Going to the Beach? Watch for Rare Birds and Say Hello to Audubon Alliance Monitors

Piping Plover on a Long Island Sound beach. Photo by Sean Graesser for Connecticut Audubon Society

July 2012 – Most of the rare and vulnerable birds that nest on the Long Island Sound shore have fledged already and are storing up energy for their fall migration. Volunteers are heading to many local beaches to educate the public about how they can help these threatened species survive.

The volunteers will be protecting nest sites and newly-fledged birds, especially the tiny, threatened Piping Plover, telling visitors why it’s important that they and their dogs stay clear of the nesting areas and explaining the federal laws designed to protect the birds.

The volunteers are working on a statewide effort by the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbird Conservation to protect not only Piping Plovers but Least Terns, Common Terns, American Oystercatchers and other species that nest along the heavily-used beaches and islands of the Sound.

Among other places, beach monitors will be at Bluff Point State Park in Groton; Sandy Point in West Haven; Long Beach/Pleasure Beach in Stratford and Bridgeport; and a cluster of beaches near Connecticut Audubon Society’s Milford Point Coastal Center, including Cedar, Silver Sands State Park, Myrtle, Walnut, Laurel and East Broadway.

If staffing allows, the Norwalk Islands, Sherwood Island State Park, the main beach at Hammonasset Beach State Park, Harkness State Park, and the Sasco Hill/Town Beach in Fairfield will be included.

A Piping Plover and chick at Milford Point. Photo by Tom and Laura Zawislinski

Piping Plovers are listed as threatened species under both the federal and Connecticut Endangered Species Acts; Least Terns are threatened in Connecticut. Their nesting success in Connecticut has fluctuated over the years, but even in good years they are not abundant.

“There’s plenty of room on Connecticut’s beaches for both people and birds,” said Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation for the Connecticut Audubon Society, one of the organizers of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbird Conservation. “We’re not asking people to stay off the beach. All we want is for visitors to be aware that these vulnerable birds are around and to take care not to disturb them.”

Piping Plover nests are little more than depressions scraped into the sand and the eggs look like beach stones, so the nests can be difficult to find – and easy to step on by mistake. Most known Piping Plover nests are fenced off and marked by signs. But as people, dogs or predators like raccoons approach, incubating adult birds flee the nest to draw attention from it; if they are away for too long, eggs can become too cool or too hot and therefore not viable.

Once young birds leave the nest they range widely. But because they are small, they are vulnerable to being stepped on, killed by dogs, or separated for too long from their parents. Predators can also easily eat recently-fledged young.

It is a federal offense to kill, injure, harass or otherwise interfere with Piping Plovers. Even accidentally stepping on one, or on a nest, requires an investigation and possible legal action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The monitors are obligated to report potential offenses to the authorities.

Least Terns in Stratford. Connecticut Audubon Society Photo by Scott Kruitbosch

Least Terns nest in colonies in remote areas of beaches and sandbars, and like Piping Plovers they are protected by federal and state laws.

Not all damage to tern and plover nests is caused by malevolence. Inadvertence and ignorance play roles too. Fieldwork conducted in 2004 and funded by the Connecticut Ornithological Association concluded that the most frequent disturbances to a Least Tern colony at Sandy Point in West Haven were caused by birdwatchers and fireworks (the latter around Fourth of July especially). To protect vulnerable beach-nesting birds, the parking lot at the Milford Point Coastal Center is closed from 4 p.m. July 3, until 7 p.m., July 5.

This year, Piping Plovers are nesting at Sandy Point, Long Beach, Milford Point, Harkness State Park, Bluff Point, East Broadway and perhaps elsewhere. Least Terns have been seen at Menunketesuck Island (off Clinton), Milford Point, Sandy Point, Silver Sands State Park, Bluff Point and Long Beach.

In 2011, 52 pairs of Piping Plovers fledged 71 young in Connecticut. The 52 nests were the highest in the last 22 years but the 71 young represented a drop from 102, 74 and 82 during the three previous years.

In 2011, 252 pairs of Least Terns fledged 76 young (high tides associated with storms washed away a number of nests). Overall, the number of Least Tern nests is down from well over 600 two decades ago.

The coordinators of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbird Conservation are the Connecticut Audubon Society, an independent conservation organization founded in 1898, and Audubon Connecticut, the state organization of the National Audubon Society. Staff and volunteers from both organizations will be on the beaches this weekend, as will staff from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Both Audubon organizations have worked extensively to conserve and improve wildlife habitats on Long Island Sound. The Alliance project supports and expands habitat protection efforts by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Program.