Fourth of July weekend is one of the busiest beach weekends/weeks of the year. Our Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, Least and Common Terns have nests, young chicks, and fledged young across Connecticut.
Milford Point and the Coastal Center parking lot will be closed around 4:00pm today through Tuesday morning. This is to help limit traffic on the property, and staff will be present for the fireworks display and throughout the weekend on the beach and at the building. Volunteers should not visit Milford Point until next Tuesday and no one will have access. Stratford beaches are a great place to visit instead.
However, we need all the help we can get to monitor our other beaches and speak to beachgoers. Bluff Point, West Beach at Hammonasset State Park, Long Beach, Sandy/Morse Points, and all our other regularly monitored beaches are very important to visit. DEEP is particularly interested in chick counts (# of chicks you see when monitoring). Chick survival during the holiday weekend is problematic given all the beach parties and crowds.
If you have your monitoring ID and your beach is closed to residents only, you can use the ID to enter if you explain you are there to monitor the shorebirds for CT DEEP. You do not have to schedule extra Fourth of July monitoring in advance. Your additional presence on the beach educating people about the birds and collecting information on chick survival during the busy weekend would be wonderful. Thank you all so much in advance! We are having a good year, and hopefully it will continue.
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