Volunteer Workshop -- Cerceris Wasps as a Bio-surveillance for Emerald Ash Borer PART 2!

Cerceris fumipennis defending nest against rival females
Cerceris fumipennis female defending nest from rival females.
photo by Mike Bohne
www.cerceris.info




Part 1 was attended by 25 people, what an awesome audience!  Now it's time for Part 2 (The Field Portion), which is scheduled for Thursday July 7, 2011, 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  We'll meet at the A. B. Ceder Classroom.  Dress for the weather, hopefully warm and sunny so the wasps are out hunting!  Please contact James Fischer james(at)whitememorialcc.org, if you are interested in attending.  See you there!

Volunteer Workshop -- Cerceris Wasps as a Bio-surveillance for Emerald Ash Borer

EAB in Windsor Ontario
Emerald Ash Borer
photo by Phillip Careless
www.cerceris.info



Emerald Ash Borer is another invasive species threatening Connecticut's biological diversity.  This insect feeds on and kills ash trees.  One method used to detect Emerald Ash Borer as part of Connecticut's early warning system is to use Cerceris Wasps.  Cerceris Wasps are a native species that predate buprestid beetles, which includes the Emerald Ash Borer.  The efficacy of this surveillance method for EAB is better than many of the other methods that are being employed.  Yet, the best survey scenario is when all of the surveillance methods are incorporated collectively.  We need your help!  We need volunteers to observe Cerceris Wasp colonies and collect the prey that they collect.  These prey insects will be identified by entomologists to see if Emerald Ash Borers have invaded the state/region.  Claire Rutledge, CT Agriculture Experiment Station Entomologist, will facilitate a workshop on Tuesday June 28 at 1:30 p.m. in the A. B. Ceder Classroom to teach us how to perform this work.  This will be Part 1 of that 2 part workshop.  The second session will include the field methods and will be scheduled at the first session.  If you have any questions please contact James Fischer. james(at)whitememorialcc.org or 860-567-0857

Cerceris fumipennis with native buprestid prey
Cerceris fumipennis with native buprestid prey
photo by Mike Bohne
www.cerceris.info

Introducing Our Summer Intern -- Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit
Becca is a Bachelor of Arts candidate at Dickinson College where she will be entering her senior year as a history major.  Becca lives in Morris and grew up spending her vacations at her grandparent's home on Bantam Lake.  She now lives there full time with her family and decided to learn a little more about the Bantam Lake environment by volunteering her time at White Memorial.  Becca has worked in other research related endeavors in the History Department at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.  She recently returned from a trip to India.  Read about her adventure at her blog by clicking on her profile.  Becca is helping us with a wide variety of projects this summer, so if you are in the neighborhood please stop and introduce yourself.

Is Chytrid Fungus Present In Connecticut?

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
On the way to Ongley Pond, A Female Painted Turtle






Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Tadpole Sampled for Chytrid Fungus
Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Green Frog
Photo By: Olivia Riccio
How to Hold A Green Frog for Swabbing
Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Catching a Leopard Frog
Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Identifying a Leopard Frog



Recently Batrachonchytrium dendrobatidis or chytrid fungus was found worldwide causing stress and even death to various amphibians, in particular frogs. Chytrid fungus is an invasive fungus that is quickly spreading towards the Northeast section of the United States. At White Memorial we are testing for the presence of chytrid fungus on frogs and salamanders at Ongley Pond, Mallard Marsh, and Duck Pond. We hope that we will find an answer to why chytrid fungus affects frogs and specifically why chytrid fungus kills amphibians in other parts of the United States but seems at this time to only cause stress to these northeastern inhabitants?
         
Tuesday, June 21, I had the pleasure to sample Ongley Pond on White Memorial for green frogs, leopard frogs, or really any frogs I could find! The weather was perfect for catching frogs; it was a clear, sunny 85 degree day. The procedure used to sample is non-destructive to these amphibians. Once the frog is caught by a net, the frog is held by their legs (the legs are the strongest part of their body and are usually used to escape!) and then the smooth side of the toothpick is rubbed on the frog's stomach, back, and the inside and outside of the legs (where the majority of the chytrid fungus is found). The toothpick is then soaked in a vial of ethanol and labeled. Each frog sampled is then described with any additional information needed in my field notebook. So far, I have sampled 6 frogs (it is hard to catch frogs especially with mosquitoes flying around your head!). 5 out of the 6 sampled were green frogs. One leopard frog (less common than the green frog) was sampled along with a tadpole (See Above). Hopefully, these samples will lead to some answers when they are sent to Yale University to be tested in the lab by Kathryn Richards-Hrdlicka , head of this research project. But, don't worry more frog sampling is on the way (if this rain ever stops)!




















