Griswold Point fencing party

A huge thank you to all of our great volunteers that came out to help The Nature Conservancy, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and us at the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds as we swiftly and smoothly completed string fencing erection today at Griswold Point. We all enjoyed chatting about birds and watching some of our target species along the way as we tallied at least six each of Piping Plover and American Oystercatcher. There were plenty of Dunlin and Osprey to observe with Great Egrets flying by and ducks like Red-breasted Merganser feeding. We even removed several bags of trash.

It was a fast and fun event with so many capable hands assisting us and even the weather cooperated as a dreary cool day turned into a sunny warm afternoon at the beach. Here are some photos I took along the way.

 Volunteers and staff spreading out along the beach

 Carrying stakes and equipment

 TNC's Dave Gumbart and monitor Timothy Thompson

 A changed Griswold Point thanks to Hurricane Sandy as she pushed the beach back several hundred feet and enlarged the tidal breach

 American Oystercatchers feeding out in Long Island Sound with a low rising tide

 Beautiful sands of Griswold Point

 Volunteers hard at work

 Newly-erected signage as you enter the bird nesting area

 Piping Plover foraging

One of at least six Piping Plover

Most of the TNC, CT DEEP, AAfCW and volunteer crew

See more photos from our work at Griswold Point in 2012 and 2013 taken by Patrick Comins here on our Facebook page. Thank you to everyone who joined us, we really appreciated it and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. There will be more fencing dates to come and we will really need your help. We will put the word out on those dates as soon as CT DEEP determines the best time for them at each location based on Piping Plover behavior and nesting.


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