The Snowy Owl from Great Gull Island...!

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) on Great Gull Island

Photo Credit: Ann Pacheco

2016 Environmental Champion Award For Exceptional Work to Protect the Environment

On Friday, May 13, 2016 at a ceremony at the Ted Weiss Federal Building in lower Manhattan, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 2) awarded Helen Hays a “2016 Environmental Champion Award For Exceptional Work to Protect the Environment”.

The Great Gull Island dock in place...!

Hurricane Sandy took out the Great Gull Island dock in 2012. The American Museum of Natural History received a grant from FEMA to repair the dock. In October 2015 we heard from Mohawk Northeast, the construction company building the dock, that on October 14/15 the last pieces of the dock would be put in place. The pictures you see in the attachment were taken by Keith Neilson, Project Engineer on the dock.

Of course, we wanted to see the dock and use it as soon as possible. I called Captain Main and he suggested we go to Great Gull on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 when calm seas and warm weather were predicted. I went to Connecticut on Tuesday and stayed overnight with Jim and Barbara Sorensen. Barbara drove me to  the New London Railroad Station Wednesday morning where Lottie Prushinsky met me. Lottie and I drove to Captain Main’s. Bob Kane had already arrived and we all headed for Great Gull at nine o’clock. By 9:30 we all climbed out on the dock and viewed the wonderful long vista between the loading dock and the island itself.

The dock is beautiful and looks indestructible!  Lots of steel has been employed to hold it together. The pieces linking the loading dock to the shore are held together by heavy metal clips. Steel pieces hold the dock to the pilings and also to the cement building on the shore where the land end of the dock is anchored. The dock is ready for use so come out in 2016 and explore the new blind built be Matthew Male with help from Bob Kane, Stirling Danskin, and Roland Buzzard. Look forward to seeing you – more on this toward spring.    

Cheers,

Helen 

CBSNEWS - Woman revives Great Gull Island's tern population

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK - http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/woman-revives-great-gull-islands-tern-population/

TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE GREAT GULL ISLAND PROJECT, I AM DELIGHTED TO WRITE THAT FEMA HAS COMMITTED FUNDS TO THE MUSEUM TO REPAIR THE GREAT GULL ISLAND DOCK!

We are all very pleased and hope the dock will be in place in time for the 2015 season!

Cheers,

Helen  

The new season is starting on Great Gull Island with an airlift!

The Connecticut Army National Guard is helping to bring a supply of lumber to Great Gull Island for building new blinds to replace those destroyed by Super Storm Sandy two years ago and to create new nesting areas for the Roseate Terns. The Connecticut newspaper The Day carried the story last week (http://www.theday.com/article/20140419/NWS01/304199973/1018).  Originally scheduled for last Tuesday, the mission was accomplished on Friday, April 25.

While I was working on a report of our season on Great Gull Island, Sean Murtha and his son Brendan arrived on Gull for a week. Sean painted and sketched studies for future paintings and I was so excited when I saw his work that I wanted everyone to see it. His sketches and paintings give you a feeling for the island, for the fort and for the birds themselves. Will put a report on the season on this blog during the second week of September. More soon! Cheers, Helen

Please click here to see sketches and paintings from GGI.