Sanderlings feeding and banded birds

These Sanderlings were feeding along the gentle waves of Long Island Sound today at Long Beach in Stratford. Note that the bird on the far right has a silver federal band that I unfortunately could not read.

Please keep an eye out for any banded or flagged birds this spring. If you find birds such as this one with only a silver federal band and are able to read it you can report it on reportband.gov. If you can ever spot a color banded Piping Plover that would be phenomenal and you can visit this blog entry for instructions on what to do.

These three birds were part of a group of over 100 combined Sanderling and Dunlin. The two species are typically found together in Connecticut through the winter but after being in Jamestown, New York (Chautauqua County, the furthest Western New York county) for two very frigid months I was excited to see any shorebirds. More of our spring waterbirds will be arriving shortly, despite the conditions! I'll take a look at the upcoming weather and current status of our some of target species in my next blog entry.