January Black-bellied Plover

This Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) is one of several that have been hanging out around the Stratford Point area all winter. The species can overwinter in Connecticut if the season is cooperative enough without ice, snow and frigid temperatures making foraging and surviving more difficult, and so far we have been treating them relatively well.

 
While it has been a chilly week we have only had a trace of snow, and the daytime temperatures still climb to above freezing. In only two months dozens of our volunteer monitors will be hitting the field for the beginning of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, searching for newly-arrived Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers – crazy!