WildLife Guards Boy Scout Event
This past Saturday, September 26, I spent the day with seven of our ten Bridgeport WildLife Guards back at Brideport, Connecticut’s Pleasure Beach. That is where they were stationed five days each week this summer, conducting education, conservation and advocacy activities and making a difference for rare or endangered plants and wildlife, highlighted by the federally threatened Piping Plover. They engaged visitors and beachgoers, offering unique and innovative programs to convey the philosophy of sharing the beach and respecting our natural world as well as the complex ecosystems of...
Read MoreBoothe Park Hawk Watch 2015 Season
We are now well into the fall hawk watch season as sites across the country are staffed by citizen scientists engaged in counting raptors heading south for the winter. Various hawk, falcon, vulture, eagle, and kite species plus birds like the Osprey, Northern Harrier and even some owls can be tallied on conducive flight days at migratory hotspots often situated along ridges or at the edge of a body of water. Counting these birds helps keep track of raptor populations on an international scale, gauging the health of these important predator species that have often been threatened by human...
Read MoreMeadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus)
We had a squee moment a couple weeks ago when our Project Wild America students came across a pair of baby meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) in our path along the Chadakoin River. According to an old wives tale, handling baby wildlife will deter the mother from returning, due to the human scent, ultimately leaving the little ones for dead. Thankfully, these tales are far from true. While it is best practice to leave little ones where you find them, picking them up isn’t a death sentence. Our students were alerted to the voles as they were squeaking from within the grass clump they...
Read MoreProject Wild America Wrap Up
It’s 7am and about 55° on the morning of our last turtle trapping day with our Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors. I roll up to the Riverwalk to find all our students ready to give things a final go. All of us are beat from a long couple weeks of intensive trapping efforts and exploration of various sites along the Chadakoin River. However, we each feel accomplished with how many different species we have found and the impact we have made on the local community through the sharing of our findings and experiences. There is a dwindling optimism as we deploy our 35 foot seine net,...
Read MoreElementary School Students Saving Birds
Last year the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds helped to teach elementary school children about some of Connecticut’s most imperiled avian species, ensuring that they learn about why it is so important to share the shore with these conservation-priority waterbirds. Respecting wildlife is a fundamental aspect of our species stewardship of the Earth – at least if we want to survive on it! These students gave back to their world by creating wonderful, unique art to teach and inspire beachgoers as they flock to the shore for the summer. You can see some of these signs focused...
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