The 2024 Year in Review

Conservation Success Stories

An Outstanding Season for Piping Plovers

The support of Connecticut Audubon members enables Johann Heupel, left, and Matt Joyce to protect Piping Plovers from April through August. Photo by Ken Elkins.

Two tenacious and indefatigable staff experts were on the beach at Milford Point every day from April through August, protecting federally-threatened Piping Plovers. They were there thanks to the support of Connecticut Audubon members.

The result was that for the second year in a row, near-record numbers of baby Piping Plovers made it through the critical and dangerous weeks after hatching to successfully fledge.

Matt Joyce and Johann Heupel patrolled the Milford Point beach and sandspit seven days a week, from dawn to dusk. Their job was to find and help protect the nests, keep track of the eggs and hatchlings, and let visitors know how to view the birds without putting them in danger.

This year, 13 pairs of Piping Plovers hatched babies at Milford Point, and 33 of the young birds fledged—three more fledglings than the record 30 in 2023.

Piping Plover photographed for the Birdathon photo contest by Vin Florentino.

Milford Point’s 13 pairs make up a significant portion of the state’s breeding population of Piping Plovers. The number of nests in the state over the past 13 years has fluctuated from 45 to about 80 in recent years. Those nests are spread out across about 17 beaches.

The success at Milford Point shows that conditions for these tiny, vulnerable birds are improving (and also that we were lucky with the weather—one ill-timed coastal storm can easily flood and destroy dozens of nests in one tidal cycle).

Connecticut Audubon members should feel proud that their generosity has led to these results. We’ve estimated that, from the time the parents nest to when a young bird fledges, it costs about $1,300 to protect one baby Piping Plover at Milford Point.

But here’s the return on investment: Conservation biologists estimate that for the population of Piping Plovers to increase across their range, they would need to average 1.5 fledged birds per nest.

At Milford Point this year, the average was 2.53 fledglings per nest! And over the last two years, the average was 2.2.

The support of Connecticut Audubon’s members made that happen. Thank you!

Advocating for Better Bird Protection

Seed-eaters like this Savannah Sparrow are at high risk from neonics. Photo taken by Sami DeMarco for the 2024 Birdathon photo contest.

The year 2024 was a frustrating one in the fight for stronger bird protection laws in Connecticut. Legislation to restrict harmful pesticides and rodenticides failed to pass in Hartford. Even with widespread support, these bills, along with crucial climate legislation, fell victim to political opposition and special interest lobbying.

The work to get a neonicotinoid pesticide bill was particularly energetic and broad-ranging, and included dozens of Connecticut Audubon members (more than 3,300 people are part of Connecticut Audubon’s grassroots advocacy group). Neonics, used on lawns, golf courses, and farms, pose a serious threat to pollinators and birds.

Connecticut Audubon moved into a leadership role in a coalition of advocates called Connecticut Pesticide Reform. We helped organize a March conference at Trinity College in Hartford that was attended by more than 150 people. Connecticut Audubon members also wrote to their elected officials, responded to action alerts and spoke out in support.

The neonics bill failed to make it out of the General Assemby’s Environment Committee. But the coalition has not given up—far from it—and we are well into planning for 2025.

Connecticut Audubon members took on the responsibility of grass-root advocacy with great enthusiasm. Working together, we came close to achieving legislative victories. We will intensify our efforts in 2025.

We are confident that with your continued support—contacting elected officials and advocating for bird protection—we can overcome these challenges and secure a brighter future for Connecticut’s birds and their habitats.

Abundant Purple Martins

Frank Mantlik, leader of the Purple Martin team at the Coastal Center, takes a selfie with Katherine Murray, Tom Murray, and Johann Heupel.

Purple Martins are near the top of the list of bird species that thrive with the help of people. The volunteer work and the financial support of Connecticut Audubon members is helping the state’s Purple Martins to continue to make a comeback from the threatened species list.

Purple Martins used to nest in abandoned woodpecker holes in dead trees. Now, east of the Rocky Mountains, they rely completely on artificial nest sites — “gourds” and multi-nest houses elevated on poles. They do particularly well when the nests are tended regularly.

Connecticut Audubon has teams of volunteers and staff working on colonies at the Milford Point Coastal Center, Deer Pond Farm in Sherman, the Bafflin Sanctuary at the Center at Pomfret, Stratford Point, and in the Fenwick community in Old Saybrook.

Approximately 140 pairs raised as many as 500 hatchlings. These are not the only Purple Martin colonies in Connecticut—not by a long shot. But they show how a vulnerable species can make a comeback given the right combination of location, knowledgeable stewardship, and financial support.

The abundance of Ospreys indicates healthy habitat for fish.

Ospreys Thrive in Connecticut

Connecticut’s Ospreys overcame a cold, wet spring and a couple of big wind storms to thrive throughout the state in 2024. We know that’s the case because of the amazing dedication of a corps of 420 volunteers who submitted data to Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation program.

2024 numbers
Total nests: 1,051

Active nests: 726
Nests with fledglings: 562
Number of fledglings: 1,077

Those numbers are higher than in recent years partly because of improved reporting on the part of the volunteers and Connecticut Audubon staff.

But another big reason is that Long Island Sound, and the state’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs, harbor abundant fish for the adult birds to eat and to feed their young.

That is the main purpose of the Osprey Nation program, which started in 2014: to track the state’s Osprey population as a way of monitoring ecological conditions. Ospreys are thriving because the state’s waters provide good habitat for the fish they eat.

Restoring Habitat to Bring Back Birds

Wetlands restoration projects throughout the state benefit speices such as Wood Ducks. Photo taken by Lisa Jarosik for the 2024 Birdathon photo contest.

Ice Pond at the 155-acre Larsen Sanctuary in Fairfield is a great example of how the support of Connecticut Audubon members and grant-making organizations enabled the expertise of staff conservationists to restore a key habitat.

Ice Pond was barely a pond any longer. An old culvert had partially collapsed and the stone spillways that flanked the culvert had fallen apart.

The pond flows into Sasco Brook, a small tributary of Long Island Sound. As it dried up, the wildlife disappeared—Wood Ducks, wood frogs, Great Blue Herons, painted turtles and other wetland species.

The support of Connecticut Audubon’s members, along with generous grants, have reversed the situation at Ice Pond. The water level is rising. The amphibians will return, and we will be putting up nest boxes for Wood Ducks before spring.

Connecticut Audubon’s conservation staff fixed the partially collapsed culvert by threading another culvert through it—a low-impact solution that avoided the disruption of a bigger reconstruction project.

They rebuilt the spillways, shoring them up with masonry so they’d last for decades.

Restored wetlands are a magnet for birds such as Great Blue Herons. Photo taken by Olivia Vignola for the 2024 Birdathon photo contest.

The work is one of about two dozen habitat projects that your donations support. Land preservation and habitat improvement are keys to restoring bird populations.

Over the last five decades, the North American bird population has fallen by about 30 percent, or three billion birds. The projects improve woodlands, shrublands, and fields so Connecticut’s birds have more nesting, feeding and wintering habitat. 

Thank you to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Long Island Sound Futures Fund for supporting the work at Larsen, and to the Hollis Declan Leverett Fund and Tucker Fund for supporting the Fragrance Loop work. And thank you to Connecticut Audubon’s supporters for your contributions to the Larsen work and to projects throughout the state.

Ice Pond will soon resound again with the calls of wood frogs and spring peepers.