American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) is one of our focal species in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. Many are now pairing off across Connecticut, finding the right place to start a nest next month. Last year our work helped the species make history! The 2015 population, consisting of 161 individuals that included 52 breeding pairs and 57 non-breeding individuals, was spread out over 31 different sites including barrier beaches and offshore islands. The breeding pairs successfully fledged an astronomical total of 64 chicks resulting in 1.23 (chicks/breeding pair) productivity.

 
This is a dramatic increase in productivity from previous years, doubling or nearly tripling recent results. It is possible that more American Oystercatchers reached sexual maturity and attempted to breed last year. More significantly, it is our hypothesis that the species generally needs one to two years of nesting experience and attempts at raising chicks before they become adept enough to successfully fledge these young on a consistent basis. Our outreach initiatives have greatly benefited the birds with increased public awareness in critical nesting areas, enhanced protection with additional signage, fencing, and boater engagement, and volunteers monitoring breeding locations on the beach and on boats. In short, our slow and steady past success with American Oystercatchers has ascended to lofty levels as the species achieved this rapid gain and tremendous success due in part to our collective efforts.

Once again, please continue your work as a monitor or volunteer in 2016 if you are not already or join us for your first season by emailing ctwaterbirds@gmail.com – thank you so much!

AAfCW 2016 Volunteer Update #1

This is the first weekly update by the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (AAfCW) for the 2016 season. Today's update includes reports of Piping Plover and American Oystercatcher through 1:00 p.m. on March 28 with sightings of birds by volunteers and staff.

Informational updates:

Monitoring for the 2016 officially begins this Friday, April 1. In this first regular Monday update you will find pertinent information and reminders plus data from a few of our volunteers and staff members that have already hit the beach this year.

String fencing and signage erection dates for Connecticut beaches in spring 2016 are as follows and we need all the volunteers we can get!

Wednesday, April 6th, 10:30 - Long Beach, Stratford
Meet at the far west parking area.

Monday, April 11th, 10:00 - Sandy/Morse Points, West Haven
Meet in the parking lot.

Friday, April 15th, 10:00 - Bluff Point, Groton
Meet in the parking area and CT DEEP will shuttle people out to the beach.

Remember that any and all volunteers are welcome including those who are not monitors. These dates are rain or shine, but snow or thunderstorms will postpone them.

Volunteers should bring: work gloves, water, a snack, appropriate footwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats and whatever else you may need avoid too much sun. These locations can either be quite cool or very warm depending on the day so dress for any weather. A pocket knife or multi-tool can be handy and a sledge hammer or mallet can be helpful to bring. Plan for heavy lifting and toting, but be mindful of your safety. Please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you can make it to any or all of these dates. Thank you!

The Nature Conservancy will be conducting its spring set up at Griswold Point on Wednesday, April 13. Low tide is about 10:30, so pedestrian access should be fine throughout the morning. They'll have a few staff and some invited members joining the work party, but any extra hands are appreciated. They will have a 9:00 AM meeting at the I-95 exit 70 park and ride in Old Lyme, and a 9:15 meeting down at the Point itself. Please email dgumbart@tnc.org and us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you will be at Griswold on the 13th, thank you!

Our new monitors should remember that new volunteer monitor beach training with CT DEEP is available to you on Sunday, April 17 at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven: http://ctwaterbirds.blogspot.com/2016/03/new-volunteer-monitor-beach-training.html

Finally, please keep sending in schedule information, and let us know about what you find at the beaches as we begin our regular monitoring. Thank you all, and good birding!

Survey and monitoring updates:

Piping Plover
1 adult at Long Beach on 3/10
2 adults at Milford Point on 3/11
4 adults at Milford Point on 3/15
7 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/16
7 adults at Milford Point on 3/18
4 adults at Milford Point on 3/21
2 pairs, 3 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/22
10 adults at Milford Point on 3/23
9 adults at Milford Point on 3/23
13 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/23
4 adults at Hammonasset on 3/23
2 adults at Griswold Point on 3/24
1 pair, 4 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/25
4 pairs, 1 adult at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/26

American Oystercatcher
3 adults at Milford Point on 3/15
1 pair at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/16
1 pair at Milford Point on 3/22
2 pairs at Milford Point on 3/23
2 pairs at Milford Point on 3/23
1 pair at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/23
1 pair at Hammonasset on 3/23
2 adults at Hammonasset on 3/24
2 pairs at Sandy/Morse Points on 3/25

This concludes update #1 through 3/28/16 as of 2:30 p.m.

String Fencing Dates - Volunteers Wanted!

String fencing and signage erection dates for Connecticut beaches in spring 2016 are as follows and we need all the volunteers we can get!

Wednesday, April 6th, 10:30 - Long Beach, Stratford
Meet at the far west parking area.

Monday, April 11th, 10:00 - Sandy/Morse Points, West Haven
Meet in the parking lot.

Friday, April 15th, 10:00 - Bluff Point, Groton
Meet in the parking area and CT DEEP will shuttle people out to the beach.

Remember that any and all volunteers are welcome including those who are not monitors. These dates are rain or shine, but snow or thunderstorms will postpone them.

