Blog – Connecticut Audubon Society

A new category of insecticides, meant to kill bugs that threaten food crops, may also be responsible for the colony collapse disorder that is wiping out our bee population, thereby threatening food crops. The pesticides are called neonicotinoids, and are derived from nicotine. A front page story in today’s New York Times reports that the […]

Estimated number of birds killed in North America each year by: Feral cats: 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion (source). Insecticide poisoning: 67 million (source). Collisions with buildings: 100 million to 1 billion (source). It’s amazing there are any birds left to sing each spring. — Tom Andersen, director of conservation and community outreach.

It seems as if the General Assembly in Hartford is following through on something we were told last month: they will act on no major pesticide bills this year and instead will form a task force. The Connecticut Post has an account, here. We were told that the pro-pesticide lobby and legislators were poised to […]

Aerial insectivores aren’t the only category of common birds that are becoming far less common. As we noted in our Connecticut State of the Birds 2013 report, populations of aerial insectivores such as Barn Swallows, Chimney Swifts, Common Nighthawks, and various flycatchers – birds that eat only insects they catch on the wing – have […]

My colleague Anthony Zemba and I are looking forward to spending a good part of Saturday, March 23, at the Connecticut Land Conservation Council’s 29th annual conference, which this year is titled “Can Open Space Be Permanently Protected?” Connecticut Audubon Society, which owns 2,600 acres of conservation land, is a longtime member of the CLCC […]

Clean water is obviously essential to human health. But our waterways are also wildlife habitats, and the cleaner they are, the better they are for birds, fish and other wildlife. We submitted the testimony below to the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Finance, Revenue and Bonding, in support of a bill that would provide money […]

We testified before the General Assembly’s Environment Committee in Hartford on Monday in favor of four bills, the most prominent of which was a proposal to ban the use of pesticides in Connecticut’s municipal parks. The rationale for pesticide bills in Hartford generally is that they would limit the exposure of people, especially children, to […]

Our Connecticut State of the Birds 2013 report, “The Seventh Habitat and the Decline of Our Aerial Insectivores,” delves into the mysterious population decline of 17 species of birds that nest in Connecticut and rely on a diet of insects caught on the wing. Released Friday, the report identifies pesticides as a possible cause of […]

The Community Investment Act is one of Connecticut’s most important sources of land conservation funds. Since 2005, it has funded 88 purchases, permanently protecting 2,707 acres of open space and 15 community gardens, at a cost of $15.3 million. Another round of grants announced recently will protect an additional 2,730 acres. But a bill being […]

Our Conservation Services staff has completed a major conservation and management plan for Aspetuck Land Trust, helping the organization balance conservation and recreation on its heavily-used Trout Brook Valley preserve. Trout Brook Valley is one of the most important ecological features of Fairfield County. It forms the core of a 6,400-acre expanse that our conservation […]

The Connecticut General Assembly voted to cut $2 million from the Community Investment Act as part of Governor Malloy’s plan to reduce the state’s deficit. That counts as a victory of sorts for conservation because the governor’s proposal was to cut $5 million. Amy Patterson, the head of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, which led […]

The photos of moose in Goshen that we posted on our blogs yesterday drew more than a thousand pageviews, and also prompted an email from Andrew LaBonte, a wildlife biologist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Andrew is based in North Franklin. He had been working with our previous conservation biologist, Twan […]

 Plum Island, one of a string of small islands that extends off the tip of Orient Point, Long Island, is owned by the federal government and is being put up for sale. Its 840 acres are mostly undeveloped and encompass bluffs, beach, grasslands and other rare coastal habitat (more here). Roseate Terns, Piping Plovers, Least […]