On My Watch – Some amazing animal discoveries

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By Anne W. Semmes

So, I’m curled up with a good book near light’s out time when I hear the distant sound of a buzzing saw. Who in the world is doing carpentry at this late hour?

That distant buzz grows louder. And louder. Suddenly, the buzzing flies into my bedroom. A giant buzzing bee flies directly to my bedside light, terrifying me! Help! Death by a bee sting! I slide out of bed away from him and his giant buzzing. He flies around the room. Where on earth did he come from? Reach the bathroom – find a large towel. Hold it before me like a shield and step back into bedroom to see him landed on my sweater shelf. I throw the towel over him – he’s buzzing mad. I crunch him inside, best I can. Must get him outside!

Hugging the towel towards me to keep the beast inside, I can feel his buzzing near my breast! I race down the stairs and manage to open the front door and throw the towel into the night. Shut the door and breathe again!

It’s only after Greenwich High Schooler William Frankle, a zoomer-to-boomer, has kindly brought my groceries (no charge for shopping or delivering them) that I find that bee recovering outside my door and am able to photograph it and identify it as, of course, a carpenter bee! “He wasn’t likely to have stung you,” opined my sister, “He was just looking for a way out.”

The carpenter bee takes a rest outside the front door after being evicted. Photo by Anne W. Semmes

My neighborhood came to the rescue of a raccoon last week in a not so distant cousin’s basement, when photographer Christopher Semmes sent out an “Emergency Help Needed ASAP” message to online Nextdoor Byram. Christopher defines his emergency as “when you have a wild animal in your house…disrupting anything in its path and doing it’s business as it pleases!!” Yes, sir! And, in the steady stream (88 plus) of responses and suggestions on Nextdoor came a familiar one of, “throwing a big quilt over it and grabbing it up and tossing it out the back door (quilt and all until it ran out).”

Recommended services included trappers, wildlife rehabilitators, and I chimed in with Greenwich Audubon’s Ryan Maclean who suggested, “Call Wildlife in Crisis.” But it was a neighbor’s outreach that saved Christopher’s day. “One of our nice Neighbors – Rosemary Annunziato – lent me her Havaheart trap and baiting it now…within 4 hrs… He/She was captured and released…Thank you all again. Love Nextdoor.”

A rescued raccoon making its way to freedom via a good neighbor’s Havaheart trap. Photo by Regina Semmes

A rare animal discovery was made online this past weekend. Having signed up for the CT Bird sightings I was seeing the droves of birders traveling to Hartford (Cedar Hill Cemetery) to see the first time visit in our state of a rare bird, the Townsend’s Warbler.

That same Ryan MacLean of Greenwich Audubon made the trip on Sunday afternoon and found the female Warbler an “absolutely beautiful bird!” For three days in a row, he said, “She was able to bring some much-needed joy to hundreds of birders who amazingly did a phenomenal job social distancing and wearing masks while going to see her.”

That siting made history with another Connecticut birder, Frank Mantlik, of Stratford, a member of Connecticut Audubon Society. The Townsend’s Warbler was his 400th species spotted in the state, the highest number since that of the late Noble Proctor. The Townsend’s Warbler is now officially added to a total of 466 bird species seen in Connecticut.

The Townsends’ Warbler newly makes the list of 466 bird species officially seen in Connecticut. Contributed photo

Townsend’s Warbler territory is in the Rocky Mountains and out west. Ryan cites the bird’s arrival here as likely, “a result of some of the significant storm systems that moved across the eastern United States last week that brought extremely strong westerly winds. A bird the size of a warbler can be pummeled by this and blow them completely off-course. Sadly, climate change has only increased these particular situations, so we will likely see more and more birds whose migrations will be affected by major weather events.

“This particular bird was lucky to survive, and she seemed able to find plenty of food such as insects on budding trees but now she has to navigate northward to hopefully find breeding grounds and a mate.”

That rare bird sighting provided Ryan and his fellow birders “much-needed light in the darkness,” he shares, “and probably the only time many of us who knew each other would see each other until the situation improves. Here at Audubon it’s disheartening not being able to gather for bird walks and since we had to close our trails I know that many people are sorely missing the opportunity to go birding here and in many other places that have had to close.”

“This has really driven me and the rest of the staff,” he noted, “to bring as much of nature as we can to people virtually in all of our online videos, livestreams and webinars.”

In that vein, I recommend tuning into Ryan every Wednesday and Saturday at 7 a.m. on for his live stream “Dawn Chorus” at www.facebook.com/GreenwichAudubonCenter/

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