Little Piping Plover, Big Meal

It's hard to have lunch when it is as big as your head...

AAfCW 2022 Field Update #13

This is the final field update for the AAfCW in 2022 with data through August 31. Volunteer monitoring has now concluded for the 2022 season. Staff monitoring will continue into the winter as shorebirds, terns, and waders continue to move through Connecticut. Staff will also continue to remove string fencing, signage, and exclosures from our beaches over the next couple of weeks. As far as we know, all fledged birds have reached juvenile stage and/or departed Connecticut.

If you have any data remaining for the 2022 field season, please enter it as soon as you can. If you would like, you can keep sharing sightings with us in the offseason via eBird. Wherever you visit on your own time, eBird can be a great tool, and you can provide us with your checklist via the share function to this email address (ctwaterbirds@gmail.com). You may also continue to report and banded and/or flagged individuals of any shorebird, tern, or wader species via direct email to us and CT DEEP.  Please bear in mind some reports of Piping Plovers in large groups are undoubtedly Semipalmated Plovers in migration, or possibly Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and other shorebirds.

As previously mentioned, we will continue to share applicable events and waterbird conservation-related volunteer efforts from our organizations and partners throughout the remainder of the year. Keep an eye on our blog and social media for more photos and videos from this season, and watch for emails about an AAfCW volunteer Zoom event including results from this season's monitoring. Thank you all so much for your efforts, and we will keep in touch! We hope to have all of you joining us again in 2023, too.

Species	Date	Location	Pairs	Adults	Juveniles
AMOY	August 23	Compo Beach	1	0	0
AMOY	August 24	Milford Point	0	59	1
AMOY	August 24	Sandy/Morse Points		1
AMOY	August 25	Sandy/Morse Points	2	1	1
AMOY	August 25	Griswold Point	0	1
AMOY	August 27	Sandy/Morse Points	1	1	0
AMOY	August 29	Milford Point	0	36	0
AMOY	August 30	Milford Point	0	3	0
AMOY	August 31	Milford Point	0	1	0
AMOY	August 31	Compo Beach	1	0	0
LETE	August 25	Griswold Point	0	4
LETE	August 25	Sandy/Morse Points	0	2	2
LETE	August 25	Griswold Point		120
LETE	August 27	Sandy/Morse Points	0	1	1
LETE	August 27	Sandy/Morse Points	0	4	0
PIPL	August 24	Sandy/Morse Points		1
PIPL	August 25	Sandy/Morse Points	0	0	2
PIPL	August 25	Griswold Point	0	1
PIPL	August 27	Griswold Point	0	1
PIPL	August 27	Sandy/Morse Points	0	2	0

Got an Itch?

Here's one of our last Piping Plover hatchlings of the 2022 season with an itch in July...

Thankfully, it was scratched, and this bird - along with a sibling - successfully fledged and headed south for the season. See you next year?

AAfCW 2022 Field Update #12

This is the twelfth field update for the AAfCW in 2022 with data through August 24. It seems we may have finally beaten the worst of the heat for the season, and rainy days have been few and far between. An occasional survey was missed due to the extreme heat, but the remaining week in the field before we wrap up volunteer monitoring for 2022 should be mostly good. Our birds are exiting the region as our final fledglings and juveniles prepare to leave Connecticut. Adults of all four species can still be found, too, with some staging in terrific numbers along the coast.

Please continue to report and banded and/or flagged individuals of any species both in your data reports and emailed directly to CT DEEP. If you have a unique or superb sighting of another long-legged wader, tern, or shorebird, we'd love to hear about that, too. Anyone who spends their own time visiting other great migratory hotspots is free to enter their data if the location is found in the dropdown menus of our electronic form, or to share an eBird checklist with our email address via the share function. You can eBird like this with us through the fall and winter if you'd like, too, and we will tally your additional volunteer hours and sightings.

Thanks so much to everyone who has assisted in removing string fencing and signage! We will continue these efforts, and let you know about more opportunities to help soon. There may be waterbird conservation-related volunteer efforts from our organizations and partners throughout the remainder of the year, and we will share applicable events. Finally, we will share more photos and videos taken this season on our blog and social media as well.

Species	Date	Location	Paids	Adults	Fledglings	Juveniles
AMOY	August 7	Branford Harbor	0	1	0	0
AMOY	August 9	Milford Point	0	6	0	0
AMOY	August 9	Compo Beach	1	2	0	0
AMOY	August 10	Sandy/Morse Points	1	0	0	2
AMOY	August 11	Milford Point	0	50	0	5
AMOY	August 12	Sandy/Morse Points	0	5	0	0
AMOY	August 13	Griswold Point		1
AMOY	August 14	Sandy/Morse Points	1	1	0	2
AMOY	August 16	Milford Point	0	29	0	0
AMOY	August 16	Compo Beach	1		0	0
AMOY	August 19	Bluff Point	1
AMOY	August 19	Sandy/Morse Points	2			3
AMOY	August 22	Milford Point	0	20	0	0
AMOY	August 23	Bluff Point	1
COTE	August 10	Sandy/Morse Points	0	25	0	75
COTE	August 10	Milford Point		12
COTE	August 11	Milford Point	0	300	0	25
COTE	August 12	Sandy/Morse Points	0	65	0	0
COTE	August 14	Sandy/Morse Points		740	0
COTE	August 18	Griswold Point	0	155
COTE	August 19	Bluff Point		8
COTE	August 19	Harkness Memorial State Park		200
COTE	August 21	Griswold Point		150
LETE	August 9	Milford Point	0	4	0	0
LETE	August 10	Sandy/Morse Points	0	12	0	38
LETE	August 10	Milford Point		3		1
LETE	August 10	Milford Point	0	5	0	0
LETE	August 11	Milford Point	2	9	0	7
LETE	August 11	Sandy/Morse Points		100
LETE	August 12	Sandy/Morse Points	0	80	24	6
LETE	August 14	Sandy/Morse Points		18	13
LETE	August 18	Sandy/Morse Points		3		1
LETE	August 18	Griswold Point		2
LETE	August 19	Bluff Point		1
LETE	August 19	Griswold Point		200
LETE	August 19	Sandy/Morse Points		1
LETE	August 21	Griswold Point		5
PIPL	August 8	Milford Point	0	2	0	1
PIPL	August 10	Sandy/Morse Points	0	0	0	5
PIPL	August 10	Long Beach	0	1	0	1
PIPL	August 10	Milford Point		1		8
PIPL	August 10	Milford Point	0	1	0	1
PIPL	August 11	Milford Point	0	1	0	11
PIPL	August 11	Sandy/Morse Points		2	3
PIPL	August 12	Sandy/Morse Points	0	1	1	3
PIPL	August 12	Milford Point		1		6
PIPL	August 14	Sandy/Morse Points	0	0	0	6
PIPL	August 18	Griswold Point	0	1
PIPL	August 19	Griswold Point	1	0
PIPL	August 19	Sandy/Morse Points		1		2
PIPL	August 21	Griswold Point		1