Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds at Jamestown Audubon
Tomorrow, October 3, I will be presenting a program on the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds (AAfCW) at the Jamestown Audubon Center & Sanctuary at 11AM. AAfCW an active conservation, education and outreach project that provides stewardship and survey efforts by volunteers and staff working to help the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) in an innovative joint initiative on Connecticut’s beaches, islands, and other coastal areas to monitor birds like the federally threatened Piping Plover and...
Read MoreSnowy Egrets feeding under the clouds
I took these photos earlier in the week while conducting surveys in coastal Connecticut for our work in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. It was a warm and cloudy day with calm but soon to be increasing winds ahead of a cold front. The southerly flow made for a quieter morning in terms of passerine migrants but these feeding Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula) kept me busy. The Snowy Egret is listed as “threatened” under the Connecticut Endangered Species Act. While we as a society no longer hunt birds like these beautiful long-legged waders to adorn our clothing with their...
Read MoreAutumn in the sky
Here’s one view of Long Island Sound last night as vivid autumn colors took over the sky. The Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds had a wonderfully successful season and on Wednesday we put out some additional numbers and information in the AAfCW blog: http://ctwaterbirds.blogspot.com/2014/09/preliminary-aafcw-2014-stats.html
Read MoreAudubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds thanks volunteers
On Monday evening, September 15, the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds held a thank you party for all of the tremendous volunteers who helped us conduct surveys, monitoring, stewardship, education and outreach across Connecticut in 2014. We thank the Town of Stratford and the Stratford Conservation Commission for allowing us to use the pavilion at Short Beach Park in Stratford. There have been at least 2,200 hours logged by over 379 volunteers in the AAfCW program this year. We have seen 51 species of shorebirds, terns and long-legged waders at nearly 200 important sites in the state....
Read MoreRuddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
There are still plenty of shorebird migrants to be found like this Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) which Sean photographed while it was obviously rather busy! Good thing that’s not quicksand…
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