An Examination of Bear Poop

It's not every day I get to pick apart a piece of poop, but yesterday proved to be an exception. After a reported sighting of a mother bear and two cubs on the property, Jamie, fellow intern Olivia and I, set out to locate possible "nursury trees," which would be a good location for a wildlife camera. Nursury trees or "baby-sitting trees" are so named because a mother bear likes to find such trees to provide a sort of safe jungle-gym for her cubs, so she can leave them in this kind of sheltered grove while she sees to the business of the day. Nursury trees typically have thick bark and lots of low branches, so little bears can practice their climbing. Jamie had already scouted out an area just north of Cranberry Swamp, which has both lowland and upland habitats, which he thought had some ideal nursury trees. Though we didn't find any sign of the bears amongst the trees, on our way back along Cranberry Swamp Trail, we came across a nice spicemen of bear scat.

Bear Scat with Deer Hoof on Ruler

The first thing we noticed about this particular spicemen was how hairy it was. Now, I don't mean hairy in the treacherous sense of the word, but hairy as in, bushy, furry, and full of deer fur. Jamie pulled out his tweezers and other poop-examining tools, and extracted a small triangular object. At first glance, it looked like a tooth, but after Jamie explained it was made out of caratin (which is what our nails and hair is made out of), we came to the conclusion it was a claw. More specifically, Jamie clarified, it was a deer hoof. The hoof was hardened on the bottom, which means that it didn't belong to a stillborn fawn, but to a deer who had been up an walking about.

A black bear doesn't exactly have a strong moral conscious, and so wouldn't hestitate to eat a nice little fawn the had been bedded down by its mother. For the first 4 weeks of its life, a baby deer is pretty uncoordinated. The mother will typically create a nice bed for the fawn to stay in until it is strong enough to really move around on its own. What good luck for the bear who happens upon such an easy target! Who knew you could learn so much by just stopping to look at a piece of poop!

Porcupine Update

Salted Stakes Removed in June

This past winter, we found evidence of a porcupine for the first time on the White Memorial property. In an effort to determine whether this porcupine is still on the premises, Jamie has been conducting an experiment for the past two months. Jamie's experiment relies on the porcupines' high affinity for salt, especially during the summer months. With this in mind, Jamie has placed 16 wooden stakes in a grid around the area where the evidence of the porcupine was found this winter. The stakes have been soaked in a salt-water solution with approximately the same salinity as the ocean in hopes that if Mr. or Mrs. Porcupine is still on the property, he or she, will gnaw on these salty stakes.

On Friday June 17 and Tuesday June 21, Jamie and I went around replacing the salty stakes for the second time since he began this experiment. Using a hand-held GPS and a carefully marked trail map, we trekked through the woods in the five ponds area, checking for possible porcupine chewing as we went. (This may sound easier than it actually was because since the stakes were placed by GPS coordinates, they weren't exactly in the most convenient locations.)


Chewing on Stake 179

As of this point, if the porcupine is still around the property, it has chosen not to chew on our carefully positioned, salty stakes. Most stakes had no evidence of anyone chewing on them. Some, such as stake 179 which is situated off the south-east corner of Beaver pond, showed some evidence of gnawing, but Jamie doesn't believe the marks were left by a porcupine (see above photo). Stake 180 also had some interesting marks on it, though once again, not from our prickly friend. We found two small holes at one corner of this stake (see photo below). Jamie believes that these holes could have been made by a bear's canine tooth, as a bear will sometimes mark his or her territory by biting and wounding trees in addition to other scent-related methods.


Holes on Stake 180
As they say, "third time's a charm," and maybe the porcupine will decide to chew on the third round of salt-soaked wooden stakes we have just finished positioning!

Albino Eastern Chipmunk Observed on Property, Today!

Albino Eastern Chipmunk observed in 1998 on White Memorial Foundation
photo by Ray Packard

Albinism is caused by a genetic mutation that is rarely expressed and therefore rarely observed in populations.  Although it is difficult to demonstrate in real populations, it has been hypothesized and stands to reason that the probability that an albino individual will survive to reproduce in most populations is quite low.   Albinism is the complete lack of body pigment and can be observed in the hair, skin, and eyes.  This complete lack of pigment can occur throughout the entire body (see image) or along specific regions of the body, sometimes referred to as partial albinism.  Albinism is different from seasonal changes in coat color, which is attributed as an adaptation that camouflages the individual in a seasonal environment.  The Snowshoe Hare serves an example of an organism that changes it coat color seasonally by displaying a coat that is mostly brown in the warmer season and mostly white in the winter when snow dominates their environment.  Snowshoe Hares still have pigment in their skin and eyes during the winter months when their hair is all white.  Albino individuals lack pigment throughout their entire lives.

This is a rare observation indeed!  The albino Eastern Chipmunk was observed crossing S.R. 202 at ~8:30 a.m. approximately 50 feet west of the junction with Butternut Brook heading northward by James Fischer.

