The Saturday September 9th visits to Faulkner Island have been cancelled due to small craft warnings. Sunday, September 9, we will be running 7 trips to the island beginning at 8 am until 4 pm. If your trip on Saturday was cancelled, please consider trying for a Sunday visit, as we have added 4 trips to the Sunday schedule. There may be a wait, but you won’t want to miss this once a year opportunity!
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 8th, 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 8th and 9th)
- 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
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.
Annual Faulkner’s Island Open House
The Open House on Faulkner’s Island is scheduled for September 8th & 9th, weather permitting. At this time, the USFWS is trying to secure the services of a contractor to install pilings that were ripped out during a storm in the fall of 2010. The pilings are required to keep the floating landing docks in place to permit a safe landing on the island. Because of the tern migration and nesting period, no work is permitted on the island between May 1st and September 1st. As we approach early August, more details will be posted on this website concerning times and transportation to the island if the pilings are in place and the landing docks have been installed.