Be Curious…Beware

Little did I know, as I labored in my vegetable garden this summer, that I was working under a potential disaster. Not 12 feet over my head hung a huge hornets’ nest. 

Overhead all summer long.

Now that the leaves are falling, hidden treasures are revealing themselves in the trees we have lingered near all season. Walk along a favorite trail and look around. It is a new view. Nests that protected wildlife of all kinds are now becoming visible. Most nests are seasonal only; their creators have long deserted them and will not return the next year. This is only partly true of the makers of these lovely, large paper globe hornet nests.

The White-faced or Bald-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculate) are relatives of Yellow jackets we may be more familiar with. They are protective, aggressive and deliver a painful sting. At the end of the summer season, a hive like this can contain an average of 400-500 individuals. Never mess with a nest! You irritate one, you activate all. As the weather turns chilly the hornets become slower and go dormant, but if you were to find one of these nests on the ground now, and think to bring it indoors for examination, you could be in for a nasty surprise. The warmth may awaken the occupants and you could end up with a house full of angry hornets.

White-faced hornet.
Photo by Patty O'Hearn Kickham from Flickr.

The winter winds will rip and tear it apart, the hornets will die, but each year we have more. It is an interesting cycle. At the end of the summer, each hive can have produced several new queens. They are fertilized by specially raised males. Before the cold sets in, these new queens leave the nest and by this time in November, they can be found under rotting logs in the woods. There they hibernate until spring.

When the weather warms again, the new queens emerge from hibernation and disperse, each finding a new nest site. She begins creating a nest of a few cells and lays the eggs she carried all winter. She tends and feeds the larva until they become ready drones to begin the work of building and tending the nest. Each succeeding generation of workers goes out and chews wood products, bark, twigs, decks and siding as well. When they mix the wood pulp with their saliva, they then spread it out in bands onto the existing hive making it larger and creating more combs within. The combs can be 5-7 deep and up to 10 inches in diameter. A Papier-Mache’ project and a home for hundreds as well! It is truly a work of art, shades of grays and browns overlaid and combined. Amazing. 

Small chamber of the queen's first nest.

More chambers added into the comb.

New eggs are laid within the cells. These hornets do not store food, or make honey in their paper combs. It is strictly for egg and larva development. The adult workers go out and feed on a number of things, including nectar, but also other insects which they bring back to the nest, chew up and deliver to the larvae or queen!

A work of art.

As the season progresses and the hive grows, you can often witness the activity from afar, if you can find the nest. Even birds stay away from an active hive. Some mammals are persistent enough to go after the hive to eat the larva within. But the positioning, way out on a delicate limb, often thwarts even the most determined.

It is the cold season now. The queens have left. Any remaining larvae or adults are dormant or dead. The gray paper nests hang more visibly over trails and at woodland edges. This morning I watched as two Tufted Titmice attacked the one over my garden. They ripped at the outer layers. One went in and out of the entrance hole. They were feasting on those inside that were doomed anyway. And so the cycle continues.  

A project for the birds now.

Written by Beth Sullivan.  Unless otherwise indicated, photographs by Beth Sullivan.

Dodge Paddock: A year later

A year ago this week, we were still shaking our heads over the enormity of the impact of Super Storm Sandy. The hurricane force winds combined with extreme high tides, and a huge storm surge hurled water and debris throughout the Dodge Paddock at the end of Wall Street in Stonington Borough.

Water surging into the parking lot.

No one ever remembers the water being so high and so forceful. Boulders were tossed like pebbles, and logs burst through the old seawall like battering rams. The breach allowed more debris to flow in. The higher marsh and meadow were covered with all manner of litter: logs, boards, docks ropes, glass and plastic, as well as about a foot of seaweed and other vegetation. The small brackish pond was completely flooded and the drainage outflow, a clamshell covered culvert, was broken, filled and slammed shut with rocks too big to move. Water flowed all the way back toward the houses on Main Street, and Wall Street was under several feet of water. It was almost too unbearable to witness and impossible to try to figure out what to do first.

The breach in the seawall.

Debris on the Meadow.

The obstructed clamshell drain pipe.

The water did recede some on its own. It flowed out the same way it flowed in, leaving behind a terrible mess. Avalonia volunteers and a contractor with a small tractor were able to move rocks and create a trench to uncover the clamshell and dig it out enough to let some of the flood to flow out. This reduced the level of water throughout the preserve. Again volunteers banded together to clear a huge fallen tree and collected bags of litter and trash and made piles of wooden material. Another contractor with a larger machine came in and did a day’s work moving the vast mat of vegetation and organic debris off the meadow and piled it along the undermined seawall . He moved the boulders and large logs and in some areas was able to move sand and gravel in ways to recreate some dune structure that had been destroyed.

