Branford Biodiversity Day

Threats of weekend rain did not dampen our spirits as Connie Mortensen and I arrived at Killam’s Point Conference Center in Branford on Friday morning, September 12th, to set up our Biodiversity Day headquarters. This rustic house with high tide waves lapping at its rocky foundation would be our home base for the next two days. It was a gloriously sunny day along the shoreline, and I began to wish that our 24-hour biological survey of Branford was to start at noon rather than the appointed 5 p.m.

With the help of the Biodiversity Committee and Menunkatuck board members we were ready to welcome the participating teams when they began arriving at 3 p.m. to sign in and receive their team packets. Included in the packets were species checklists, road maps, topo maps with survey sites highlighted, site lists and permits for access to Regional Water Authority property.

Guides from the Branford Land Trust were scheduled to lead teams to sites and Coastal Camera Club volunteers would follow the teams to record their findings.

The mammal team had scoped out the town the week before and knew exactly where they wanted to place their live-traps for rodents. They set some of their traps in coastal areas in the hope of discovering a new population of the state endangered least shrew (Cryptotis parva). The down side is that 24 hours is usually too short a time for traps to be in place to work successfully, and Biodiversity Day was no exception. The up side: the mammalogists have located several potential sites where they will return to study. Several of the more common mammals were seen, but others, including river otter, were identified from their tracks and scat (droppings).

The insect team set up its various traps throughout town and would be back in the morning to collect their samples. The forecast was a bit disappointing for many insects - a full moon would compete with insect lights overnight, and the projected clouds for Saturday would limit the butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies in flight. Hopefully, the rain would hold off so the team could continue to collect other types of insects.

Noble Proctor’s team (generalists, who identified everything they saw) returned to Killam’s Point at 9:30 p.m. (after starting at 5 p.m.) to regroup and share in their findings. I was handed a stem of Queen Anne’s lace. The flowerhead was going to seed and had closed into a lacy cup. Inside an amazing sight - several tiny metallic-green cuckoo wasps snuggled into this communal shelter for the night.

The aquatic invertebrate team, led by Chris Sullivan from the DEP’s Project SEARCH, had dropped by HQ to leave their yet-to-be-identified samples in the lab. At 10 p.m. they left to visit one more beach site with their seine net and plankton sampler. Such dedication!

Noble’s team of Earthplace staff and junior naturalists also departed, planning to check the insect lights set up in Carol and Gary Lemmons’ backyard. The junior naturalists wanted to stay awake for the full 24 hours this year, knowing that they had slept through some exciting finds in Guilford two years ago.

Sleeping in one of the upstairs bunks at Killam’s Point, my alarm sounded at 5 a.m. Time to start the coffee. The bagels would be arriving soon. As I walked quietly down the staircase I saw that every sofa in the main room contained a sleeping body. (The kids from Noble’s team had faded and were able to catch about two hours sleep before they were rousted for breakfast.)

By 6 a.m. the birding teams had checked in and were on their way to such sites as Lake Saltonstall and the Stony Creek Quarry. Another team spent the morning on Horse Island. Bald eagle, peregrine falcon, red-throated loon, northern gannet, American oystercatcher, and orange-crowned warbler were some of the bird highlights for the day.

The fish team, with assistance from members of the Hammonasset Chapter of Trout Unlimited, surveyed the freshwater streams in town, while the herpetology teams found over 20 species of reptiles and amphibians in their travels to streams, ponds, swamps, ridges and woodlands. The Sound School team of teachers and students visited shoreline beaches and rocky intertidal areas, using seine nets to collect, identify and release marine creatures.

A botany team turned in their list of two sites they had surveyed - almost 200 species of plants were found in these special sites owned by the town and the land trust.

Several teams collected fungi for our mycology expert, Bill Yule, to identify back at HQ. Though conditions had been dry recently there were a few sites within town that offered a wealth of mushrooms and other fungi.

At the celebration dinner, a mystery species awaited John Himmelman, member of another generalist, "identify-everything" team. The aquatic invertebrate team had found an amazing cricket in their travels. It was red with brilliant yellow racing stripes down its sides. No one was able to identify it, so they saved it for John, a cricket enthusiast. He identified it as a restless bush cricket (Hapithus agitator), a species he had not previously seen in Connecticut. We’ll have to wait to hear from the experts as to whether it’s a new state record.

It will be months before all the species lists are collected and compiled into a database, but we estimate that over 1500 species will be documented. Not bad for a 24-hour period in September. Stay tuned for the final count.

The biological diversity of Branford was exciting to behold, but equally thrilling was the diversity of people participating in our Biodiversity Day. All ages (from 10 to senior citizen), from many countries (including Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland and Uruguay), with various interests (land preservation, hiking, photography, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, larval insects, beetles, dragonflies, crickets, butterflies, moths, plants, mosses, algae, fungi), came together for a common cause Ð to document the diversity of life in Branford Branford owes many thanks to this dedicated group of people.

Final note - It began to pour as the volunteer cleaning crew closed up the Killam’s Point house and ran to our cars. I couldn’t help but smile. What perfect timing.

Submitted by Cindi Kobak

Photos (top to bottom) by Pat Anderson, Joanne Volage, Mark Janke(2).

Thank You

The Biodiversity Committee - Cindi Kobak, Suzanne Botta, Tom Cleveland, Bill Horne, Joan Merrick and Connie Mortensen - would like to thank the following individuals, organizations and businesses for helping us to make Biodiversity Day a success. We couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks to:

The Branford Land Trust for their generous financial support, their advice and guidance in determining sites to be surveyed, and obtaining landowner permission to survey private properties. Thanks to members Chet Blomquist, Peter Borgemeister, Beth Dock, Harry Merrick, Rich Radune, Martha Rice and Chris Woerner for guiding and/or participating on various teams.

The Coastal Camera Club members, Pat Anderson, Terri Ashley, Julianne Derken, Mark Janke, Sharon Staniforth, Archie Stone, Anita Tellier and Joanne Volage for capturing the day for us on film.

Chris Sullivan, Project SEARCH educator, for setting up a temporary lab at Killam's Point HQ for teams that required microscopes.

Headquarters volunteers Catherine Ferguson, Dorothy Holabird, Bill Kobak, Harry Merrick, John Picard, Dennis Riordan, Astrid Swanson and Ron Swanson for running last minute errands, making vital deliveries of ice and food, as well as cleaning up at the end of the day.

Branford Conservation & Environment Commission member Art Howe for remaining on call in case we needed an additional guide.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection for donating copies of its Vascular Plant checklist; Harbor Publications in Madison for a donation of Branford street maps; the Regional Water Authority for donating cases of bottled water; the Audubon Shop in Madison for a contribution of shade-grown coffee; Bagelicious Bagels for donating bagels; Stop and Shop for contributing a portion of the lunch sandwiches; and Shoreline Foods for donating a portion of the dinner menu.

The Regional Water Authority, Yale University, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other private landowners for allowing access to their properties.

Our other financial donors: Guilford Savings Bank, Lenny & Joe's Charity Carousel, Citizen's for Branford's Environment, Branford Conservation & Environment Commission, Branford Park & Open Space Commission, Audubon Council of Connecticut and New Haven Savings Bank.

Special thanks, of course, go to the 80 or so biologists, naturalists, students and volunteers who actually performed the biological survey of Branford. Your tireless dedication and good humor were much appreciated. It was a pleasure working with all of you.

Species Count