AAfCW Late April Updates

Good afternoon!

We have finished scheduling for the AAfCW for the 2022 season, and nearly all monitors now have badges and lanyards with CT DEEP waiver forms submitted to Laura. We are actively monitoring our beaches as nests have started to appear across CT. Please continue to submit all data to the electronic form. Please also email us and CT DEEP directly if you find a new nest or see a notable disturbance or problem (such as downed fencing). Refer to the volunteer training session and paperwork for reminders about protocols. A data update with sightings will be sent out soon and regularly as we move through the season. Additionally...

• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is informally tracking the impact of marine debris on listed species habitat and does not have much information for Connecticut beaches. If you observe marine debris from aquaculture (commercial nets, lobster traps, ropes, buoys, etc.) please document it (describe what you discover, where, and take photos) and email it to Laura.Saucier@ct.gov with the subject "Aquaculture Marine Debris".
• If you have not yet picked up a badge in Stratford, Milford, or Old Lyme, we will be putting a few last badges at each site. Please plan to get yours ASAP or contact us.
• All vehicle and mailing address information was submitted to West Haven a few weeks ago for both our staff and our monitors. We have been told the City is printing and mailing them this week. If we have any more information, we will pass it along to you. We hope they will be received soon.
• If you have questions on identifying our focal species, please feel free to ask here at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com, refer back to the YouTube training sessions, or see more in our blog and its documents. If you need to correct a report you have submitted, please email ctwaterbirds@gmail.com and we can correct it on our side. Previously submitted data cannot be edited by volunteers. 
• Please keep in mind that string fencing and signage is erected as a bare minimum. Landowners, from private property to state or municipal parks, typically seek to maximize open recreational space. We work to make it possible to share the shore and permit beachgoers to visit while still protecting our endangered species. This is why we need all of your help! It also means we will have to enlarge fencing at times for birds nesting outside of it, and that birds frequently forage, rest, and so on outside of fencing. Fencing cannot go into the water as it will be damaged and washed away, and this would also be outside of where birds will nest. Please do not go near or into the fenced areas at any time. Prioritize the safety of the birds at the expense of data. 
• Exclosures will be put over most Piping Plover nests once they are complete (with four eggs), and this will help in seeing them. However, we do not need egg counts or close looks. We do not need photos unless there is a specific purpose (e.g. to show a disturbance).
• Only Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, Least Tern, and Common Tern sightings should be put in the electronic form as they are our four focal species. We do not need to record the negative data for terns until May as they return slowly beginning around May 1, but PIPL and AMOY negative reports should be made throughout the year.

Thank you all for your help! 

Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator 

AAfCW Postponing Tomorrow's Long Beach Fencing & More

Tomorrow's high winds will postpone Long Beach's scheduled fencing for sections #4-5 and Pleasure Beach until Wednesday, April 20, at 10:00am. Please email us if you intend to join these fencing parties - and we thank you!

• Long Beach, Stratford, beaches #4-5 and Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport - Wednesday, April 20, 10:00am (be mindful of long walk)
• Bluff Point State Park, Groton - Thursday, April 21st, 10:00am (rain date April 22nd, 10:00am)

Fencing will be placed at other locations by staff only. 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 for these dates, and thank you!

Additionally...

• Please continue to let CT DEEP and AAfCW know about any downed fencing and signage, or potential new nests, as soon as you can. Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers have started nesting in select places, and we can expect more soon. However, we can also expect storm tides and high winds to wash some out, and damage more fencing - as has occurred in West Haven already. Stay home from monitoring in rain, high winds, temperatures below 50, or above 90.
• As discussed in training, we want to walk in the wet sand area when monitoring. This is between the water and the high dune where the birds nest/where fencing is placed. If fencing is hit by the tide, it will be downed. This is why we do not place fencing in water or near the usual high tide line. We also want to allow a path for people to walk below the nesting area and near the water. Don't forget the 2022 AAfCW new volunteer monitor online training session is here on YouTube as a refresher at any time: https://youtu.be/E0putp6rFn4 - please review this multiple times if you are confused about any aspect of monitoring. 
• Please also keep tides in mind when deciding what time you will be monitoring. We schedule everyone in advance because we need to know who will be where and when. We need to schedule your season before you begin monitoring. We provide AM/PM slots so you can best choose what works for you, work around a high tide if needed, or potentially bad weather (e.g. going out near dawn instead of midday on a hot day).
• If you have started your monitoring or will soon, please remember to submit your data and information as soon as you can after your trip to the beach via the electronic submission form in the upper-right hand column of our blog titled, “Online Data Submission Form”. The simple Google form can also be found directly at this address: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13i9JBfV0MYQdHhGq3n3C348S78M—5c3JpWKUIbbYlI/. This is our only data submission method. Please use that form to submit all data. This includes negative data - if you did not see any birds, please select any species from the dropdown menu, report zero, and enter all your other information (date, time, location, etc.).

