New England Cottontail Monitoring at White Memorial and Throughout Their Range

New England Cottontail, Range and Population Monitoring Focus Areas
(Top image by John Huff Foster Daily Democrat via AP, bottom image by USFWS).

Habitat management performed throughout the range of New England Cottontail (NEC) and assessing the conservation status of the species is being partially measured during the winter of 2016 - 2017 at White Memorial.  A total of two plots were selected on the property, which are located at Apple Hill and on North Shore Road.  The Apple Hill plot is being managed to ensure adequate habitat for NEC and other early successional habitat species.  The North Shore Rd. plot is a grassland that has been permitted to revert to early successional habitat through ecological succession.

Transects were flagged using orange and yellow surveyor tape
on the Apple Hill Plot on East Shore Rd., Morris, Litchfield Co., CT, USA.

This project is coordinated by the NEC Technical Committee and researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey.  The monitoring objectives are to assess occupancy rates of both cottontail species (Eastern and NEC) throughout the NEC range, observe how this occupancy status changes through time, and to determine how management activities influence the changes in the occupancy status of both species.  White Memorial's two plots were part of a total of 283 plots selected throughout CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, and RI.  Connecticut currently conserves the largest number of NEC populations in the habitats of highest priority and is surveying the bulk of the total plots (83 plots).  The plots consist of 200 meter long transects that are spaced every 30 meters, ultimately sampling piece of land approximately 2 hectares in size.  The plots were visited at least 24 hours after a fresh snowfall, when the temperature remained below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and with very little wind or no rain.  Each plot was visited a total of 4 times within a 4 - 6 week time period.  The location of cottontail scat was georeferenced and collected for future molecular analysis to determine the species.  

Cottontail scat and tracks observed in fresh snow.

Various habitat measurements were recorded throughout the plot that described the vegetation density at various heights, land management, and land cover types.  Generally, the vegetation favored by both cottontail species is very dense and can consist of several thorny plant species, which makes working in them very labor intensive and at times dangerous.

Habitats in the Apple Hill Plot on East Shore Rd., Morris, Litchfield Co., CT, USA

We wore protective clothing consisting of chainsaw chaps, leather gloves, and heavy winter coats.  Several volunteers supported this project at every stage.  Jared Franklin, Ireland Kennedy, Rachelle Talbot, and Ben Vermilyea helped with the initial plot layouts in the autumn.  Jared couldn't get enough of walking through the pucker-brush so he returned to help with the surveillance portion.  Liyanna Winchell, Naomi Robert, and Nicki Hall decided to brave the single digit temperatures and searched for cottontail spore.  We observed several areas within the plots where scat was deposited very densely while other areas had little to no spore, all of which was deposited within approximately 36 hours of the snowfall cessation.  Initially, there did not appear to be strong relationship between the habitat characteristics and spore density within each plot, which suggests that animals congregated in these microhabitats.

Nicki Hall (front) and Naomi Robert were a couple of the brave souls who bushwhacked through some of the densest, thorniest habitats and during days when the daily high temperature remained in the single digits.

Waterfowl Nest Boxes Check for 2017

(l to r) Jared Franklin, Rachelle Talbot, and Ireland Kennedy check waterfowl nest boxes
 to monitor seasonal productivity and maintenance needs.

White Memorial checks waterfowl nest boxes annually to monitor the breeding productivity of wood duck and hooded mergansers on the property.  Waterfowl populations have rebounded since the early 20th century due to increasing nest sites by installing nest boxes, protecting wetland habitats, and regulating harvesting by creating and enforcing wildlife conservation laws.  Waterfowl nest boxes are installed in or very close to wetland habitats on the Foundation property and are used briefly by the ducks for laying and incubating eggs.  Ducks and mergansers hatch fully feathered with their eyes open and vacate the boxes very soon after they hatch.  White Memorial has a total of 28 nest boxes on the property, of which we were able to safely check 27 boxes.  A total of 20 boxes were used by waterfowl which were able to fledge a total of 102 chicks.  Wood shavings are used as nesting materials and are replaced each year.

White Memorial Hawk Watch Sets New Records on September 16, 2013

Several hawk species, mostly Broadwing Hawk (Buteo platypterus), migrated in a massive push on Monday 16 September 2013 through southern New England and the northern Mid-Atlantic states.  The conditions were just right for this event.  A cold front progressed through the area from the northwest bringing with it a steady northwest wind and a short break in the cloud cover.  The front also pushed out a blanket of clouds that were in the area in the early morning. The hawks were observed taking flight as soon as the cloud cover started to break up!  The clear sky lasted for only a few hours but it was long enough for the ground to heat up thereby creating thermals or up-welling pockets of hot air that the birds ride upward gaining altitude.  There was a steady stream of birds coalescing into kettles consisting of hundreds of birds.  New kettles were forming every 5 minutes in the sky.  Our counters for the day included James Fischer, Jared Franklin, and Kelly Lawlor.  They observed a total of 2608 birds for the day, which is a record number of birds in one day for the White Memorial Hawk Watch site.  Several other Hawk Watch sites observed similar conditions and it is presented to you below.  The following images show the hourly satellite imagery and progressing cold front.  The number of birds observed at each station is illustrated for each Hawk Watch.  You can see for yourself the massive wave of birds that moved through the area in just a few short hours!

