Mattabeseck Audubon Society: Welcome!

Our Mission: The Mattabeseck Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society, is committed to environmental leadership and education for the benefit of the community and the earth's biodiversity.

deKoven House, 27 Washington Street, Middletown, Connecticut 06457

On Sunday, October 20th at St. Joseph’s Polish Society in Colchester, MAS celebrated its 50th Anniversary with over 40 attendees. This was truly a group achievement with all board members pitching in to make this event a success. We had a cash bar and Family Pizza provided a delicious buffet lunch. We ordered a large marble sheet cake from Stop & Shop with our logo on it for dessert. We had several items up for raffle including Frank Gallo’s Birding in Connecticut book, a Screech Owl nesting box, and several other birding related items. In exchange for any donation, folks could take home window decals, coasters, a t-shirt or sweatshirt with MAS’s logo on them.

Alison Guinness gave out several awards on behalf of our chapter: Alberta Mirer, for being the only founding member still involved with MAS; Joe Morin, for his many years as compiler for the Salmon River Christmas Bird Count and as a past president of MAS; Mike DiGiorgio, for his years of artwork contributions to our chapter; Pat Rasch, for all of her behind the scenes work on our website and for putting together the Wingbeat newsletter all of these years; Rockfall Foundation, for housing our chapter at the deKoven House and for supporting our organization’s efforts through the years; and Steve Broker for his years as state compiler for all of Connecticut’s Christmas counts, his years of participation with our Christmas count, and for putting together a great presentation about the 49 years of our Salmon River Christmas Bird Count. Board member Elena Coffey gave out awards to Alison Guinness, for being our fearless president since 2002 (yes, you read that correctly)! Sharon Dellinger also received an award for taking a lead role in organizing the 50th celebration.

All attendees were given a beautiful 8-page pamphlet designed by Pat Rasch that summarized MAS’s history, which started with discussions in Dave Titus’ living room in 1972 (official incorporation in 1974) with 5 other birders: John Maynard, William Howard, Jim Mockalis, Vince Marteka, and Alberta Mirer.

Our chapter has been through many ups and downs through these past decades including low participation and even a pandemic! Despite this adversity, our chapter has been successful in sponsoring many programs for the public and has collaborated with several other non-profit groups to promote our mission of environmental leadership and education for the benefit of the community and earth’s biodiversity.

We have many plans for our 50th year and we hope this celebration was as invigorating for the attendees as it was for the MAS Board! Here is what we planned: a cleanup day at our Helen Carlson Sanctuary in Portland on 11/9, our 50th Annual Salmon River Christmas Bird Count on 12/15, a retreat for the board on March 1st at Sacred Heart on the Lake in Higganum, and many birding field trips to be held in each of our chapter towns in 2025 (see on page 6).

We hope you will be able to help us with our mission in the year ahead in any way you can, whether it is attending our events, helping with the Christmas Bird Count in the field or at your home feeders, or becoming active with our board. All are welcome and more are needed to help us achieve our mission statement in the years to come.

Mattabeseck Audubon bids a grateful farewell to Luella Landis. After many years of service, Luella has decided it’s time to retire from the board. Luella has been vice-president and nominating committee chair. She also organized numerous programs including the Henry David Thoreau impersonator and collaborations with the Belden Library in Cromwell. We wish her well and great birding in her retirement.

On Saturday, November 9th a group of Mattabeseck Audubon Society board members (and former board members) met at the sanctuary to perform some necessary clean up. The board members included: Alison Guinness, Elena Coffey (mastermind of the clean-up day), Larry Cyrulik, Sharon Dellinger, Michael Good, Rodrigo Pinto, Annyta Vizard, with past board members Rob and Alberta Mirer joining in.

It was a beautiful and sunny fall day. Annyta, Elena, Rob & Alberta were able to clear out a lot of invasive vines at the entrance near our billboard, which greatly improved views of the marsh. Alberta helped us to identify the plants to ensure nothing important was removed. Sharon and Alison cleared out the dumping area which has been an eyesore at the beginning of the trail.

There is now a pile of old scrap metal, and even an old toilet bowl, that have been released from the earth and vines and are waiting for another day to be delivered to a scrap yard. Larry, Michael, and Rodrigo used a chainsaw to cut trees that had been blocking the trail.

After the cleanup, Elena and Sharon kayaked out to the platform to get an up-close look. The top tier was surprisingly sturdy given the overall state of disrepair of the structure. The views of the marsh from the platform are beyond compare and quickly prompted a conversation about what we might be able to do to restore the platform, and access to it. We imagined holding a Big Sit on this very spot someday soon. As a result of our work that day, we also realized that parts of the boardwalk on our trail have fallen into a state of disrepair creating not only access problems, but more importantly, safety hazards.

Although birding was not the purpose of our visit, once we were alerted about the presence of a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker seen in the back corner of the marsh caching acorns and 2 Winter Wrens singing and flitting around also at the back end of the marsh, we decided we had to do a bird count on E-Bird.

We also realized that hikers were still using our hut and deteriorating notebook to let us know when they visited and what birds they saw.

Sharon returned to the sanctuary to place a new notebook and pens, protected in a plastic tub, for future birders and hikers to leave their comments.

We left the sanctuary with a sense of accomplishment, but also a great sense of responsibility for the land entrusted to us by Helen Carlson in 1976. This site is a gem and a birding hotspot, and we need to treat it as such. There is much to come in the year ahead for this beautiful place. Stay tuned.

MAS is holding a series of Town-by-Town Special Anniversary Field Trips in 2025. Here is the list. (Other Trips will also be held, see list following the Town-by-Town list.)

The new issue of Wingbeat is now available for download. This .pdf file can be read on iPad, computer, and most tablets, and may be printed (letter-size pages) in color or grayscale.

To receive an emailed LINK to download each new issue as it is issued, please send your email address to pat_rasch@comcast.net and please put WINGBEAT in the message title. Issues will also be available to download anytime from our home page.

We may also send out special announcements or cancellations via email (only if we have your email address on file!)

If you find a baby bird or other baby animal, it's best to leave it alone. Chances are the parent is nearby and will take care of the baby when you leave the area.

If you have some other wildlife problem, contact the CT Wildlife Rehabilitators Association at http://www.cwrawildlife.org/ where you can find a rehabilitator in your area or someone to address your problem. CT DEEP dispatch phone number: 860-424-3333. CT DEEP list of wildlife rehabilitators bit.ly/2CoDTxu

The deadline for items to be included in the Winter/Spring Issue is March 26, 2025. Please send items to Pat Rasch, 24 Elm Road, Cromwell, CT 06416, or email to <mattabeseck@mac.com>. Please add "WINGBEAT" to the message's subject line.

We need you. There is always a need for new volunteer leaders in any organization, but the past couple of years have brought losses to our board that have created even greater challenges.

We’re always looking for new board members.
Please contact us (phone / e-mail / slow mail) and let us know if you’d like to help.

Our David Titus Memorial Bird Card is available for a $3 donation. Please email your request for bird cards to mattabeseck@mac.com. Bird cards are also available at any Mattabeseck-sponsored programs (but not on field trips).

Many thanks to local wildlife illustrator, Mike DiGiorgio, (www.mdigiorgio.com) for his beautiful illustrations, many of which were painted specifically for this bird card. The card is a very inexpensive way to own some of the best bird art you’ll ever see. It is extra heavy-duty, all-plastic laminate, printed in full color on both sides. Twenty-four birds are identified by their common name and Latin name, along with the length of the bird and the seasons that they are usually seen in our area. In species that have visual differences between the sexes, both sexes are portrayed.