Mean people at Hammonasset

Anthony Zemba AZemba at MaguireGroup.com
Thu Aug 31 13:31:21 EDT 2006


Alex is right. I experienced something similar at Hammonasett a few
seasons back, except the children were deliberately running up to the
purple martin boxes screaming and scaring the birds off their perches.
THe kids continued to do this five or six times as I was walking toward
them. THe worst part was that the mother was standing there watching,and
saw me (obviously a birder as I was carrying my scope and binos)
approaching from afar, and she did nothing to stop them. When I was 
within ear shot I yelled HEY! KNOCK IT OFF! The mother quickly collected
her kids and scuttled them toward the mini van, as I continued to
approach. By the time she got them packed away, I had caught up to her.
She didn't know what to expect from me at that point, and nervously
asked "hey, did you see the Osprey?" Doubting she cared about me seeing
the osprey, or even the osprey for that matter, I ignored the question
and replied in a seething tone that the martins are a protected species
in the park and Connecticut (State Threatened) and that if the ranger
caught her, she could be fined.  THe kids were old enough to understand,
and that she should know better anyways.  Maybe she will think twice
next time about what her kids were doing, maybe not. More likely she
cursed at me or made some time of obscene gesture because that is the
type of person she appeared to be, but I'm the type of person that can't
quietly sit back and watch humans disrespect and molest nature. So I
applaud you, Diane. As stewards of the land, we need to continue to
speak up and confront people like that.   


>>> "Grkovich, Alex" <agrkovich at tmpeng.com> 8/18/2006 9:17 AM >>>
Mercifully, there are very few people like that around...but we do run
into them...and it's not just butterflies that they pick on...These
are
the types of "children" who pick up cats by the tails and whirl them
around and them let them go...

Usually kids that have been abused and then have to take that out on
something else...

Alex 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu 
[mailto:owner-ctleps-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of
ButterflyPR at comcast.net 
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 9:06 AM
To: CT LEPS
Subject: Hammonasset

Had a chance to check out the butterfly garden at Hammo yesterday
while
my daughter participated in a children's program at the nature center.
Ran into Noble Proctor who let me know what a few things were, as they
were flying too quickly for me to identify at first!  The place was
really hopping--here are my estimates:

Monarchs--Noble estimated 30
Orange Sulphur--6
Cabbage White--12
Eastern Tailed Blue--1
Azure--1
Buckeye--numerous (more than Monarchs?)
American Lady--2
Broadwing Skipper--numerous
Peck's Skipper--1
Black Swallowtail--2
Tiger Swallowtail--2
Comma--2
Question Mark--1
Red-Spotted Purple--1
Snowberry Clearwing Moth--3

I was having a marvelous time until a couple of young teenagers came
along and started trying to catch the butterflies by hand.  The girl
caught one and handed it to the boy, who made comments about pulling
its
wings off, held it by the wingtips and started blowing on it.  I asked
them to let the butterfly go, and eventually they did, but then
proceeded to make nasty comments about "Nature" in general.  It really
put a damper on my day.  I know part of the purpose of the CBA is to
protect butterflies, but I didn't think I'd need to directly protect
them against humans!!

One note--to follow up Carol's post, it certainly is a banner year for
Monarchs!  Our sixth eclosed this morning--we have two more
chrysalides
and four more caterpillars.  That is in addition to several
chrysalides
we've shared with other folks and all of the caterpillars we've given
to
our Brownie troop.  Yesterday at Hammo, I did notice that all of the
Monarchs that I got a good look at seemed to be male.  When I was at
my
mother's house in Westport recently, most of the Monarchs seemed to be
male (only one faded female).  Coincidence?

Diane


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