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
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