2020 Audubon Alliance training sessions
Audubon Alliance field staff spend time on the state’s beaches monitoring the progress of nesting birds. Photo by Bob MacDonnell.
Volunteer Training Sessions
Wednesday, March 11
Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center, 90 Halls Road, Old Lyme, CT
Returning Volunteer Session – 5:30-6:30 p.m.
New Volunteer Session – 7-8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 14
Audubon Connecticut Office at Stratford Point
1207 Prospect Drive, Stratford, CT
Returning Volunteer Session – 9-10 a.m.
New Volunteer Session – 10:30-noon
Volunteers Needed for Shorebird Monitoring 2020
RSVP here! ctwaterbirds@gmail.com.
March 3, 2020 — You’re invited to make a difference for threatened birds at the beach as an official summer volunteer of the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. Training sessions are scheduled for Old Lyme and Stratford next week.
Volunteers help monitor Piping Plovers, American Oystercatchers, and Least Terns at beaches statewide from early April through August.
These birds return to the Connecticut coast in March to start to nest. Their nests blend in with the sand, which makes the birds and their eggs extremely susceptible to being stepped on, driven on, and eaten by animals. The nests and nestlings can also get washed away by high tides and coastal flooding.
Volunteers work at locations from Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport to Bluff Point in Groton to observe, record, and report nesting data, and to educate the beach-going public about actions they can take to help these birds raise their young.
The work starts in April and runs til the end of the breeding season (usually in August). Volunteers must donate a minimum of four hours per month.
We especially need help in eastern Connecticut!
It’s important and rewarding work. With the help of volunteers, 2019 was a record-breaking year with 98 Piping Plover chicks and 64 American Oystercatchers chicks fledged!
Training and orientation sessions for new and returning volunteers will review the following: biology of the Piping Plover, Least Tern, and American Oystercatcher, how to monitor breeding pairs and chicks, volunteer organization and logistics, and law enforcement information. While there are only a few changes to the process this year, attendance by everyone planning to join us for the 2020 season is important.
For more information on the training session or for directions, please email the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. Reservations are not required; but an e-mail letting us know you will be attending (please include a training session location and time) is appreciated.
The Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds consists of the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, and Audubon Connecticut, working under the auspices of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Wildlife Division.