Thank you!
Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator

2022 Volunteer Field Training Completed

A huge thank you to everyone who came out to join the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds for our new volunteer monitor field training last weekend in West Haven. The rain stopped right on time for our rescheduled session, giving way to a windy and chilly but sunny and lovely afternoon. After a lengthy parking lot meeting and Q&A, we walked out to the beach to find a few Piping Plovers hunkering down in the dune. Folks who stayed late were also able to see a couple American Oystercatchers.

We were able to distribute badges, lanyards, and informational brochures as well. Thanks so much to staff Laura Saucier, Rebecca Foster and Natalie Albrecht for leading the training. Thanks as well to Noella Barone for taking great photos of everyone busy on the beach. I was glad to meet so many of our volunteer monitors in person, and to have a lot of important discussions with the group and one-on-one. We are now finishing up volunteer selection of beaches and scheduling and transitioning to everyone getting into the field for their monitoring sessions through August. Nesting season is about to begin.

We will not be adding more monitors for 2022, but you can always let friends and family know they can help at future string fencing dates or by sharing eBird checklists of waders, terns, and shorebirds with ctwaterbirds@gmail.com via the share function. If you have yet to pick up your badge and lanyard, or submit a waiver for CT DEEP, please do so ASAP - thank you!

Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator

Snowy Owl at the Shore

Here's a likely adult male Snowy Owl as filmed on one of our beaches on March 30, 2022. The camera was left on a tripod low in the sand with a 500mm telephoto lens, and the 4K footage was substantially cropped, with the owl at a safe distance at all times. Most of the footage not shown is the owl sleeping peacefully or with its head turned to the log or in the other direction, and the video was edited to show the more interesting behaviors and movements. 

The owl was not disrupted and was left where it was sheltering by this log on a windy and cool afternoon. Nearby Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers, starting their nesting season, had harassed it before this footage was taken. The owl looks around at times, hearing their calls, seeing various gulls and Brant flying by, and a Northern Harrier hunting.

Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator

Data Submission

If you have started your monitoring or will soon, please remember to submit your data and information as soon as you can after your trip to the beach. This is done via the electronic submission form in the upper-right hand column of our blog (http://ctwaterbirds.blogspot.com) titled, "Online Data Submission Form". The simple Google form can also be found directly at this address: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13i9JBfV0MYQdHhGq3n3C348S78M--5c3JpWKUIbbYlI/

This form has numerous advantages in that it prompts you for the required details of your survey. You will not have to worry about forgetting something or omitting data. All of your information for each species can be easily viewed by staff at a moment's notice. We can also go in and change it if an error is made, so no worries there.

Please use that form to submit all data. This includes negative data - if you did not see any birds, please select any species from the dropdown menu, report zero, and enter all your other information (date, time, location, etc.). 

You can always feel free to email a question such as help for a shorebird identification or to add something to your submission. You should also always email us and CT DEEP as soon as possible when it comes to any significant disturbances, new nests or lost nests, hatched young, photos or signs of a predator, and anything CT DEEP and AAfCW need to know right away, besides including this information in your submitted form.

Don't forget our 2022 AAfCW new volunteer monitor online training sessions is here on YouTube as a refresher at any time: https://youtu.be/E0putp6rFn4

Thanks and best,

Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator