AAfCW Spring Fencing - Join Us!

Our spring string fencing dates are as follows - please join us!

• Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport - April 12, 10:00am, meet at the water taxi dock at 1 Seaview Avenue
• Griswold Point, Old Lyme - April 12, 12:00pm, meet at the I95 exit 70 commuter lot at 11:45 to carpool (PLEASE email erobinson@tnc.org to RSVP for this) 
• Long Beach, Stratford - April 13, 10:00am, rain date April 16
• Sandy/Morse Points, West Haven - April 17, 10:00am, rain date April 18
• Bluff Point State Park, Groton - April 20, 10:00am, rain date April 23

Remember that any and all volunteers are welcome including those who are not monitors. 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. Less intensive work needed includes stringing posts and putting up signs. Please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you can make it to any or all of these dates, and thank you!

Scheduling for our 2018 monitoring season continues and will be wrapped up by next week. The difficult weather has prevented acceptable monitoring on most days, but it should improve soon. Thank you to all who have submitted information, and please do so if you have not! Also if you are a West Haven monitor please remember to provide your license plate and address information to us at this email to get a parking pass.

"Snowy" Plovers

It has been a very difficult start to the 2018 Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds season all due to the weather as snow, cold temperatures, and strong winds continue into April after a rough March. Piping Plovers started arriving back on the Connecticut shoreline a few weeks ago. However, these conditions will push the start of the nesting season back a bit, and they continue to keep our volunteer monitors and staff off of the beaches and islands.

This is the seventh season of AAfCW, and I have been wondering when we would get to see some Piping Plovers in the snow. Here is a bird on the beach the day after a snowfall during more tolerable weather for everyone involved.

With that said, we would much rather have poor conditions now while adults are pairing up instead of frequent inclement weather later as eggs and chicks are on our beaches. Fingers crossed for a calm, temperate and beautiful rest of the spring.

Scott Kruitbosch

AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator

RTPI Conservation & Outreach Coordinator

Important Updates - Field Training Postponed

Good morning, monitors!

1) New monitor field training has been postponed from this Saturday, April 7, to next Saturday, April 14, from 10-12pm. Location is tentatively Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven but may change to Long Beach in Stratford. More information soon.

2) We have an extraordinarily high number of monitors this year which is wonderful! It will help to ensure widespread beach coverage. It makes the scheduling process a bit slower, and please continue to send in your desired beaches, dates, AM or PM times, here to this email address at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com.

The list of available beaches include:
Sherwood Island State Park in Westport - Sherwood Island Connector, Westport - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=560
Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport - accessible via seasonal free Bridgeport water taxi at 1 Seaview Avenue, Bridgeport, or by walking approximately one mile from Long Beach in Stratford
Long Beach in Stratford - end of Oak Bluff Avenue - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=335
Russian Beach in Stratford - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=339
Short Beach in Stratford - Dorne Drive - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=340
Milford Point in Milford - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=514
Silver Sands State Park in Milford - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=516
Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=383
Bluff Park State Park in Groton - http://www.lisrc.uconn.edu/coastalaccess/site.asp?siteid=458

If you are interested in monitoring Griswold Point in Old Lyme please email us and you can discuss it with CT DEEP. There will also be smaller beaches that we will request some monitors to check on as the season progresses.

3) We have our spring string fencing dates as follows:

Griswold Point - April 12, 12:00pm, meet at the I95 exit 70 commuter lot at 11:45 to carpool (PLEASE email erobinson@tnc.org to RSVP for this)
Long Beach - April 13, 10:00am, rain date April 16
Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven - April 17, 10:00am, rain date April 18
Bluff Point State Park - April 20, 10:00am, rain date April 23

Remember that any and all volunteers are welcome including those who are not monitors. 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. Less intensive work needed includes stringing posts and putting up signs. Please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com if you can make it to any or all of these dates, and thank you!

4) If you were unable to attending training on March 31 as a new monitor please try to attend the field training session. If you cannot do that please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com and we will set you up with a staff member to meet you in the field and go over the basics. If you are a returning monitor who did not attend the refresher training please email us your mailing address to send you a badge for 2018, and please let us know your schedule as usual. We will take care of the required paperwork with CT DEEP for new and past monitors who did not do so yet in 2018 in as well.

5) If you are a monitor at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven you will need to display a parking pass or a West Haven beach pass (as a resident) or police may issue a $100 parking fine. These will not be waived. Parking in nearby private lots risks towing or fines. CT DEEP or AAfCW is not responsible for parking violations/fines. However, the City of West Haven will provide you with a parking pass for monitoring this year if you can provide your full name, license plate information, and mailing address. Please email it to ctwaterbirds@gmail.com and we will pass it on to CT DEEP and West Haven. They can be mailed to you or picked up at City Hall; hours are Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm.

The continuing poor weather conditions will provide time to complete scheduling, training, and paperwork before we get out to the beaches. Thank you all! Please email ctwaterbirds@gmail.com with any questions. We will be in touch again soon, and hopefully be in the field regularly in the next couple of weeks.

Help USFWS at Milford Point

Please join Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge staff at the Milford Point Unit on April 6th at 0830. We will be putting up symbolic fencing to create a safe nesting area for shorebirds such as piping plover and American oystercatchers. Volunteers will be carrying supplies (posts, signs, rope), pounding posts, laying out rope, hanging signs, and recovering old signs and posts. We will fence until done - but if you need to leave early - you can. We anticipate a few hours of work. If interested, please email Kris Vagos, the Refuge Wildlife Biologist, at Kristina_Vagos@fws.gov. More details to come once you sign up.

Reminder - Volunteers Needed for Shorebird Monitoring 2018

If you have not already planned to join us this year please remember that despite the cold and snow the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds/CT DEEP Wildlife Division 2018 monitoring and stewardship season is about to begin. Please see 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 2017. 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 Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Wildlife Divisioni and the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds 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 31st 2018 from 10:30am to 12:00pm 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. While there are only a few changes to the process this year, attendance by everyone planning to join us for the 2018 season is important.

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 affect the nesting success of threatened shorebirds across the state.

For more information on the training session or for directions, please email the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. Reservations are not required; but an e-mail letting us know you will be attending is appreciated.

If you are a past monitor who will be visiting the beach on your own between now and March 31 we would still appreciate any incidental and casual data and information you have pertaining to Piping Plover or American Oystercatcher sightings. Feel free to email us! This training session is co-sponsored by the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (Audubon Connecticut, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and the Connecticut Audubon Society) and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Wildlife Division.