Volunteers should bring: work gloves, water, a snack, appropriate footwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats and whatever else you may need avoid too much sun. These locations can either be quite cool or very warm depending on the day so dress for any weather. A pocket knife or multi-tool can be handy and a sledge hammer or mallet can be helpful to bring. Plan for heavy lifting and toting, but be mindful of your safety. Please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you can make it to any or all of these dates. Thank you!

New Volunteer Monitor Beach Training

On Sunday, April 17 CT DEEP and AAfCW will hold a beach/field training session geared for new volunteers on how to monitor and collect data for Piping Plovers and Least Terns from 10AM until 12PM at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven. The group will meet at the parking lot before venturing out to the beach. Follow this link for driving directions and additional information on the site: http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=383

Everyone should dress for walking the beach and remember appropriate footwear, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, a jacket and whatever else you may need avoid too much sun and stay warm on what can be a windy and chilly beach in April. You should also bring a snack, water, binoculars and a spotting scope if you have one. The rain date will be Sunday, April 24, and we will email you in the event of a cancellation.

Please send us your monitoring schedule at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you have not done so already, and thank you! Piping Plovers continue to arrive across Connecticut and we hope you're excited to see them soon.

Need Negative Data

Please remember that we want to hear from you at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com after every trip you take to your beach during volunteer monitoring. Even when you make a visit to the shore and do not see any Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, Least Terns or Common Terns - or any other notable waterbirds - we need this "negative data". Knowing about a lack of birds is just as important as an abundance of birds.

Negative data is important to us in several ways. It lets us know that you were there on the beach at your scheduled time and that birds were simply not there instead us thinking you may have had to miss your monitoring that day and wondering what was or was not present. We can still learn from you about any disturbances and human activities on the beach even if there are no birds to report. We will target our field staff to sites more appropriately with a more complete picture of what is or is not going on. We can also add to historic data from past years - for example, if a given beach now has no Piping Plovers during the entire 2016 season and this is the third year in a row after decades of the species breeding there then we will know with even more certainty that there is a problem that needs to be addressed at that site.

Please remember this throughout the season and send us a report each time after you monitor. While we would much rather read a wonderful account of so many of our species being recorded by all of you we still need to receive monitoring data even when no birds are found whatsoever. That negative data goes a long way in helping us understand, protect and help Connecticut's coastal waterbirds.

Schedule Your 2016 Monitoring

Our thanks to all who attended training this past Saturday! We are now working on scheduling everyone to their desired beaches and dates. Please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com with your requested location(s) and schedule. We hope to complete scheduling for most by April 1.

 Here is a list of available monitoring locations:

    Sherwood Island State Park in Westport
    Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport
    Long Beach in Stratford
    Russian Beach in Stratford
    Milford Point in Milford
    Silver Sands State Park in Milford
    Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven
    Griswold Point in Old Lyme
    Bluff Point State Park in Groton

Short Beach in Stratford may also need some monitoring, as may Sasco Hill Beach in Fairfield. Long Beach, Milford Point, Sandy/Morse Points and Bluff Point typically have the greatest need for monitors. Remember that we would like to have all the data we can on Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, and beginning when they arrive in May, Least and Common Terns. Information on additional shorebirds, terns, long-legged waders, disturbances, usage of the beach, and more is always great, including negative data (if you did not record any of our target species). When we begin walking our beaches we want to monitor only in "good" weather to protect both people and birds - strong winds, heavy rain or thunderstorms in the area or temperatures below 50 or above 90 mean you should skip that day.

If you would like to be paired up initially with master monitors who have past experience or if you are a master monitor willing to help please let us know if you have not already. Remember to check out the right-hand column of this blog for helpful documents and important state and federal forms. If you cannot download any of these forms or have problems attempting to please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com and we can send them as email attachments.

We will start our regular and weekly email updates with general information and bird data in April. Thank you all! We could not accomplish any of this without our tremendous volunteers. If you have yet to sign up as a monitor please email USFWS Visitor Services Manager Shaun Roche at shaun_roche@fws.gov.

2016 AAfCW Training Completed

On Saturday, March 12, the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (Audubon Connecticut and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection completed successful training sessions for many of our fantastic past and new volunteer shorebird and tern monitors. Our collective staffs welcomed nearly 80 volunteers to Stratford Point, and thankfully we may end up near 100 regular monitors for the 2016 season.

USFWS’ Shaun Roche, Visitor Services Manager, Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge

Laura Saucier, Wildlife Biologist from CT DEEP

Discussing law enforcement with the group

Corrie Folsom-O’Keefe, Audubon Connecticut Important Bird Area Coordinator, speaking about the “Be A Good Egg” program

These citizen scientists and educators will hit the beaches come April, monitoring Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers with other species like the Least and Common Terns returning in May. If you would like to join us on the Connecticut shore this spring and summer please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com to sign-up. Even if you cannot regularly monitor a beach you may be able to assist in outreach or education, lend a hand at string fencing and signage parties, or survey for other waterbird species. We usually have at least 200, and sometimes 300 or 400, dedicated, caring volunteers each year, and we would love to have you become one of them. Thank you all!

This Saturday! Volunteers Needed for Shorebird Monitoring 2016

This is a reminder that the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds 2016 monitoring and stewardship season is about to begin! The training sessions for new and past volunteers is this Saturday, March 12. 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.