The drain pipe dug out and working.

The CT DEEP stepped in to give more help and support and was able to grant emergency permission to accomplish much of the work. This kind of effort in a coastal zone often requires extensive permitting, but due to the emergency nature of the situation after Sandy, they helped us expedite matters.

Things seemed to stay on an even keel for a while, but spring storms reclosed the clamshell. In June we had massive rainstorms that refilled and flooded the Paddock. With summer and mosquito season imminent, the DEEP agreed to step in once again to create an emergency “swale”: a ditch out to the south side of the preserve to drain the flood waters. What a difference! Within hours the flood waters receded. Within a few days the meadow and marsh began to dry out.

After June rains, more flooding.

Creating the swale to release the flood waters.

Throughout the season the area began to recover. DEEP has begun a program to eradicate the invasive phragmities.  The pond will remain a small, shallow, brackish pond that will serve to hold run off from the town streets, but now it will not flood to the height it had. Native plants will begin to establish themselves along the perimeter and will also contribute to the health of the area and create a better habitat for wildlife. As the meadow grass grew back, it covered the scars left behind by Sandy, and the area took on a look of health and beauty.

Cutting Phragmites.

Looking at it a year later, some scars are visible. The seawall remains broken and cannot be efficiently repaired. Storms will continue to batter the shoreline. Water may flow in with a big storm, but now it can flow out. A healthy marsh and meadow can help buffer the impacts of storms and surge. Wildlife will return to the Paddock.

There is still work to be done and we are grateful to the CT DEEP for their help and generosity in restoring the area. It will take a while, but there are already lovely paths to walk again and the water views cannot be beat! Enjoy!

The entry way to Dodge Paddock.

Written by Beth Sullivan.   Photos by Beth Sullivan and Binti Ackley.

A Bird in the Hand……..Is really a wonderful experience!

Early on Sunday morning, Oct 20, a group of citizen scientists converged on the Knox Preserve to join Federal bird banders Bob Dewire and Beth Sullivan for a morning observing the process ornithologists use to study and track songbirds. The process was new to several observers, but has become a rite of the Autumn season for several others present. 

White Throated Sparrow about to be released after banding.

Over two decades of banding records have been compiled for the Knox Preserve where we have studied mainly the migratory birds. Some are just passing through, others arriving for the winter, but of course there are several species that remain year round. During the fall, many species of songbirds fly south following the visual line of the coast line. Many fly by night, and at first light, they seek out a welcoming patch of shrub-land for food, cover and rest. Knox Preserve provides that oasis along a very densely populated coastline.

On several days during October, at the peak of migration, mist nets that are seven feet high and forty feet long are strung up in the pathways through the shrub area of the preserve. These nets are nearly invisible to the birds as they move from area to area in search of food. When they encounter the net, they drop lightly into the mesh pockets and usually remain quite still.

On Sunday we set up five nets at dawn. By the time the group arrived, it was time to make our first rounds of checks. When we approach the nets, it is always a bit like Christmas, eagerly anticipating the treasures we will encounter. We have had some wonderful surprises over the years, from Endangered Species rarities , to hawks and owls. Mostly they are a variety of songbirds that use this habitat for forage. Birds are gently removed from the nets and placed in a special box or small bags and then transported to the station set up with our supplies.

Removing birds from the nets.

Birds in bags waiting for banding.

This Sunday morning was quite successful. In a very short time we captured 26 birds and as all observers were quite quick to note, almost all of them were the same species: Myrtle Warblers, otherwise known as Yellow Rumped Warblers , for the bright yellow patch of feathers on their rump! This is their peak of migration and the big draw for them at Knox is all the berries they can find. Many warblers are purely insect eaters and have had to move farther south as it got colder, but the Yellow Rumps adapt and thrive on berries, some remaining in CT even over the winter. They especially love the Bayberry and waxy Cedar berries that are especially abundant this year.

Yellow Rumped Warbler.

The banding process itself involves placing a light weight metal band on the leg of each bird. Each band has a unique series of numbers, much like our social security number, which will remain with that bird for its life. If it is caught again, or found dead, the band number can be reported and traced. A Gray Catbird, banded here in Stonington was found dead in Guatemala. A small warbler, an American Redstart, was banded here and only several days later was re-caught in the Bahamas! Quite the traveler.

Placing the band.

While we have the bird in hand, it is an opportunity to measure and record other data about the individual birds. All this information is dutifully entered into a USFWS banding database. We determine their gender, when possible, by looking at plumage and sometimes taking certain wing measurements. As on a bell curve, the very smallest of a species of songbirds are often the females, the largest, the males, but there are a lot in the middle and there is just no way to tell male from female, unless you are another bird!