10:00 a.m. EST  The clouds were just starting to break and birds took to the skies!

11:00 a.m. EST  The wind picked up speed due to the advancing cold front
bringing with it clear skies and lots of birds!

12:00 p.m. EST  A steady queue of birds were observed at nearly every
Hawk Watch site throughout western Connecticut and southern New York.

1:00 p.m. EST  A few birds could still be observed as clouds were moving in from the northwest.

2:00 p.m. EST  White Memorial Hawk Watch calls it a day after observing a total of 2608 birds!

3:00 p.m. EST  Many of the birds were now being observed and counted in northern New Jersey.

	Number of Hawks Observed Each Hour at Selected Northeastern U.S. Stations
Hawk Watch Station	9:00 AM	10:00 AM	11:00 AM	12:00 PM	1:00 PM	2:00 PM	3:00 PM	Total
Russell, MA	11	515	446	20	51	1	0	1044
Torrington, CT	184	2798	555	754	121	39	0	4451
Litchfield, CT	0	240	1173	824	322	0	0	2559
Bridgewater, CT	0	23	1039	1582	565	702	13	3924
Bedford, NY	0	5	19	3859	2228	2476	0	8587
Montclair, NJ	0	0	19	139	1076	934	1323	3491
Fort Washington, PA	0	0	0	16	58	105	1354	1533

2013 Wetland Bird Surveys Completed

                                    




Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola)
Courtesy of Utah Department of Natural Resources

Over the past few weeks, Mary Hawvermale and I have been searching around the property for evidence of rails, bitterns, and other wetland birds.  Rails are a type of secretive marsh bird that probe for invertebrates among plants in shallow water, while bitterns stalk fish and amphibians among dense reeds.  Both types of birds tend to remain deep in the vegetation and are very difficult to see. The Connecticut DEEP and similar organizations across the country are concerned about rail populations because of habitat loss.  The marshes these birds call home are increasingly subjugated to pollution and development.  As a result, rail populations have decreased, but we would like more information on their populations as we proceed with conservation projects. White Memorial's vast expanses of marsh makes this the ideal location to gather data for rail conservation.

Mary was kind enough to sample the Bantam River by kayak between Whites Woods Road and Bantam Lake, while I sampled the remaining locations by foot.  The protocol was relatively straightforward:  we would arrive at a predetermined site, listen silently for rails calling for five minutes, and then play calls on a boom box to elicit calls from the rails.  Rails are difficult to see, but they tend to call back to a recording of their voice.  This habit made it easier for us to determine the presence of rails. 

In Connecticut, we have six rail species, several of which are State-listed:

-King rail (Rallus elegans) breeding population State Endangered
-Black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) breeding population State Endangered
-Sora (Porzana carolina)
-Virginia rail (Rallus limicola)
-Clapper rail (Rallus longirstris)
-Yellow rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis), very rare in Connecticut

In addition to the rails, we also surveyed for the presence of least bittern and common moorhen, two other State-listed wetland species.

Over the course of the past few weeks, Mary and I have heard Sora, Virginia rail, and King rail.

Virginia rail was our most common species, being heard in eight out of our sixteen study points.  These rails were consistently around Little Pond and Mallard Marsh.  One interesting observation was that these birds shifted locality during last week's heavy flooding.  Last Saturday, there was about a foot of water covering the boardwalk at Little Pond, and the Virginia rails were nowhere to be found.  However, we observed Virginia rail at Duck Pond and near Catlin Woods, two places we have not seen them this year.  The flooding also brought the rails out of the marsh onto puddles on the trails.  Here it was easier for the rails to forage.  We observed a total of seven rails, as opposed to the four or five rails we observed when the water levels were closer to normal.

Mary heard a single Sora along the lower Bantam River, but we did not hear any Sora near Cranberry Pond, where they were last year.

In addition to these species we expected to find, we were pleasantly surprised by a King rail calling from the marsh northwest of Little Pond.  We first received reports of this King rail from the first week of June during our BioBlitz. Apparently this individual has continued to live around Little Pond.

 

                                                                
Altogether, we observed a total of about six individual Virginia rails, one Sora, and one King rail.  We hope that continuing research can help us shed more light on wetland bird conservation.

 

You can read more about the State's wetland bird project here and at the December 2012 edition of Connecticut Wildlife.  You can learn more about King rail in Connecticut here.