Volunteers Needed for Shorebird Monitoring 2016

The Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds 2016 monitoring and stewardship season is about to begin! Please see the USFWS news release below for details, and please pass this along to any new volunteers you feel would be interested in joining us. We hope all our past monitors will be returning this year after yet another record-setting season in 2015. We can only keep this success going with your help!

Spend your summer days at the beach and help protect a federally threatened species! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are seeking volunteers to monitor piping plovers and other shorebirds from early April until late August at beaches across our state.  A training and orientation session for new volunteers will be held on Saturday, March 12th 2016 from 10:30am to 12:00noon at the Audubon Connecticut Office at Stratford Point, 1207 Prospect Drive, Stratford, CT 06615; past volunteers will be offered a refresher from 9:00am to 10:15am.  The sessions will review the following: biology of the piping plover, how to monitor breeding pairs and chicks, volunteer organization and logistics, and law enforcement information.

Atlantic Coast populations of piping plovers return to the Connecticut coast in March from their wintering grounds on the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. The cryptic nests of the piping plover are extremely susceptible to human disturbance, predation, and tidal wash outs. To enhance the survival and productivity of birds breeding in Connecticut, volunteers work at locations across the shoreline to observe the shorebirds, record and report nesting data, and educate the beach-going public about the monitoring program. Volunteers work 4 hour shifts from April until the end of the breeding season (usually in August) and must donate a minimum of 4 hours per month. The work can be very rewarding, as volunteers will have the opportunity to positively impact nesting success for threatened shorebirds across the state.

For more information on the training session or for directions, please email USFWS Visitor Services Manager Shaun Roche at shaun_roche@fws.gov. Reservations are not required; but an e-mail letting us know you will be attending is appreciated.

This training session is co-sponsored by the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Stratford Great Meadows Unit Training

Here’s a huge “thank you!” to all of the great volunteers that joined us at a training and informational sign-up session yesterday for the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is seeking volunteers to help out at the Refuge’s Stratford Great Meadows Unit, and now we have over 25 more people on board to help with public outreach, clean-up efforts, maintenance and bird surveys.

The event was cosponsored by Audubon Connecticut, New Haven Bird Club and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and held at Stratford Point. One of the goals of this new volunteer corps is to improve public access to the Stratford Great Meadows Unit, an amazing place for birding in Connecticut, and one of the best birding locations in the country according to Roger Tory Peterson. If you could not make the session you can still join the ranks by sending an email to shaun_roche@fws.gov.