![2024's World Migratory Bird Day](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=52197312&width=1200&height=900)
James H. Clark
By now, many of us have watched with rapt attention (or, if you’re like me, with sweaty palms) movies or television series where zombies wreak havoc on planet earth in some horrifying apocalyptic scenario. They’re usually graphic, disturbing, and unfathomably disruptive to human existence.
In some instances, as portrayed in the HBO series “The Last Of Us,” there’s an unsettling angle of how something in nature (in this case, a fungus) turns against us and it all just goes bad.
But what if a scary scenario like this wasn’t caused by the mutation of something in nature, but the removal of it? Many of you have probably heard terms like “insect collapse” and “insect apocalypse” in reference to the steep decline in these animals during the past half century.
Renowned entomologist and conservationist, E.O. Wilson, had a lot to say about the importance of insects in our global ecosystems and how those ecosystems would be impacted by their loss. His apocalyptic scenario is just as harrowing as those we’ve seen on screen, noting that most plants and land animals would become extinct because of their reliance on animals like bees, butterflies, moths, ants, and beetles. And not over a long period of time, either. Within a few months.
Whoa. Not just because these animals help pollinate our crops and allow forest plants to reproduce, but because they also form the foundation of our terrestrial ecosystems.
Any animal you can think of likely consumes insects at some stage in its lifecycle, whether it’s a frog, a bear, a bird, or another insect.
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One group of animals particularly reliant on insects is birds. Shorebirds, songbirds, wading birds, and even some birds of prey rely on these tiny animals in both their larval and adult stages. Perhaps you’ve observed your backyard Bluebirds plucking caterpillars off the ground, or watched acrobatic Tree Swallows catch winged insects in mid-air.
The degree to which the birds that we love rely on insects is profound. A single pair of Black-capped Chickadees, for example, was found to have fed 6,000-9,000 caterpillars to just one single brood of chicks during two weeks’ time. And now, during this magical month of May that bird enthusiasts in Eastern North America anticipate, insects are an ever-critical source of energy to these birds as they make their incredible journeys, sometimes across entire continents, to the places where they will raise their young.
So if our insects are declining, what does that mean for our birds? A study published by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 2019 concluded that we have lost 3 billion birds since 1970. May of the causes of this decline are attributed to the ways in which we have altered our natural environments to make them inhospitable toward insects, whether that’s through shrinking the available spaces for insects, polluting them, or simply eliminating them altogether.
Thinking back to E.O. Wilson’s connections between insects, healthy ecosystems, and even our own human existence, shouldn’t we be preserving them?
Fortunately for us, this is the turning point in the zombie apocalypse film where we learn what we can do to save ourselves. And in our real-life scenario, for our birds and other wildlife, too. The choices we make in our own backyards can have real impact, whether that involves eliminating pesticides, reducing our lawn and replacing it with native plants, or turning off unnecessary lights at night.
At Audubon we believe that creating healthy environments for birds creates healthy environments for people, and that couldn’t be truer when it comes to protecting our insects. With our own lives intrinsically connected to the survival of our world’s insects, so it is for the birds we love, too.
Learn exactly how you can get started on ensuring there plenty of insects to feed your local birds and other wildlife by coming to the Sharon Audubon Center’s World Migratory Bird Day event on Saturday, May 11, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.. where there will be partnering organizations, activities, games for kids, bird walks, short presentations, and more.
Partnering organizations include Audubon Connecticut, the Sharon Energy and Environmental Commission (SEEC), Litchfield Hills Audubon Society, Lights Out! Connecticut, Homegrown National Park, The Xerces Society, Lindera, and more.
Bethany Sheffer is Volunteer Coordinator and Naturalist at the Sharon Audubon Center.
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.