of Atlantic puffins, ptarmigan, arctic terns and other arctic birds found along Iceland’s 3,700 miles of coast. Reindeer, arctic fox, humpback whales and seals can frequently be seen while Icelandic horses can be found roaming the farmlands.  

Programs run from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Blackstone Memorial Library in Branford (map).

From the July 2014 Newsletter.

Bio Bits - The Secret Code Of Fireflies

We have all enjoyed the spectacle of fireflies flashing on a warm summer evening. A dark woodland edge or open meadow full of hundreds of tiny flashing lights is a magical sight indeed. But you have to wonder -what are these insects up to? 

First, fireflies are not flies at all, but soft-bodied beetles in the family Lampyridae. Most of the over 100 species found in North America are luminescent, producing a chemical light that is so efficient it wastes no energy in the form of heat. One, two or three segments near the tip of the abdomen give off the light; when they are not lit they appear paler than other abdominal segments. 

The luminescent fireflies are nocturnal and are active mainly around dusk. Each species inhabits a particular habitat and is active at a certain time of night. And - this is the cool part - it has its own distinctive series of flashes. 

This series of flashes is like a secret code that the male fireflies use to signal the females of their species, enabling the males and females to find each other to mate. Typically, a male flashes his signal while in flight to attract a response from a female on the ground. When she signals back, the male flies to her. There are females of some species, however, that will answer the signals of other species’ males. Their mimicry entices these males to fly in for a closer look, whereupon the female captures and eats the unsuspecting male. 

Firefly eggs are laid in moist soil or rotting wood and hatch in about a month. The larvae are nocturnal carnivores, eating small insects and snails. When the weather cools they burrow underground to spend the winter, emerging again in the spring. If you happen upon a firefly larva (or even an egg) you will know it since they are luminescent as well. Look for these glowworms in the evening on the ground in damp, marshy areas.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Images: Wikipedia

(From the July 2014 Newsletter.)

The Atlantic Flyway

Saving Important Bird Areas

Audubon’s Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program is a global effort to identify and protect habitat that will protect sustainable populations of birds. The IBA Program is built around an adaptable, science-based blueprint that allows Audubon and other conservation partners to make sound conservation decisions in the face of considerable uncertainty from the changing climate, the economy, and gaps in our knowledge of the abundance and distribution of our highest priority species.

Breeding roseate terns are the principal reason for Falkner Island’s IBA status. (Patrick Comins)

Connecticut’s IBA Program strives to complement the conservation programs of our state, federal, and non-profit partners. By connecting people with nature, working with land stewards to develop conservation strategies, and supporting implementation of these plans at a local level, the IBA Program fills an important niche in statewide conservation efforts by working to protect areas that aren’t easily protected under other conservation programs.

Connecticut currently has 27 publicly announced IBAs and is working to announce additional sites in the future. IBAs in the Menunkatuck Chapter area are East Rock Park, New Haven; Falkner Island Unit of McKinney NWR, Guilford; Hammonasset Beach State Park, Madison; Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven; Quinnipiac River Tidal Marsh, North Haven, New Haven, Hamden; and Sandy Point, West Haven. Several other sites are under review as additional IBAs.

(From the July 2014 Newsletter.)

Citizen Science: Firefly Watch

Are fireflies disappearing?

Spotting fireflies is a special part of warm summer nights, but lately, they seem to be disappearing from our landscape. The Museum of Science, Boston, has teamed up with researchers from Tufts University and Fitchburg State College to set up Firefly Watch to track the fate of the amazing insects. With your help, they hope to learn about the geographic distribution of fireflies and their activity during the summer season. Fireflies also may be affected by human-made light and pesticides in lawns, so they hope to also learn more about those effects.

It’s easy to participate in Firefly Watch. Basically, they want to know if you have fireflies in your backyard this summer (or in a nearby field if you don’t have a backyard). Even if you don’t see fireflies, your data is valuable.

You will join a network of volunteers to observe fireflies in your own backyard. Tracking your progress online and interacting with fellow Citizen Scientists, you will help scientists map fireflies found in New England and beyond. You do not need specific scientific training and participating in Firefly Watch requires just a fraction of your time. 

To participate you should be able to spend ten minutes checking your backyard for fireflies, one evening a week throughout the summer. However, the researchers realize that you lead a busy life and may not be able to collect data every week. Any information you can send in is valuable, as long as you fill out the observations form, and upload the results.

There is much that we still don’t know about what ecological and human-made factors affect firefly populations. The data you collect for Firefly Watch can help the researchers gain a better understanding of how the following elements influence the fireflies in your neighborhood.

To be most useful, a habitat site should be fairly small and cohesive. It should be no larger than the area you can see easily while standing in one spot. A backyard that includes shrubs and trees can be considered one habitat, but a pasture bordering that yard would be considered a different habitat.

Researchers are interested in several environmental factors that may affect fireflies. 

Mowing - During the day, fireflies can spend a lot of time on the ground and may be susceptible to frequent mowing.

Fertilizer - Researchers don’t know what effect fertilizers have on fireflies. Many fertilizers contain both weed killers and pesticides.

Weed killers - The effect weed killers (herbicides) have on fireflies is not known.

Pesticides - People apply pesticides to control insect pests, but pesticides also kill many non-pest insects. Firefly larvae — young fireflies — are not pests, but they are grubs that live in the soil and will come in contact with lawn pesticides, which target grubs.

Adult fireflies may come in contact with sprayed pesticides, some of which are used on localized problem areas like trees. Others, like those targeting mosquitoes, are sprayed over a large area. Although it may seem reasonable to assume that pesticides have an adverse effect on firefly populations, we need data to prove or disprove this assumption.

House or Building Lights - Most fireflies find a mate by flashing. They must be able to see the flash of a prospective mate and return the flash. We don’t know to what degree outside lights affect a firefly’s ability to locate a mate.

Streetlights - Streetlights produce a type of light different from house lights, and we’d like to determine if one type of light is more detrimental than the other.

Nearby Water Sources - Firefly larvae live in the soil, and they need a certain amount of moisture to survive. In some areas, rainfall and shade may be enough to keep the soil moist. In others, the moisture may come from standing water, but we don’t know how important standing water is to fireflies’ survival, nor do we know how different types of water affect them.

For more information visit the Firefly Watch website at legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/.

(From the July 2014 Newsletter.)