WildLife Guards Boy Scout Event
This past Saturday, September 26, I spent the day with seven of our ten Bridgeport WildLife Guards back at Brideport, Connecticut’s Pleasure Beach. That is where they were stationed five days each week this summer, conducting education, conservation and advocacy activities and making a difference for rare or endangered plants and wildlife, highlighted by the federally threatened Piping Plover. They engaged visitors and beachgoers, offering unique and innovative programs to convey the philosophy of sharing the beach and respecting our natural world as well as the complex ecosystems of...
Read MoreStratford Point in September
Here is the end of summer at Stratford Point, looking west towards the lighthouse and out into Long Island Sound near sunset. It was a hot, dry and extremely busy season, and a very successful one for some of our waterbirds including the Piping Plover and American Oystercatcher as the former may have neared the all-time record for fledged birds that we set only last year at 116! Our work in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds undoubtedly did help an all-time record number of Piping Plover pairs attempt to nest in 2015. We will have more information on the results of our spectacularly...
Read MoreRed Knots
Last evening we found these juvenile Red Knots on the beach at Stratford Point along with Black-bellied Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers and our first of fall Dunlin. In 2014, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced that the rufa subspecies of Red Knot was officially added to the United States Endangered Species Act, designated as “threatened”. We are already identifying the most significant staging and feeding areas in Connecticut through our work in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, and we know this is a very important location for them. It is so...
Read MoreSnowy Egret Rock
I guess even the Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula) might want to enjoy some time on the shore on a lovely summer day. The waters are very warm now, and temperatures are higher than average in some locations. For places like Lake Erie this will mean it may stay open later into this winter season, giving it a good chance of producing more lake effect snow if the conditions are right. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreWildLife Guards Working
It is hard to believe, but yesterday was the final day of the eight week season for our Bridgeport WildLife Guards! In case you missed previous blog entries and posts, RTPI teamed up with Audubon Connecticut and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut to run the 2015 WildLife Guards program, which trained, mentored, and employed ten local high schools students and two crew leaders who monitored nesting birds and engaged visitors, families, and friends about the City’s Pleasure Beach and its ecosystem. The WildLife Guards offered unique activities for children like making their own Piping...
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