August bird news & video
August 3, 2017 – Do birds go through empty nest syndrome? If so, they’re experiencing it now.
Ospreys, for example. As of this week, 138 baby Ospreys had fledged, from 378 active nests in Connecticut. And 426 young birds were still in their nests, so the number of fledglings will definitely rise.
Genevieve Nuttall, our Osprey Nation coordinator, is still collecting data from the program’s 274 volunteer stewards, and will be writing an annual report. Until then you can find the latest information on our interactive map.
The Purple Martins at our Milford Point Coastal Center have left their nests as well but they’re still congregating at the colony. Melina Giantomidis, our summer coastal ranger, said this week that the colony produced at least 114 baby martins.
We helped the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection band 107 of the young martins. Our summer videographer, Christina O’Neill, produced this 3-minute video of the process.
As you’ll see at the end, these birds were considered threatened in Connecticut, but that status has recently changed.
Shorebird migration is underway at the Coastal Center at Milford Point, where there were six Piping Plover nests (as well as three on adjacent beaches) this season.
Helena Ives, who is working for us this summer monitoring birds for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, told us yesterday that so many birds are gathering now that it’s difficult identify pairs and individuals that have been there for the entire nesting season.
She added, “There have a lot of migrational American Oystercatchers and Common Terns; at times upwards of 70 individuals of both species have been seen between the spit and offshore sandbars.”
(The Audubon Alliance helps protect nesting coastal birds all along Connecticut’s shorefront, and will be reporting its annual results in several months. We have some background information here.)
We invite you to grab your scope and binoculars and visit the Coastal Center. We even have binoculars for you to use if you don’t have a pair (although you’ll have to leave your driver’s license at the front desk). The Coastal Center is at 1 Milford Point Road, Milford.
You can also watch this video about the Coastal Center, which aired recently on Crossroads Magazine, a production of the Archdiocese of Hartford. It features Milan Bull, our senior director of science and conservation.
The segment on the Coastal Center starts at the 5:43 mark.
