Annoying Invasives
This invasive plant is a hardy, aromatic perennial in the aster family, easily identified by its deeply lobed leaves that are dark green on top and silvery-white underneath.
What is Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)?
Highly aerial birds known as "flying cigars". They spend almost their entire lives airborne—eating, drinking, bathing, and even mating on the wing. Because their tiny feet cannot perch, they cling to vertical surfaces like masonry chimneys to sleep and nest.
What is a Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)?
This focal species is listed as both federally AND state threatened.
What is a Pipping Plover ()?
This substance makes up the majority of the ground in saltmarshes.
What is Peat Moss?
This noxious perennial weed aggressively crowds out native vegetation and reduces foraging for wildlife and livestock. Native to Eurasia, it features deep taproots, grayish-green foliage, pink to purple thistle-like flowers, and distinctive black-tipped bracts beneath each bloom.
What is Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe)?
Smaller than its American cousin and with a more nasal voice, this bird hunts in salt marshes and tidal flats and scavenges on the beach. Inland, it ranges through swamps and along rivers.
What is a Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus)?
DEET, the chemical that caused harm to so many of CT's native species, was banned this year.
What is 1972?
This is a type of salt-tolerant grass found in most salt marshes.
What is Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora)
An invasive planthopper native to Asia that was first detected in the US in Pennsylvania in 2014. They feed on over 100 plant species—including grapes, fruit trees, and hardwoods—causing widespread agricultural damage and creating a sticky, foul-smelling residue known as "honeydew". You'll find them in great abundance on one of our other invasive plant species.
What is a Spotted Lantern Fly (Lycorma delicatula)?
With one of the most nostalgic calls in the bird world, this bird is mostly plain, with black spots on its wings. The adult male is tinged pinkish on the chest and blue-gray on the crown; the female is duller, with plain brown plumage.
What is a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)?
These are 3 of the most important topics to get across to those we interact with when tabling.
What is "who we are, what we do, and how people can help shorebirds"?
This animal is the only turtle species in North America to spend its entire life in brackish water. They are most abundant in tidal estuaries west of the Connecticut River.
What is a Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys t. terrapin)?
This aggressive, deciduous woody vine was introduced to North America from East Asia in 1860. It destroys native ecosystems by strangling, uprooting, and shading out trees and poses a severe threat to local forests throughout the northeastern United States.
What is Asiatic Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)?
Although it is mostly 'eastern' in our area, the total range of this bird extends south to Nicaragua. The males are bright blue above, reddish brown on the throat and chest, and their bellies are white. Females are paler and duller than males. The juvenile is heavily spotted and has telltale traces of blue above.
What is an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)?
This is the year the WLG was founded.
What is 2012?
Salt marshes act as natural buffers against this type of habitat degredation?
What is Erosion?
This rapidly growing plant is highly invasive in North America. It releases a toxic chemical called ailanthone into the soil, which suppresses and kills the growth of surrounding native plants, and it is a hub for spotted lanternflies.
What is Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)?
The smallest falcon in North America, as well as the most familiar and widespread. In open country, it is commonly seen perched on roadside wires or hovering low over a field on rapidly beating wings, waiting to pounce on a grasshopper. Relatively small and long-tailed, with two sharp face stripes. Females are all red-brown above with narrow dark bars, including on the tail. Males have red-brown tails with a black tip, red-brown backs contrasting with blue-gray wings.
What is an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)?
These are the 3 towns that partially own Ash Creek/St. Mary's by the Sea.
What is Bridgeport, Fairfield, and Stratford?
Coastal ecosystems are referred to as "blue carbon" sinks for their ability to sequester carbon. WHICH type of coastal forest can store up to five times more carbon than terrestrial rainforests?
What is a Mangrove forest?