2024 Program Documents & More

Our Zoom training sessions for new and returning monitors are now complete! We want to give an enormous thanks to all our 2024 AAfCW volunteer shorebird monitors. What's next?

What to do NOW:

1) Schedule your monitoring! If you already have, you're set. The list of available beaches include (priorities with many birds/visitors in bold):

• Sherwood Island State Park in Westport
• Compo Beach in Westport
• Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport (accessible by walking approximately one mile from Long Beach in Stratford)
• Long Beach in Stratford
• Russian Beach in Stratford
• Short Beach in Stratford
• Milford Point in Milford
• Silver Sands State Park in Milford
• Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven
• Hammonasset in Madison (public beach only)
• Griswold Point in Old Lyme
• Bluff Park State Park in Groton
• Waterford Town Beach in Waterford

Please select a location and send in your desired monitoring schedule of beach, dates, and AM or PM times to ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. If you are planning to monitor in West Haven and are not a resident, please also submit your vehicle make/model and license plate. It will be entered into the city's electronic parking system for that specific lot. It will read you as permitted. If you do not provide your vehicle info, you may be ticketed. We cannot reimburse tickets.

2) Review these documents! Here is a copy of the 2024 program packet as a PDF. It is also attached to this email. It includes the monitoring documents, liability waiver, phone numbers, laws, and time sheets for CT DEEP. It will help you greatly in monitoring while answering a lot of questions. It also includes an Incident Report form if the need arises, contact information for staff and municipalities, and much more. Please sign the liability form with witness signatures (to be returned soon). The time sheet can be returned to Laura and CT DEEP at the end of the season once you are finished with your monitoring for 2024.

3) Please check out the data submission form before the season starts so that you know all that you need to collect when in the field. If you have no data for a field, you may leave it blank. Please remember you will fill out a separate form for each species, meaning if you see Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers in April, you will fill out the form twice when returning from monitoring. This is only for our four focal species (also including Least Tern and Common Tern). Others of interest may be mentioned in comments. Save that link and this email! The form and other documents are also in the right-hand column of our blog when viewed on a computer.

What to do SOON: 

3) Watch your applicable training session if you have missed it, or if you want to watch it again. I will send the links out to the YouTube versions of the Zoom sessions in the next couple of days so you can see them soon. Rewatching usually helps a great deal, and you can reference them any time all season.

4) Badges and lanyards are not at pick up locations yet. Do not try to pick them up now! When they are ready, we will let you know. When ready, you can plan to pick up badges, lanyards, and brochures at:

• Milford Point – 1 Milford Point Road, Milford - Tues-Fri, 9a-4p, Sat 10a-3:30p, Sun 12p-4p
• Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center - 100 Lyme St., Old Lyme - Tues-Sat, 8-4pm, but flexible

You can also acquire and sign or drop off the liability form when you get your badge, lanyard, and/or brochures at these locations. Remember, they are not ready to be picked up yet but will be soon. You may also acquire these items and drop off your signed liability form at the April 13th new monitor field training...

What to do LATER: 

5) Join us for new monitor field training! It is not mandatory, but recommended. It will not be recorded. Volunteers can also hand in forms and collect materials (badges, lanyards, brochures) before or after new volunteer field training on April 13th. It will likely be at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven, but we will let you know the finalized details ASAP. Returning monitors are more than welcome to attend, too, but please bear in mind the instruction is targeted to new monitors.

6) If you are a Griswold Point volunteer, you will also be providing your vehicle information and more to Martha Rice and The Nature Conservancy. Please sign-up for the site here first, and then Martha and TNC will be in contact with you concerning everything from parking to tides and physical access.

For everyone who has already completed the above, you're set for now. Formal monitoring will commence on April 1, but you can start whenever you'd like based on your submitted schedule - even late April or May once you are all set with the above and the weather keeps improving. You are certainly more than welcome to visit your beach on your own time before then to get a feel for bird observations and stewardship.

Thanks again and best,
Scott Kruitbosch
AAfCW Volunteer Coordinator