Tips to help protect shorebirds if you visit Milford Point

Juvenile Western Sandpiper. Photo by Patrick Comins.

Late summer and early fall are great times to go birding at the Milford Point Coastal Center. But because Milford Point is first and foremost a nature preserve, we ask that you enjoy the birds without disturbing them, especially on the sand spit.

Connecticut Audubon is working through the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds to make the public more aware of how vulnerable shorebirds are, and of the simple things visitors to the beach can do to help protect them.

To protect the nesting birds, please don’t enter the roped-off areas.

If you’re there to view shorebirds, we request that you try to visit the sandbar only when the tide is dropping after high tide.

Walk below the high tide line. It’s a great vantage for viewing shorebirds, and it also means you won’t disturb the Piping Plovers still on the upper portion of the spit.

That should give you room to walk carefully, view the birds through binoculars and scopes, and photograph them without getting close enough to force them to move.

Even during those periods, please walk carefully. Don’t linger for too long. If you notice birds flying away as you approach, that’s a signal you’ve gotten too close.

If a Coastal Ranger or other Connecticut Audubon staff or volunteer asks you to move a bit farther from the birds, please heed the request.

The gates of the Milford Point Coastal Center are open from dawn to dusk. You can visit other parts of the Coastal Center at any time without disturbing the birds.