Salamander Cover Boards

Red-backed Salamander photographed by

Dave Rosgen at WMF's Duck Pond Trail

On Tuesday, 8/23/11, I checked all 174 salamander cover boards at White Memorial's Ongley Pond, Lake, Windmill Hill, Butternut Brook, Interpretive, Duck Pond, and Pine Island Trails, Mott-Van Winkle Area, and the east slope of Windmill Hill. The results were rather disappointing: 50 Red-backed Salamanders, 7 Red Eft-stage Red-spotted Newts, and 2 Northern Spring Peepers. This is despite wet conditions which would seem to favor amphibians. However, I did find huge numbers of earthworms; many of them being of nightcrawler size. Some concern has been expressed by herpetologists about the growing numbers of earthworms (most of which are non-native species) and their possibly ill effects on salamanders. I found at least 500 earthworms under our salamander boards. Five days after this survey, Tropical Storm Irene hit, dumping 8 inches of rain on this part of Litchfield, and flooding most of our salamander boards. Yesterday I found 21 of the 25 boards at the Interpretive Trail floating in the Pike Marsh's flooded backwater. Two boards were missing, and the 2 remaining boards on land harbored 4 Red-backed Salamanders. Of the 20 boards at Mott-Van Winkle, 6 were missing. The remaining 14 boards harbored 3 Red-backs. I'm heading out now to check on the fate of the rest of the cover boards.

Migrant Fallout, Tuesday, 5/3/2011

Gray Catbird photo by Leo Kulinski, Jr.

from whalesandwolves.com

Red-winged Blackbird immature male

photo by Bob Stanowski

In ornithological terms a fallout is any mass downing of birds from their flight. It is usually caused by storms or other bad weather, but can also be caused by exhaustion or hunger. In the cases of the latter 2 causes they most often happen after birds have crossed a large expanse of water (like the Gulf of Mexico) or have made some other very long flight. Fallouts caused by storms or other foul weather can occur anywhere. Sometimes the weather doesn't even have to be all that bad to bring birds down. That was the case this past Monday night and Tuesday morning when conditions were cloudy and a little foggy with a couple of showers and some drizzle. It was unpleasant, but by no means severe. However, it may have been bad enough to bring a lot of birds down to the N. Shore Marsh and several of White Memorial's trails that run along or near this large wetland. It was also obvious that these birds were hungry, as I saw a lot of feeding activity. Lucky for them, fishflies and other insects were in abundance. I headed down there around 2 p.m. with the intention of conducting our first Breeding Bird Census of 2011. Even though the spring migration is still in full swing, some birds, like Red-winged Blackbirds and Swamp Sparrows, are establishing territories for the upcoming breeding season. Now that N. Shore Marsh is more of a shrubby hardwood swamp than a marsh it regularly hosts almost 50 species of birds as nesters. Back in the 1960's, '70's, and '80's when this wetland was mostly mixed herbaceous and shrub marsh it only hosted about 20 species as nesters. In this case, succession has been beneficial to birds. Many species have been added to this area, while very few have been lost. On Tuesday I found 66 species, many of which would never breed in a wetland. A lot of these were in trees and shrubs along the Lake, Windmill Hill, Ongley Pond, and Mill Field Trails as they run along the northern border of N. Shore Marsh. For species that do breed here it was difficult to tell which individual birds are likely to remain as summer residents and which were migrants that will move on northwards. That's why I try to conduct 10 censuses of each of our 5 Breeding Bird Census plots from early May through late July. This helps to weed-out the breeders from the migrants. Though I was tempted to publish a complete list of the birds that I found Tuesday, I decided that it would be unnecessary since readers can go to ebird.org to view it. Instead, shown below are the species that I found in higher-than-average numbers for early May and their average expected numbers in parentheses:

Northern Flicker - 12 (4); Great Crested Flycatcher - 10 (4); Eastern Kingbird - 14 (4); Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 19 (6); Gray Catbird - 33 (16); Yellow Warbler - 69 (22); Common Yellowthroat - 23 (12); Song Sparrow 24 (8); Swamp Sparrow - 31 (24); Red-winged Blackbird - 88 (40); Common Grackle - 92 (30); Baltimore Oriole - 13 (3); American Goldfinch - 44 (10)

Some of the figures above also include birds seen at the Museum Feeders and in Ongley and Activity Fields. These birds regularly commute back and forth between these areas and N. Shore Marsh. Other birds seen in higher-than-average numbers around all of the above-mentioned areas combined included Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, American Robins, Pine Warblers, and Black-and-White Warblers. These last 2 species were twice as abundant as usual. Some of the other species, like titmice, aren't generally considered to be migrants, but their recent upsurge in numbers might indicate otherwise. Some of the other species, like Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles, stage much of their migration activity in March and April, but are obviously continuing to move through so far this month. With persistent lousy weather it is no surprise that the migration is prolonged this year, and that fallouts are occurring.

Where to Find Mid-Spring Migrant Birds at White Memorial

Savannah Sparrow photo by Paul Fusco

Greater Yellowlegs photo by Paul Fusco

A question was asked recently about the locations of our bird sightings during the spring migration at White Memorial. The person asking the question wondered why so many of the sightings were around the "Main Area" and Little Pond. The answer is simple, with 3 reasons. First, these places are convenient to get to, especially for us staff members who have other duties to perform around the Museum, which is at the center of the "Main Area". Second, they are generally easy to walk around and offer relatively easy viewing of birds. The "Main Area" consists of the lawns around the Museum, White Hall Rd. and its side driveways, Ongley, Activity, Carriage House, and Mill Fields, and Lake, Ongley Pond, Mill Field, and Interpretive Trails, and N. Shore and Pike Marshes. The Little Pond area consists of the Pond, itself, associated marshes, the primary trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. through the Old Sewer Beds, the secondary trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. along Moulthrop Brook, the boardwalk connector leading in from South Lake St., and the boardwalk around Little Pond. Third, these areas include grassy, mixed herbaceous, and shrubby fields, shrubby and wooded edges, mixed hardwood, hemlock/hardwood, white pine/hardwood, white pine/hemlock, and white pine forests, cattail, mixed herbaceous, and shrubby marshes, shrubby hardwood swamps, hardwood swamps, ponds, and the Bantam River for habitats. This is one heck of a mix of habitats in a relatively small geographic area, and they consistently prove themselves to be extremely attractive to migrant birds. They offer everything birds need in terms of food, water, and shelter. It also helps that we provide bird feeders at the Museum and try to encourage native berry, seed, and nut producing vegetation to grow around this area. It's only 3 days into the month of May and we've already seen or heard 68 species of birds on the Property with all of them occurring around the "Main Area" or Little Pond. These include the Greater Yellowlegs and Savannah Sparrow shown in the accompanying photos. Other neat birds found around here since the last blog post include Black Vulture, Merlin, American Woodcock, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Wood Thrush, Nashville, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Prairie Warblers, Northern Parula, and American Redstart. These birds were encountered at all times of the day, but the most productive times were before 11 a.m. and after 5 p.m. This is the best time of the year to see birds, so come out to White Memorial and enjoy them; and please remember to post your sightings on ebird.org.