Wood Duck Nest Box Inspections, 1/6/2012

Wood Duck male photo by Paul Fusco

from www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com

Wood Duck Successful Nest, showing egg shells,

membranes that surrounded the chicks when they

hatched, and down from the mother; all on a bed of

wood shavings which we provided.

Photo by Dave Rosgen

This past Friday, 1/6/2012, Nick Miofsky and I (Dave Rosgen) checked 6 of our duck nest boxes for usage in 2011. We visited all 3 boxes at Duck Pond, the one in Pine Island Marsh, and both of the boxes in Mallard Marsh. All of these boxes had been moved from dangerous deepwater locations to safe shoreline locations by Scott Dayton and me last winter. Still, 80" of rain in 2011 put these formerly shoreline spots under as much as 2' of water. Because of all the mild weather that our area has experienced in the past month, much of this water was coated with less than 1" of ice. We were able to break through this ice with a potato hook as we walked to every box except the one on the south side of Duck Pond. The ice there was over 2" thick and held us as we walked on it. If we had fallen through it wouldn't have been a big deal since the water was only about 6" deep. Another major reason to move these boxes to shoreline locations (which was discussed in a few blog postings last winter) was to eliminate flooding of the boxes as a cause of nest failures. It worked! None of these boxes came anywhere close to being flooded, despite massive amounts of rain last year. Coupled with relatively mild weather last spring and our PVC pipe predator guards effectively stopping Raccoons and other predators from raiding the boxes, all 6 of these boxes were successful in fledging young. They were all occupied by Wood Ducks, and leftover eggshell membranes indicated that a total of 46 young hatched from them. Subtracting the one dead baby that we found among the nest material, that means that 45 young successfully fledged from these boxes. That's excellent! We also found a total of 14 unhatched eggs in these boxes. They were probably the first ones laid by the hens last April, and they probably froze on a few cold nights before she commenced incubation of the full clutch. Unfortunately, that's common, but it is offset by the large clutch sizes. More often than not, at least half the eggs in any given clutch hatch. In these boxes it was 77%. Last summer, Marcus Johannson and I checked the 5 shoreline boxes at Ongley Pond, and N. Shore, Pike, and Icehouse Marshes. All of them had Wood Duck nests, with 4 successfully fledging a total of 38 young. The fifth, at Icehouse Marsh, failed due to freezing of the entire clutch of 18 eggs. This probably was a dump nest where more than one female lays her eggs in a box, but none of them settle down to incubate the clutch. It might indicate a need for another box in that area. Despite this one failure we are very pleased that 10 out of the 11 boxes checked so far have been successful. That makes for an excellent success rate of 91% so far. Nicole Morin and I plan to check the last 4 boxes in safe locations this afternoon. Then it will be a matter of waiting until prolonged cold temperatures make ice around the rest of the 19 boxes less dangerous for us to walk on so that we can go out and check them. If that doesn't happen, we will have to use a canoe to get to them when the ice is gone. Somehow, we will make sure that they are checked before the 2012 nesting season begins in April. Stay tuned.

Late Season Reptile & Amphibian Activity

Northern Brown Snake photo from

www.piplon.org

Eastern Garter Snake photo by Dave Rosgen

Painted Turtle photo by Darlene Knox

Wood Frog photo by Ashley Hayes

Northern Spring Peeper photo by Ashley Hayes

Green Frog photo by Ashley Hayes

By the middle of November most reptiles and amphibians are starting to hibernate or brumate (a less deep sleep than hibernation). However, since part of this is temperature driven, and temperatures have fluctuated widely for the past 3 weeks, some of these animals have remained at least partially active. The majority of these have been Northern Spring Peepers, which are commonly heard peeping every fall well into November. Whether they are confused about the season or their peeping failed to get them a mate last spring is unknown. A Wood Frog, which is a species that hibernates under logs and other forest floor debris and emerges real early in the spring, was seen at Little Pond on the 13th. Green Frogs were seen on several occasions, including several hopping across White Hall Rd. by Pike Marsh on some of the recent mild, rainy evenings, and a few at Mallard Marsh. Last Tuesday, 11/15, Nicole Morin and I saw a Redback Salamander under a log along the Interpretive Trail and a Painted Turtle sunning itself at Ongley Pond. Later in the week, Jim Kandefer saw an Eastern Garter Snake along the Little Pond Boardwalk. The nearby Little Pond Trail produced our best herp find this month in the form of a baby Northern Brown Snake on the 12th. With the weather forecasted to continue to fluctuate between mild and chilly for the next 2 weeks, we may continue to see these animals for awhile.

Chytrid Fungus Update!

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
 Green Frog

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Near Ongley Pond

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Swabbing a Smaller Green Frog

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Swabbing the Stomach of a Green Frog

Photo By : Olivia Riccio
Releasing the Green Frog

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Frog Prints

Photo By: Olivia Riccio
Bever Tracks

 For the past couple of weeks, the weather has been perfect for catching and sampling frogs; sunny, clear, and warm. However, catching them as always is the difficult part. I have seen anywhere from 30 to 40 green frogs at Ongley pond, Pike marsh, and Duck pond. But as of right now I have only caught and swabbed 16 of them (see above along with the swabbing technique)! I have learned along with my fellow volunteer, Rebecca Solnit, that frogs ( of any kind) have a tendency to speed up as the weather gets warmer (go figure, just as I get slower)! On June 30, with the help of the head research biologist, James Fischer, I had the pleasure of sampling a different (less jumpy) amphibian, the salamander. We uncovered and sampled 12 amphibian cover boards located at duck pond. We found and swabbed 8 red phase salamanders, 2 lead phase salamanders, and 1 red eft salamander. I learned very quickly that these slimy creatures are hard to hold and swab, due to the fact that if a salamander is held by the tail to tightly, the tail will actually fall off and eventually re-grow (I was not going to be part of that)! Even after catching 3 frogs and 11 salamanders, the day continued to have even more surprises. On our way back to white memorial, we found frog tracks and beaver tracks (see above) imprinted in mud. Overall, the question is chytrid fungus present in Connecticut is still being explored, but we hope that our continuous amphibian sampling will help answer this intriguing question.

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.