Remember Hurricane Sandy

As we are about to enter the 2013 field season it is important that we remember Hurricane Sandy and what it did to the shoreline of Connecticut. Apart from tragic human losses and horrific property damage Sandy inflicted a great deal of destruction on our coastal waterbird environment. In this regard it was not strictly beneficial or detrimental - it was a mix of both. Some of our beaches have enhanced habitat with larger areas of sand flattened out for breeding far above the high tide lines as the dunes were pushed back from the water. Other beaches have had erosion that now limits habitat where the dune could not or did not go further inland or steep and inhospitable grades along the shore. Some of the offshore islands have had their land and available habitat greatly reduced as well.

While these natural processes would be all part of the dynamic system nature has in place a few centuries ago they are now fraught with complexities as humans have changed the equation. When the beach is pushed back or a dune is further from the water it is more likely to be where people walk or congregate meaning the birds and the public may be even closer to one another in some cases. At certain locations - like Stratford's Long Beach, a thin barrier beach - there is not much room to begin with and it is going to be even more crowded for all this summer. However things turn out in 2013 it is definitely going to be much different than it was even in 2012.

This is all part of why we need even more volunteer monitors in the field to report back to us each week on changes they see at their chosen site or sites. You may find a new tern colony where none existed recently! There may be some spots where Piping Plovers have a hard time nesting between the tides and other disturbances. There may even be new sites we have to monitor that we were not in previous years.

This New Haven Register article helps explain more of what AAfCW did last fall in rapidly assessing some of the most critical coastal habitats in the state for the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. This WXedge.com article by Patrick Comins explains more of what happened during and after Sandy and features a bunch of great photos. There are so many unknowns that it will be impossible to say what will happen this season, but what we do know is that the more volunteers we have on board the more successful our work will be in 2013.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Alessandro Puccinelli

Absolutely stunning wave images from Mr. Puccinelli who I discovered via Rebecca Olive's excellent blog. There's a colour palette in these photos that is making me very happy. Sorry about the layout glitches here, Blogger keeps changing my attempts to centre images and make things look tidy.

Considering becoming a monitor?

Are you considering becoming a Piping Plover monitor for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and working with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection along with us at the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds to volunteer your time helping to protect the federally endangered species? Please take a look at this press release from USFWS if you have not and let's examine the process a little more closely, from training to the field work you will be a part of this spring and summer. Volunteering as a monitor may sound time-consuming or intimidating but it is a very rewarding experience as can be seen in the ever-growing number of people who participate each season. All you need is a little time each month (two hours at least) and a passion for helping endangered wildlife.

If you look at this blog entry from last year you will find a few videos from the volunteer monitor training session held last March. The first video discusses the job of a volunteer monitor, the role they play on the beach, the limited responsibilities monitors have, and some of the legalities pertaining to this wonderful service. The second video discusses the difference between volunteering some of your time for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It also goes over your role as an educator on the beach, how best to impart knowledge of the birds and their survival needs, any situations we try to avoid, and how to report disturbances or any issues. The third video delves into beach monitoring details from who to approach or not approach, what to do in troubling situations such as loose dogs, and what the responsibility of USFWS is to you and the municipality is with respect to their property and local ordinances.

After the training session is complete you will receive an identification badge and be set to begin monitoring at your chosen beach and chosen time in April. Those who are new to the program may also be able to have a staff member or master monitor, a veteran volunteer, join them on the beach for their first visit to help to acclimate them further. Apart from what you can view in the videos above it is basically as simple as visiting the beach, passively and carefully searching for target species, recording their numbers, behavior, breeding conditions, and so forth (without them knowing you are even there), and reporting the information back to the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. You can approach friendly beachgoers and talk to them about the birds if you like, or perhaps kindly request others be watchful for nesting birds or young.

The right-hand column of this blog contains a section named "Important Documents" where you can find a list of various files that you may want to review. AAfCW's information brochure on Piping Plovers helps to serve as a starting point to education the public about the birds on the beach and is available in hard copies as well for you to pass out or use while monitoring. There are two datasheets that can be used in the field for our four focal species with one for Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers and another for Least Terns and Common Terns. Another datasheet is for long-legged wader or other shorebird and tern data as well as disturbance. If you use these in the field you can scan them on your computer and email them directly to us when reporting your data to ctwaterbirds@gmail.com or you can transcribe the information you record and send us a quick email with it. We will take all of your bird data along with any other information such as problems you encountered, questions you may have, disturbances you noted, and people's activities on the beach, and get back to you as soon as possible if you require a response.

The breeding bird survey codes document helps to explain the differences in breeding conditions that we use. Under that are several important USFWS and CT DEEP documents that focus on incidents and legalities and also provide more information on monitoring and the birds which you should read as soon as possible and multiple times in order to be familiar with them. Finally there are International Shorebird Survey documents that are available in case you have decided to participate in them. Here is a post from last season with more information on that endeavor but we will also be posting more on the ISS program soon.

As always, if you have any questions please email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com, thanks!


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut. 

This Is How Fine Surf Movies Get Made

 

Kidman and Mont Mercury have been working like dogs to bring you surf entertainment. Mercury was later served more indignity when he was left standing around LAX by an idiot. It's a hard life being a surf star. Picture by the lovely Mish.

Ediz Hook

As readers may have noted from posts over the past year or two, we're seeing more and more examples of beaches being restored - often these are relatively small projects where an old structure or a bulkhead has been removed or where historic fill has been pulled back.

AERIAL VIEW

This was an old log dump used, as I understand it, for getting logs from trucks into the water. At least as of now, the Google Maps image still shows the old looped dock. But that's all gone now, replaced by a curving beach, a revegetated backshore, and an awful lot of large wood.

