Milford Point CT DEEP Request

DEEP Wildlife Division is requesting that volunteer Piping Plover monitors assigned to Milford Point NOT monitor the extreme tip of the sand bar as of June 24th. Please see the below image. Rebecca Foster (DEEP Shorebird Technician) reported that walking out to the extreme end of the sandbar had to be done very careful to avoid stepping on newly hatched Least Tern chicks. There were a minimum of 7 newly hatched Least Tern chicks and 2 broods of Piping Plovers with hatchlings outside of the string fence on the narrow tip. This area is unfortunately not feasible to fence given the tides.

Because we are limited as to what we can do to protect vulnerable chicks out at the end of the sandbar, we will minimize some of the traffic by limiting our presence even though it means we get less data. At this crucial time in development, minimizing disturbance will benefit the birds more than our monitoring/education efforts. This is a temporary measure that we will lift after the chicks get a bit older. We will keep you posted and let you know when conditions there change. Thank you for your cooperation!