Checking plumage on a Yellow Rumped Warbler.

Measuring the wing chord.

We weigh the birds; every little berry counts for these lightweights. We can also determine if they are the young of this year by checking the skin beneath their feathers on their head. A young bird’s skull bones are not fully fused yet, and the skin will show pink. An adult bird will have full bone cover on their skull and the skin will reveal white beneath.

Weighing a newly banded bird.

Each participant was able to hold and band and do most aspects of the review of these little treasures. Then they were released to the bushes with just a few chirps and mutters, to return to foraging, no worse for the experience.

Song Sparrow about fly away.

In two days this season, we captured and banded over 100 birds. They included Song Sparrows, a White Throated Sparrow, a Red Eyed Vireo, a Common Yellow Throat, a Black Capped Chickadee and over 90 little warblers with the bright yellow rump!

Written by Beth Sullivan.

Photographed by Rick Newton and Al Bach.

For more information about the Federal Bird Banding program visit  USFWS Bird Banding Lab's website here.

Local author luncheon

On Monday, October 28, local author Richard King, will be at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT for an author luncheon to celebrate his latest book "The Devil's Cormorant."  It's a great opportunity to learn more about this intriguing bird! 

The cost is $30 which includes a signed hard cover copy of The Devil's Cormorant, a catered lunch and discussion/time with the author.  Follow this link to RSVP.  

King is also the author of Lobster, an elegant little history of this tasty crustacean.  

Beauty can be a beast

During this time of year, the scenery changes, seemingly minute by minute. Light changes: the angle of the sun creates shadows and details. Color changes; grasses go to warm browns and golds, meadows show off aster purples, goldenrods and Joe Pye weed magentas.

There are other colors showing up in hedgerows and shrub lands and along roadsides. This is the season for berries. Throughout the spring and summer we enjoyed the flowers, some showy, some discrete. Some are fragrant and others not at all. But now the great variety of berries, the fruits, creates a special show,

Take a ride along a back country road, or even along the highway, and it is impossible not to notice the bounty of berries. We have dozens of native shrubs and bushes that have evolved to provide the vital foods needed by small mammals and birds. Ripening over a succession of weeks and even months through fall and winter, they provide a food source for birds when insects are long gone. Migratory song birds will rely on shrub-lands full of cover and food as they stop after a long night of flight to rest and feast and refuel.

But not all berries are created equal! Over the decades shrubs were imported and planted as ornamentals. Multiflora Rose created instant hedgerows and fragrant white flowers in spring. Those flowers turned into abundant fruits, rose hips, that were eaten by many species of birds. Seeds were dispersed in droppings and now the rose has become an invader, an aggressive spreader that is quick to colonize fields and roadsides. Even though it does provide food and cover, it will out-compete other native plants in our landscape.

Multiflora Rose

Autumn Olive was planted deliberately along our highways to create visual buffers, and also to be a quick cover to prevent erosion. Now that shrub dominates the roadsides. Red berries are abundant now and robins and thrushes are quick to find them. At this time of year we can witness great flocks of starlings, along the highways, swirling and circling as they descend into the medians and roadside edges to feast on the berries and further disperse the seeds.

Autumn Olive

We all enjoy the colors of autumn decorations, but beware of using the non-native and invasive Oriental Bittersweet. It is another truly lovely berry, but a menace when its seeds are spread. The resulting vines climb and twist their way up trees and over native shrubs, strangling and adding their weight and causing death to the plant that supports it.

Oriental Bittersweet

Oriental Bittersweet vine

One of the most outstanding plants for colorful berries is likely the very worst invader: Porcelain berry. A decade or so ago, it was a sought after nursery plant, a climbing vine with most unusual berries. They start creamy white, then to pale green, then light teal, deeper aqua, sky blue and then to purple when ripe. Porcelain berry vine is a vigorous grower, adding inches, if not feet, almost overnight. It covers everything in its path. Obstructing light, smothering plants beneath, it forms a dense monoculture allowing no diversity and changing the landscape and altering valuable habitat.

Porcelain berry smothering a ceder tree.

The colorful Porcelain berry.

Walk through the Moore Woodlands in Groton, Knox Preserve or Knox Family Farm in Stonington, Pine Swamp in Ledyard, Preston Nature Preserve and many other Avalonia Land Conservancy properties. Notice the berries. Take the time to learn the non-natives and notice the beastly effects they have on our landscape and avoid them in your own. Opt for natives instead and the birds will be happier you did.

Written and photographed by Beth Sullivan.