My Bantam Lake App

In 2018, White Memorial intern Cheyenne Liberti created "My Bantam Lake" app to highlight Bantam Lake and its watershed as the premiere recreation destination of northwest Connecticut. This webapp provides the same information that "Bantam Lake Cyanos" did, but adds some multidimensional topics that should be of interest to the stakeholders of Bantam Lake.

Current Cyanos forecast when this was
written. More information about how
the forecast was developed, and what is
meant by "Caution" for lake users

Home page of My Bantam Lake, a webapp that builds off of the
"Cyanos" website with added topics to help engage lake users
in all aspects of living with and near a lake

Main menu for
MyBantamLake.org

Users are first greeted with a montage of beautiful photos of Bantam Lake. From there, they can navigate to a main menu which has options to explore community happenings, wildlife field guides, tips for living on a lake, and many other informative pages. Of course, the first option on the menu is the Cyanobacteria forecast. The site is extremely user-friendly, and offers so much to explore. I encourage anyone reading this to check it out for themselves, as writing about it cannot do it justice! 

The lake is much more than just a body of water. It affects, and is affected by, everything around it for miles and miles. So, it is only fair that an app that is developed for and about the lake should involve all the different aspects of it. 

Some of the wildlife field guides available of the webapp

It is hoped that this website will grow into a mutually-benefiting tool between the people who manage the lake and people who are most affected when the lake is un-usable.

Users can easily upload photos and videos to the webapp

Lake managers will benefit from a more robust body of data that is uploaded by app users. Something as simple as uploading a photo of dead fish on your beach or green algae washing up on shore can be a huge help to lake managers, who cannot survey every inch of the lake every single day. Cooperation is key!

Stakeholders of the lake will benefit in a few different ways. Just like with "Cyanos", they will be able to view the cyanobacteria forecast which helps guide their decisions about interacting with the lake. On a more long-term scale, lake users will be rewarded for their citizen science efforts with a better-managed lake. One that may be less prone to severe algal blooms, and the issues that accompany them.

Everyone has a responsibility to care for the lake, and with the help of MyBantamLake.org, we can come together as a community to set achievable goals toward a healthier lake. 

Game Camera on Deer Carcass

In late May, a White-Tailed Deer was hit and killed by a vehicle in Litchfield. White Memorial staff dragged the carcass into the woods in the same area where, if you remember from a former post, we had dragged a road-killed coyote carcass over the winter. These photos come from a series of game cameras we placed around the carcass to watch the scavengers take action. 

A Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, spreads its wings on the carcass
It appears to make strategic incisions to mitigate bloating, by opening
the gut in several places

A Virginia Opossum, Didelphis virginiana, walks past the carcass. 

Two Turkey Vultures spread their wings, perhaps in an attempt to balance on the swollen carcass.
Another vulture stands to the side.

Three Turkey Vultures pick meat off of the deer

A Coyote, Canis latrans, approaches the deer carcass. It does not stay long

Four Turkey Vultures surround the carcass 

The wing span of a Turkey Vulture is about 6 feet

Four Turkey Vultures surround the now rotting carcass 

A coyote is encountered in a swamp adjacent to the carcass.
We placed a camera toward the swamp to see if the same animals who were using this carcass as
a food resource would use the swamp as a water resource. 

Virginia Rail responding to callback survey, Bantam Lake, Litchfield, Li...

Sarah McQuade, Seasonal Research Technician, recorded this Virginia Rail while performing callback surveys.  Cheyenne Liberti (Yale University and Abby Wilson (Unity College) were also present during the dawn canoe survey.