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Topsmead!
Bluebird Box Trail Project
5/3/2019: The bluebird box project keeps humming along! Janet Blauvelt, a Friends board member and Chairperson of the Education Committee, leads the effort. She, along with Larry Short, a Special Education teacher at Charter Explorations School in Winsted, have been working with students from various local schools on different aspects of the project. Eight students from Explorations Charter School in Winsted, one student from Wamogo High School in Litchfield, and one student from Torrington Middle School in Torrington are participating. Their responsibilities are to inspect nesting boxes and record data on the bluebirds' and other birds' usage of the boxes; determine cleanliness of boxes; and report results to the Connecticut Bluebird Next Box Survey and Peter Piccone, a wildlife biologist at Sessions Woods in Burlington. Students are also responsible for building new boxes and repairing old ones. In addition, the Friends will add ten to fifteen new nesting boxes which will be built by Ms. Blauvelt and her husband, John Blauvelt, who is the Grounds Chairperson on the board of the Friends. The boxes will be built to specifications created by Art Gingert and Peter Piccone who designed the original bluebird trail at Topsmead. This project owes a big debt of gratitude to Jane Golding, a Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection employee who works at Topsmead, as she has played a critical role in initiating the new bluebird box trail. Students began checking the nesting boxes during the first week in March. Since then, they have spotted bluebirds starting to nest in several different boxes. Currently, there are five pairs of bluebirds nesting in boxes. On April 30, 2019, project participants were delighted to find one nesting box with four bluebird eggs in it. Recording nesting and egg status are vital to monitoring how the bluebird population is fairing at Topsmead State Forest. Stay tuned as the project progresses. We hope to have Topsmead awash in blue this summer! |
Just Add CoffeeTOPSMEAD MEMBERS & FRIENDS PICNIC!
Celebrate Topsmead in Bloom June 8th from 10 AM to 2:30 PM We are hosting a members and bring-your-friends picnic at Topsmead. There will be some fabulous fun activities during the day. ACTIVITIES 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
12:00-1:00 PM PICNIC LUNCH (Bring your own) 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
See the attached flyer |