WildLife Guards Planting & Removing
The Bridgeport WildLife Guards do even more than educate beachgoers about the wildlife around us or conduct avian surveys on the shore as they, like the Project Wild America Youth Ambassadors, get hands-on with our local habitats. The Guards recently came to Stratford Point for the day in order to help enhance and maintain the increasingly spectacular site as upland habitats are completely overhauled with a focus on benefiting migratory songbirds and various pollinator species. They planted everything from butterfly weed to serviceberry while removing non-native invasive species such as...
Read MoreOutrageously 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 MoreWildLife Guards Training – Netting Dragonflies
Training week for the Bridgeport WildLife Guards Crew Leaders continues! We will be adding some new lesson plans and activities for the WildLife Guards this year both in conservation survey work and educational outreach. While much of our work is focused on birds we felt that considering Pleasure Beach is an important migratory hub for butterflies and dragonflies that we should teach the WildLife Guards about some of the insects that they can expect to see moving through the gardens and fields of milkweed, goldenrod and so forth. I created a couple lists of ten expected butterfly and...
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