Outrageously Outstanding Outreach
The Bridgeport WildLife Guards are rolling along in the 2016 season, and last week I stopped in to visit them for a while on a couple of days. We went for a walk to see some Piping Plovers and Least Terns along their own Pleasure Beach and the connected Long Beach in Stratford, the two parts of the mile-long barrier beach. While Pleasure Beach’s Piping Plover has fledged we still sometimes find a bird or two foraging or flying by. No Least Terns nested there in 2016, but they are currently nesting in nearby areas of Long Beach. Those birds forage all over the general area so visitors...
Read MoreWildLife Guards Learning & Educating
The Bridgeport WildLife Guards are both learning and educating at Pleasure Beach! RTPI and Audubon Connecticut trained staff members teach these high school students each day, and they in turn help to educate dozens of daily visitors about the rare and endangered plants and animals that surround them along this stunning shoreline. We are teaching the teachers of the next generation about science and conservation, and as you can see below, they are engaging in creative ways to reach people – especially children. I spent some time with the WildLife Guards last Saturday and observed their...
Read MoreWildLife Guards Monitoring
What a week. All of us have been extremely busy and it will continue tomorrow and Sunday and…well, every day this summer. Here are a couple photos of the Bridgeport WildLife Guards in action yesterday as they monitored the Piping Plover pair with one chick at Pleasure Beach. ‘ They also recorded all the other bird species that they saw on the shoreline while learning more about our avian neighbors. The Guards noted the chick flying today and classified it as finally having fledged officially – woo! Now they will have the opportunity to see how long each of the parents...
Read More2016 Bridgeport WildLife Guards
Today was the first day of training for our Crew Leaders in the 2016 Bridgeport WildLife Guards! We are happy to have a great new Crew Leader, Kari Lickey, and a terrific returning Crew Leader from last summer, Emily Allen. This week will focus on planning for the seven-week season with 10 high school students from Bridgeport, Connecticut as they join us at Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport beginning next Tuesday. They will be on duty at the shore monitoring endangered waterbirds and educating visitors, families, and friends about Pleasure Beach and its ecosystem every Tuesday through Saturday,...
Read MoreLighthouse Open House
Last Saturday we held an open house at Stratford Point and the adjacent Coast Guard lighthouse. Visitors were able to enter both sites, the lighthouse usually being private restricted property, and chat with members of the Coast Guard and our staff about everything going on currently and the history of both historic properties. Information booths helped in this effort including one staffed by Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds technician Ewa Holland who gave out brochures on our efforts to help birds and humans share the shore successfully as well as information on Roger Tory Peterson...
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