Earlier this week, during our regular weekly survey at the Fairfield County roadkill hotspot, we documented twenty-four depredated turtle nests, four road-killed birds, and several live terrapins. One of these birds was a juvenile saltmarsh sparrow (photo below). Saltmarsh sparrows are listed as Special Concern in Connecticut, and as Endangered by the IUCN. Their habitat has been greatly reduced and, like terrapins, are threatened by sea-level rise associated with climate change. With coastlines heavily developed throughout the saltamarsh sparrow's geographic range, there is little room for the marshes themselves to migrate inland as sea levels rise over the next several decades. As the birds nest salt marshes just above the high tide line, their ability to successfully reproduce will be compromised.
This individual was almost certainly killed by a passing car. As I conduct surveys, I often notice many cars that seem to be going much faster than the 35 mph speed limit. It's a long and straight stretch of road, making it easy to speed along. Unfortunately, this has been resulting in unnecessary deaths of terrapins, other wildlife, and now at least one globally endangered saltmarsh sparrow. Some form of speed control on this road would be a great way to reduce wildlife strikes, and this will be discussed further in the final report for this portion of the project.
Terrapins are still nesting here, but activity seems to be winding down. No new road-killed terrapins were observed. I do wonder how many terrapins get struck by vehicles, but then manage to make their way back into the marsh with a potentially fatal injury. I observed several terrapins swimming in the marsh creeks again, and one actively nesting female. Similar to a previous occasion, I was already quite close when I noticed her. I immediately crossed the road to give her space and continued on. Looking over my shoulder, I saw her retreating back into the marsh. She was either disturbed by my presence, or by passing vehicles (some large and noisy trucks often pass through here). Once she was back in the marsh, I went to the location where she had been digging to record GPS coordinates and snap a photo of her unfinished nest hole (photo below). I'm sure she has laid her eggs during a second nesting attempt by now. Unfortunately, there's also a very good chance that those eggs will be dug up and eaten by a predator before my next survey. I have my fingers crossed that I'll be able to survey through October so that I can document and share photos of hatchling terrapins. I've seen so many depredated nests; it will be very encouraging to know that at least some nests successfully hatch. This also brings up questions about population size, recruitment rate, and whether this population is stable, increasing, or decreasing. I'll save that discussion for a future post or the final report.
Finally, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude for all of the donations that have come in. As I am writing this, we have raised $530 of our $7,320 goal. This amount will cover vehicle mileage and a small portion of work hours through the month of August for the Fairfield County hotspot surveys. Funds raised so far also enabled me to order a trash grabber and garbage bags, and will cover a few hours of litter removal. I'm very excited to get started on that component of the project. We have not yet raised enough to get out to the other potential terrapin roadkill hotspots that I identified in the analysis last year. I'm eager to get out to some of those sites, and am hopeful that donations will continue to come in so at least some of this planned work can happen. Every dollar raised counts! Please consider sharing our campaign and making a donation if you have not already done so. Thanks again, very much, to all who have donated or shared the GoFundMe page so far; our work relies on your generosity.
Comments