Bad Weather Weekend and Badges

Good afternoon everyone!

It has been an exceptionally poor weather period for monitoring our Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers with more rain to come this week. You will want to stay home instead of visiting the beach during rain or temperatures under 50 degrees. New nests are appearing nearly every day despite it all, and our staff is working to keep an eye on things safely during the inclement conditions. Some nests will be lost due to higher tides, rainfall, and temperatures. 

Remember that Piping Plover nests will be exclosed if they reach four eggs and the pair accepts the exclosure. We do not need egg counts from your monitoring visits - only the presence/absence of a nest, and a visual sighting from afar to confirm the adults are incubating.

If you have not picked up an official monitoring badge from CT DEEP for 2023, please be advised they have been restocked at Milford Point. We apologize for the break in supply. They are also available at the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center in Old Lyme. All badges are currently in the field or in the hands of staff, so none can be mailed. However, if you are unable to visit Milford or Old Lyme, please let us know as Rebecca has kindly offered to make arrangements to meet you in person to hand off a badge to you.

Thank you all, and fingers crossed for some more sunny skies and warm air soon.

Best,
Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator

AAfCW 2023 Field Update #1

This is the first field update for the AAfCW in 2023 with data provided from volunteer monitors spanning the official beginning of field season on April 1 through April 26. A huge thanks to monitors who went out in March on their own time to submit observations as well. These were greatly valued, as are all the “negative data” reports throughout the season. If you visit your beach and do not see any of our four focal species - Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, Least Tern, and Common Tern - please submit those zeroes as data, too. Please remember to submit a *separate* report for each species when entering data. Please do not lump them all into one submission.

With that in mind, Connecticut’s Least and Common Terns should return around May 1, and the first sightings of them will likely be one, two, or a few birds at a time. Some April surveys were canceled due to rain or cold weather, and please stay home if the temperature at the beach is under 50, over 90, if it is extremely windy, or if it will be raining, for your safety and that of the birds. Please send ctwaterbirds@gmail.com an email if you are going to cancel a scheduled monitoring session for any reason.

These updates will occur more frequently now that we are nearly complete in getting all monitors into the field and all scheduling is completed. We have over 140 volunteer monitors at more than a dozen sites in Connecticut. That sounds like a lot, but when our sites and birds need monitoring from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, avoiding bad weather, targeting specific tides, it means we need all the help we can get. It is okay to overlap with other volunteers if you see them in the field, and it can help with public perception, data, and education.

Thank you to all for your efforts thus far! Nests are beginning to appear, and we hope we can get through the early spring weather and tides with most intact. Please remember to report issues to ctwaterbirds@gmail.com and CT DEEP directly via email if it involves downed fencing or signage, lost nests, moderate disruptions and disturbances, or contact local animal control, police, or EnCon police for “take” situations and emergencies, subsequently letting us know about the event.

Species	Date	Location	Pairs	Adults	Nests
AMOY	April 1	Fort Trumbull Beach, Milford	0	1	0
PIPL	April 3	Milford Point	2	1	0
AMOY	April 4	Milford Point		7
PIPL	April 4	Milford Point		13
PIPL	April 4	Long Beach	2	4	0
AMOY	April 6	Milford Point	3	0	0
PIPL	April 6	Milford Point	4	0	0
PIPL	April 7	Milford Point	0	1	0
AMOY	April 7	Sandy/Morse Points	3
PIPL	April 7	Sandy/Morse Points		11
AMOY	April 10	Sandy/Morse Points	2	0	0
PIPL	April 10	Sandy/Morse Points	0	10	0
AMOY	April 10	Bluff Point	4	0
PIPL	April 10	Bluff Point	1	4
AMOY	April 10	Sandy/Morse Points	2
PIPL	April 10	Sandy/Morse Points		27
PIPL	April 11	Long Beach	0	0	0
AMOY	April 11	Milford Point	3	6
PIPL	April 11	Milford Point	3	8
PIPL	April 11	Long Beach	1	0	1
AMOY	April 11	Long Beach	1
AMOY	April 11	Milford Point	0	1	0
PIPL	April 11	Milford Point	0	12	0
PIPL	April 11	Bluff Point	2	2	0
AMOY	April 11	Bluff Point	1	0	0
PIPL	April 12	Long Beach	1	0	0
AMOY	April 13	Milford Point	3	8	0
PIPL	April 13	Milford Point	3	8	0
AMOY	April 14	Griswold Point	1		0
PIPL	April 14	Griswold Point	2	1	0
AMOY	April 14	Sandy/Morse Points	3
PIPL	April 14	Sandy/Morse Points
PIPL	April 14	Milford Point	1	12	0
AMOY	April 14	Milford Point	1	1	0
AMOY	April 15	Compo Beach	1	3	0
AMOY	April 16	Long Beach	1		0
PIPL	April 16	Long Beach	4	0	0
PIPL	April 18	Milford Point	1	5	0
PIPL	April 18	Milford Point	2	9
AMOY	April 18	Milford Point	2	2
PIPL	April 18	Long Beach	1		0
PIPL	April 19	Sandy/Morse Points	3	10	0
AMOY	April 19	Sandy/Morse Points	1
PIPL	April 19	Sandy/Morse Points		20	0
AMOY	April 19	Milford Point	0	2	0
PIPL	April 19	Sandy/Morse Points	3	9	0
AMOY	April 20	Bluff Point	1
PIPL	April 20	Bluff Point	0	1
PIPL	April 20	Sandy/Morse Points	6	5	9
AMOY	April 20	Long Beach	1		0
PIPL	April 20	Long Beach	2	2	1
AMOY	April 21	Compo Beach	1	0	0
PIPL	April 21	Long Beach	1	16	0
PIPL	April 21	Compo Beach	1		0
AMOY	April 21	Long Beach	1	1	0
PIPL	April 21	Sandy/Morse Points	1	1	0
PIPL	April 21	Milford Point	3	8	0
AMOY	April 21	Milford Point	0	2	0
AMOY	April 21	Hammonassett State Park	1
PIPL	April 21	Griswold Point	2	5	0
AMOY	April 21	Sandy/Morse Points	2	1
PIPL	April 21	Sandy/Morse Points		16
AMOY	April 21	Griswold Point	1
PIPL	April 21	Griswold Point	5		0
PIPL	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	10	1	1
AMOY	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	3		1
AMOY	April 22	Long Beach	2	3	1
PIPL	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points		12	0
AMOY	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	2	0	0
AMOY	April 22	Long Beach	2	3	1
AMOY	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	1	4	0
PIPL	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	4	22	0
PIPL	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	10	1	1
AMOY	April 22	Sandy/Morse Points	3		1
PIPL	April 24	Griswold Point	0	0	0
PIPL	April 24	Milford Point	0	3	0
PIPL	April 24	Long Beach	0	9	0
AMOY	April 24	Long Beach	0	8	0
AMOY	April 25	Long Beach	1		0
AMOY	April 25	Milford Point	1	3
PIPL	April 25	Milford Point	1	4
PIPL	April 25	Milford Point	1	6	2
AMOY	April 25	Milford Point	2	2	3
AMOY	April 26	Long Beach	1
PIPL	April 26	Long Beach	1	3