AAfCW weekly updates

If you are not a shorebird and tern monitor through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds...you should be! It is a great experience and you can learn more about it by visiting the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds blog here. If you have questions or want to enlist with over 100 other volunteers who will contribute to the program this year across Connecticut email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com at any point during the spring and summer.

If you are a monitor you will receive the following weekly update plus other information. You can always check the AAfCW blog for them as well. Here is a snapshot of what is going on after week two of field work in the 2013 season.

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This is the second weekly update by the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (AAfCW) for the 2013 season. Today's update includes reports of Piping Plover and American Oystercatcher received from April 1 through 4:00 p.m. on April 8 with sightings of birds by volunteers and staff spanning that period.

Informational updates:

A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who joined TNC, CT DEEP and AAfCW staff at the first fencing party date at Griswold Point. Your help made it into a fast and fun effort on a beautiful day at the shore, and we all enjoyed seeing a lot of birds and spending the time at the beach with you. There will be more fencing dates to come across Connecticut and we will really need your help. We will put the word out on those dates as soon as CT DEEP determines the best time for them at each location based on Piping Plover behavior and nesting.

Once again if you have yet to schedule your monitoring visits please send us your preferred site, dates, and times when as soon as possible. If this is the first email you have received from us it means the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds has yet to receive one from you and if you are planning to participate as a USFWS monitor for 2013 please tell us where and when you would like to conduct this monitoring while sending us your data and information. We are now well underway with the season and if you have any questions as we go please contact us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com at any time. While we do not have any nests yet please keep in mind that we will want to avoid going out on especially cold and windy or rainy days when the birds are on eggs.


Survey and monitoring updates:

Piping Plover
5 pairs at Milford Point on 4/1
3 pairs, 1 adult at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/2
1 pair, 1 adult at Bluff Point on 4/4
7 adults at Milford Point on 4/4
1 pair, 4 adults at Griswold Point on 4/5
2 pairs, 6 adults at Milford Point on 4/6
3 pairs, 1 adult at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/6
2 adults at Long Beach on 4/6
1 pair at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/6
8 adults at Long Beach on 4/7
2 adults at Milford Point on 4/7
2 pairs at Long Beach on 4/7
10 adults at Bluff Point on 4/7
1 pair at East Broadway Milford on 4/8
6 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/8
2 pairs at Milford Point on 4/8

American Oystercatcher
2 pairs at Milford Point on 4/1
1 pair at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/2
1 pair at Greenwich Point Park on 4/2
2 pairs at Sandy Point Stonington on 4/4
1 pair at Bluff Point on 4/4
2 pairs at Milford Point on 4/4
6 adults at Griswold Point on 4/5
1 pair at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/6
3 pairs at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/6
4 adults at Long Beach on 4/7
4 adults at Milford Point on 4/7
2 pairs at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/7
4 adults at Sandy/Morse Points on 4/8
3 pairs at Milford Point on 4/8.


This concludes update #2 through 4/8/13 as of 5:00 p.m.


Scott Kruitbosch
Conservation Technician