Images & Videos

Jul 20, 2012 by FLB

Faulkners Island at Guilford Town Hall

Faulkner's Light 1965 — Faulkner’s Light 1965

Visit the Guilford Town Hall this July for a diorama of the history of Faulkner’s Island.

Faulkner's Island Boat Basin 1965 — Faulkner’s Island Boat Basin 1965

Faulkner's Light 2012 — Faulkner’s Light 2012

Jul 3, 2012 by FLB

Open House 2012

Thanks in large part to the generosity of the Faulkner’s Light Brigade (FLB), the docks and landing area on Faulkner Island have been repaired. The Open House, hosted by FLB, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) is scheduled for Saturday, September 8, and Sunday, September 9.

The USF&WS landing craft will ferry visitors to and from the island. The landing craft can accommodate 20 passengers plus crew. Visitors will be on the island for approximately 45 minutes. Five round trips are planned for Saturday and three for Sunday. Private boats will be permitted on Sunday only. Access to the basin is limited to the USF&WS landing craft, water taxi and the USCG. A water taxi will be available Sunday afternoon for those who need to anchor off from the west side of the island.

FLB completed a $121,000 restoration of the interior and exterior of the lighthouse in March 2010. The 1802 lighthouse is not only an aid to navigation but is also a local treasure. Donations, to help support the FLB mission of preserving the lighthouse, will be appreciated from all visitors. Twenty dollars is the recommended donation.

Reservations will be required for the ferry and will be accepted starting August 15. Reservations can be made through Marie Pohlman by email [email protected] or by phone 203-421-3123.

Open House Photo Contest

This year’s theme for pictures is to capture your day on Faulkner’s Island

The contest is open to all non professional shutter bugs 2 age groups, adults and children. For the purpose of this contest: Children’s age group is anyone 16 and under on the day of the event, September 8^th, 2012. An adult photographer is anyone 17 and older

The pictures could be submitted in digital or hard copy format, although digital is the preferred format
Pictures must be taken on the two days of the event, (September 8^th and 9^th)
Only one picture per person can be submitted
All pictures must be received by midnight Sunday 9/23/12
They can be emailed, or mailed to Faulkner’s Light Brigade PO Box 444, Guilford, CT 06437 email preferred: [email protected]
All pictures submitted would become the property of the FLB
The judging will be done by members of the board and other professionals that we choose to assist in this process
All decisions are final
Prizes for first, second and third place together with honorable mentions that will be determined by the judges
Prizes TBD
By submitting a picture to the FLB, you understand and allow the FLB, to use the picture to promote the FLB as a non- profit group
Pictures may be posted on the FLB website and used in FLB publications

Jul 2, 2012 by FLB

First Chick

7/2/12 by Kris Vargos USFWS

Our crew is dynamite this year – I want to introduce them to you .

Here are some updates:

The American oystercatcher (AMOY) egg that was in the common tern nest hatched. We took a photo of the common tern chick (first born) and the AMOY chick together. Unfortunately but expectedly, the AMOY chick disappeared. We have not seen it since L
One of the willet nests hatched a chick; the other was not incubated long enough…maybe due to tern interference.
We’ve seen a few common terns with orange flags on their right legs – the flags are small and act as a color band so that the birds can be identified. We suspect that they may have been banded in Argentina. I will let you know what we find out about them.
We are well into hatching for the common and roseate tern chicks. The parents continuously bring back long, silver fish for their young to eat.

Meet the Falkner Island Crew:

My name is Max Maloney, and I am working on Falkner this year as a Biological Science Aid. This is my second summer working for the refuge. Last year I worked a variety of positions at the refuge, anything from island keeper to YCC. I am currently going into my senior year at Unity College, located in rural Unity, Maine. I am majoring in Conservation Law Enforcement with hopes in one day starting a career in refuge law enforcement. I have a strong passion in helping conserve wildlife for future generations to enjoy. My hobbies consist of pretty much anything outdoors, such as hunting and fishing to camping and kayaking. I am looking forward to living on Falkner this summer to continue our ongoing efforts in helping both the Common and Roseate terns.

My name is Olivia Bailey, and I am working on Falkner Island this summer as a Roseate and Common Tern intern. I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated in 2011 from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina with a degree in Biology. Since graduating, I have worked as a research assistant, banding passerines in New York and as an SCA intern at Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Florida. In Florida I worked with the reintroduced Eastern Migratory Population of Whooping Cranes, as well as with the endangered Florida Manatee. I’m very excited to be working on Falkner this summer, and I hope to continue working towards seabird conservation in the future.

Hello, my name is Victor Koos and I am one of the USFWS employees living in the Falkner Island tern colony this summer. My job is to monitor the productivity of the breeding populations of common and roseate terns on the island. I was born in 1990 and I grew up in Ossining and Mount Kisco, New York. I graduated in May 2012 from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry with my B.S. degree in wildlife science. Last summer I caught the field ornithology fever after completing a mist-netting and bird banding internship with the Institute for Bird Populations. My goal for the next couple of years is to travel and work as many different seasonal wildlife jobs as I can before going on to graduate school. My hobbies include hunting, fishing, camping, snowboarding, skateboarding, and soccer. I also consider myself to be an advanced amateur wildlife photographer, my favorite subjects being birds.

Jun 11, 2012 by FLB

Tern Update

June 7, 2012 – Kris Vagos, F&WL

Hello Faulkner Island Light Brigade and Friends –

The annual tern season is afoot!

This past Sunday, the research crew began their work on the island. We arrived early in the morning, pulled into our beautiful new dock (thank you very much for your contribution and hard work on that one), and were greeted by thousands of common terns. They have a very interesting way of saying hello – they all join together, dive at your head, and defecate on you. This is actually their way of defending their nests and the colony from predators. After all to them we are just big predators – it doesn’t matter how much I assure them that we will not hurt their babies. They remain…very good parents.

This season we will study both species of tern on the island, the very “common” common tern (Sterna hirundo) and the federally endangered roseate tern (Sterna dougallii dougallii). Both species coexist on the island, yet there are only around a hundred roseate tern compared to thousands of common tern. A typical field season consists of searching for nests, counting all of the nests on the island, following the eggs until they hatch, banding the chicks, and then following the chicks until they can fly – called “fledging”. We will survey all of the roseate nests and a small sample of the common tern nests in this manner.

Some interesting things that we saw on the island over the last few days:

CommonTernNest — Oyster Catcher/Common Tern Nest

a nest of 3 common tern eggs and one American Oystercatcher egg – we think the tern is incubating all 4 eggs – we do not know how this happened but suspect that it was an American Oystercatcher nest and the tern took over (they are very aggressive birds) – needless to say we are watching this nest carefully
An eastern willet, bird typically found in marshes or on barrier beaches, has taken a liking to the island and is comfortably living among the tern colony – he/she was calling from the top of the outhouse this morning while 2 common tern stood there looking on
Other birds that we saw – red-winged blackbird, song sparrow, black-crowned night heron, great egret, dunlin, ruddy turnstone, spotted sandpiper, gulls (herring and great black-backed), double crested cormorant, mallard, and black duck

If you have any questions about what we are doing at Falkner, please email me at [email protected], and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Stay tuned for the next entry where I will introduce this year’s field staff…

Jun 29, 2011 by FLB

Live Webcam

We are currently installing a live web camera on the island as well as a weather station. Please consider joining our organization to preserve the island and the historic lighthouse.