Cerceris Wasp Field Trip Results

White Memorial staff, interns, and volunteers

gathered around a Cerceris Wasp colony at

St. Anthony's Cemetery on White's Woods Rd.

On Thursday, 7/7/2011, 9 White Memorial staff, interns, and volunteers took a field trip to St. Anthony's Cemetery on White's Woods Rd. in Litchfield to learn more about Cerceris Wasps from Claire Rutledge of the CT. Agricultural Experiment Station. James Fischer had previously located a small colony of these wasps here, so it provided an ideal setting to learn more about them. We found 13 holes in the hard-packed soil along a little-used dirt driveway. These wasps seem to prefer hard soil over soft. The photo below shows a wasp peeking out of its hole.

The photo below shows a typical Cerceris wasp

hole with a pile of course-grained soil around it.

Cerceris wasp carrying its Buprestid beetle prey
by Floyd Connor from www.cerceris.info

Claire supplied us with nets, collecting bags, hole collars, and other equipment that we can use to steal Buprestid beetles from the wasps when they return to their burrows with these prey items. The primary goal is to monitor for the non-native, invasive, and highly destructive Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which is in the Buprestid group, and which is readily captured by these wasps in the Great Lakes states. They haven't been found yet in Connecticut, but this is a relatively easy way to monitor for their presence.

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.