Amphibian Cover-Board Experiment Monthly Check -- June 2011

We checked our cover-board experiment comparing soft and hard wood types in a pair-wise comparison yesterday.  Olivia Riccio and Rebecca Solnit (granddaughter of the owners who donated the land that hosts this experiment) were cowhands by checking most of the boards and calling out the species identification as we progressed through the grid.  We observed 69 redback salamanders, 4 red efts, 1 spotted salamander, and 1 wood frog under the boards.  A total of 55 out of 132 stations detected an amphibian.

Spotted Salamander photo by James Fischer

Redback Salamander photo by James Fischer

Lead phase Redback Salamander photo by James Fischer

Red eft life stage of Red-spotted Newt photo by James Fischer

Adult Wood Frog photo by James Fischer

Baby Birds Are Hatching Out All Over!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

by Patty Levin from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/


Downy Woodpecker from


Common Grackle by John Borom

from http://www.weeksbay.org/



Baltimore Oriole by Jeff Lewis from



American Crow by Darlene Knox


Despite the absolutely awful weather that has plagued us for the past few days it seems as if baby birds are hatching out all over White Memorial. Some of those birds that hatched in the past 2 or 3 weeks are already fledging. The photos above depict just a few of the many birds that we saw yesterday and Sunday. Pt. Folly was especially productive. Amazingly, 2 of the Baltimore Oriole nests with young were only 25' apart. They were near campsite 3 for anyone interested in seeing them. Also around that site and the observation platform were 4 Common Grackle nests. Two of them had young fledging out when a pair of Cooper's Hawks came winging in. Each hawk grabbed a young grackle before flying off with many angry adult grackles and other birds in hot pursuit. I wish we could have gotten photos of all that action! Grackles around the Museum Area and N. Shore Marsh also have a ton of babies. While not nearly as abundant as some other bird species, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers seem to be having a very good year for producing young. I found active Red-bellied Woodpecker nests around the Museum, behind Ongley Pond, and along N. Shore Rd., and Downy Woodpecker nests along the Lake, Windmill Hill, Butternut Brook, and Cranberry Pond Trails and at the Bantam Lake Outlet. American Crows have been nesting around here since March, and now fledglings are everywhere. I found 3 Fish Crows with their American cousins at Wheeler Hill yesterday. Other less common species that we found feeding fledglings included Blue-winged Warblers at Icehouse Field, Eastern Towhees at Wheeler Hill, Wood Thrushes along the Lake and Butternut Brook Trails, Black-and-White Warblers along N. Shore Rd., and Barred Owls at Wheeler Hill and Pine Island. My next few blog postings will probably cover more breeding bird activity, including results from the Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count, as this is the season for them. Despite the hoards of mosquitoes this would be an ideal time of year for you to go out and look for those birds while they are busy attending their young.

Upcoming Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count

Marsh Wren photographed at

White Memorial's Little Pond

by Paul Fusco


The 2011 Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count is scheduled to occur this coming weekend, June 11 and 12. The count period is June 8 through 15. It is sponsored by the CT. Ornithological Association and the Litchfield Hills Audubon Society, and was initiated in 1994. White Memorial's immense size requires a large number of volunteers under my direction to cover thoroughly. Ideally, we should have teams on foot and in canoes and kayaks. We currently have 8 people committed to do the count, but would like to have at least 12. Experienced birders are preferred, but beginners and novices can help, too, by being extra eyes and ears, and by helping to record data. In past years our "newbies" have provided some pretty good birds to the list simply by pointing to a bird sitting on a tree branch and saying "what's that?" Most years produce around 110 species on White Memorial property, but we have found as many as 125 when the spring migration has dragged on into the breeding season. Since many of our recent walks around various sections of the Property have produced about 60 species per section in about 2 hours time it is quite likely that we could get 110 species for the whole Property this year. We also stand to be on the high side in terms of the number of individual birds counted this year because this total includes nestlings and fledgling as well as adults and there are already plenty of baby birds out there. My daily counts for ebird have risen markedly in the past week because of the influx of new babies into the population. The day before yesterday (6/7) I had no problem finding and counting about 475 individual birds of 54 species around our "Main Area" and about 343 individuals of 41 species at Pine Island and Mallard Marsh. I covered each area for a little less than 2 hours. More time spent outside would translate into more birds, even though a law of diminishing returns sets in after a while when it comes to adding more species. The weather also plays a big role in our effort and in the detectability of birds. It is forecasted to be partly sunny and comfortable on Saturday and mostly cloudy, humid, and showery on Sunday. If you would like to help with this count, especially by canoe or kayak, please e-mail me at dave@whitememorialcc.org.

Welcome Our New Intern, Olivia Riccio!

Olivia Riccio, Junior Bachelor of Science Biology Candidate
 at Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT
Olivia has a strong interest in Biology and is helping us with various tasks within the program.  Olivia reside in Burlington, Connecticut and will be one of our interns this summer.  She performed some maintenance on the snake cover-boards during her first visit, where she showed off her snake handling skills (See photo)!  She will occasionally post her observations to this blog, so check back often to hear what she is contributing to the program this summer.