Extreme heat - safety first!

We wanted to remind all of you terrific monitors as well as our staff to put your safety first when it comes to being on the beach. This week's hazard will be extreme heat and poor air quality. Apart from the heat index nearing 105 as the temperature creeps to 95 or 100 in some areas, the entire Connecticut coastline has an air quality alert through Thursday. It is really not a good time to be outside at all in the next few days. We definitely want to keep an eye on our birds, but their safety is a consideration, too. We always ask everyone to be mindful of the birds in cold temperatures, but this magnitude of heat plus the sun on eggs or very young birds can be fatal. The less traffic we have out there the better so that the adults can tend to nests without being disturbed in the slightest. This goes for all of our birds - Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, Least Terns, and Common Terns. Please feel free to disregard any surveys and take a well deserved rest.

Thank you all again for a stupendous job thus far in 2012. We have had a great deal of success because of your efforts, and we are certain it will continue through the end of August.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut