Winter 2012 Newsletter

Birdhouse

Sparks DEEP Interest

By  Denise Savageau

The Purple Martin nesting structure installed at Greenwich Point this past summer

by the Friends of Greenwich Point has sparked the interest of the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The Greenwich Conservation

Commission has been contacted to help provide additional information to the

CT DEEP on Purple Martin houses in Greenwich.  Michael Aurelia, Friends of

Greenwich Point board member, will be working with Joe Cassone, Greenwich

Conservation Assistant to develop a GIS map of all the locations of Purple Martin

houses in Greenwich. If you know of a Purple Martin house in Greenwich, please

contact Joe Cassone at 203-622-6461.

 

The CT DEEP will also be looking to see if any of the recently banded Purple Martins are nesting in Greenwich, including at Greenwich Point.  In CT the Purple Martin population has declined to the point were it is now listed as threatened. As part of a long range population recovery plan for Martins, the CT DEEP initiated a banding program this past July. They banded 540 juvenile Purple Martins from six colonies in Connecticut. The Martins wre banded with a colony specific colored band along with a US Geological Survey silver band. The banding program will be repeated again this coming summer. The CT DEEP is hopin through reporting sightings of these young Martins to gain a better understanding of their dispersal patterns and the optimal conditions for establishing new colonies.

 

The installation of the Purple Martin house has not only put Greenwich Point "on the map"; it has encouraged a new and hopefully growing colony here at the Point.