I'm sure wood has always been a common component of Salish Sea beaches and there's plenty of evidence that suggests it can influence patterns of erosion and accretion - to a point. But from looking at many of the projects going in these days, you'd think beaches were all about wood, not about sediment!  I'm excited about all these neat projects.  I just hope the wood doesn't get in the way of the beach doing it's thing.  Fortunately, in most cases, the wood doesn't seem to be having too much effect on the beach doing it's thing.

Dry Creek

Dry Creek emerges from a small canyon midway along the otherwise unbroken line of bluffs between the Elwha Delta and Ediz Hook in Port Angeles.  I've posted from here before (Dry Creek March 2008; October 2009) and this entry is sort of an update, along with a way of capturing photos from last week's visit.


To the west of Dry Creek lies more than a mile of beautiful cliffs - no stairways, no seawalls. During the last few years, a broad foreland has developed along this stretch (see Elwha: August 2009).  There's a good view of this feature from the top of the landfill.  In the 1970s, a broad beach protected the bluffs along the same shoreline but in the 1990s, it was gone. Now it's back again. This is a huge amount of sand and gravel and suggests a far more complicated picture of sediment transport between the river and the spit than is typically told.  Fortunately, thanks to the Elwha Restoration, there are plenty of folks watching these beaches and maybe in another decade we'll understand more than we do now.  I suppose this feature may be gone by then - I wonder to where?

AERIAL VIEW

To the east of Dry Creek is the Port Angeles landfill.  A large seawall was built several years ago to protect the western portion of the landfill, where trash had historically been dumped over the edge.  But the cliff to the east continues to erode, threatening a more recent part of the landfill that was constructed immediately landward of the retreating bluff (nope - doesn't make sense to me either).  There's no easy or cheap fix, but moving the garbage out of the way is probably the more practical and forward thinking option - it was nice to see it getting serious consideration.

Flexspoon

 

A Flexspoon that Hawaiian Chris had built for himself by Roberts Surfboards. Absolutely beautiful work on this thing, it's an incredible piece of hand built craft- there's a noticeable flex in it, that spine is a great idea and the fin set up is great. Chris has a serious archive of interesting boards and a really good knowledge of what works which makes him a pretty useful resource at times. I volunteered to go and collect it from Ventura which was entirely self serving. It meant not only did I get my hands on the boards, but I managed a fun surf, a quite informative chat with Robert and a stop at a favourite Mexican restaurant in Oxnard on the way home. Not a bad way to spend a day off.

New Volunteers Needed for Piping Plover/Shorebird Monitoring

Below is a press release from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. You can also find the original document to download by clicking here. Please note that this year there will be two training sessions, one for past monitors and one for new volunteers, because we have so many tremendous volunteers from past seasons. If you previously volunteered as a monitor you will be contacted by the USFWS for more information about the refresher session soon.

	United States Department of the Interior FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
	Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge 733 Old Clinton Road Westbrook, Connecticut 06498-1030 Phone: 860-399-2513 Fax: 860-399-2515

NEWS RELEASE                                                      

To be Released: Immediately                             Contact: Shaun Roche

                    Phone: (860) 399-2513

Subject:  Volunteers Needed for Piping Plover/Shorebird Monitoring

Spend your summer days at the beach and help protect a federally threatened species! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are seeking volunteers to monitor piping plovers and other shorebirds from early April until late August at beaches across our state.  A training and orientation session for new volunteers will be held on Saturday, March 16th 2013 from 10:30am to 1pm at the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center at Milford Point; past volunteers will be offered a refresher from 9:00 to 10:30am.  The sessions will review the following: biology of the piping plover, how to monitor breeding pairs and chicks, volunteer organization and logistics, and law enforcement information. We will also demonstrate the construction of a plover enclosure and provide beach training with simulated plover eggs.

Atlantic Coast populations of piping plovers return to the Connecticut coast in March from their wintering grounds on the Gulf Coast.  The cryptic nests of the federally threatened piping plover are extremely susceptible to human disturbance, predation, and tidal wash outs. To enhance the survival and productivity of birds breeding in Connecticut, an annual monitoring partnership is cooperatively sponsored by Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), Audubon Connecticut, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

Volunteer monitors will observe and record data for nesting plovers and other shorebirds at locations across coastal Connecticut. The primary duties involve assisting with observation and data collection for nesting birds and educating the public. Volunteers work 2-hour shifts from April until the end of the breeding season (usually in August) and must donate a minimum of 2 hours per month. The work can be very rewarding, as volunteers will have the opportunity to positively impact nesting success for shorebirds across Connecticut.

For more information on the training session or for directions to the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center, please email USFWS Ranger Shaun Roche at shaun_roche@fws.gov.  Reservations are not required; but an e-mail letting us know you will be attending is appreciated.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut. 

The College Essay…Updated Prompts, But Still As Important As Ever

   For current juniors, the next year will be a whirlwind of activity during the college application process. There are numerous elements of a student’s application profile that will be scrutinized by admissions counselors across the country. The transcript, testing scores, résumé, and many others will all be submitted and reviewed. While the transcript and testing scores are important quantitative measures for students, the college essay is often the most important qualitative measure that colleges will look at while reviewing a student. Admissions counselors put a ton of emphasis on this part of the application because it gives them an inside look into who the student really is as an individual. Of course, it will help them see how the applicant is as a writer, but more importantly it hopefully will allow them to connect to the student on many levels. If the admissions counselors are impressed with the essay, it can often be the turning point for students being accepted into the institution.

   The college essay is not something students should wait to complete at the last minute. Contemplating, researching, drafting, and reviewing should all start before the senior year of high school. In a short amount of words, students should try to demonstrate their writing skills and explain something about their own life and personality that cannot be seen anywhere else in their application.

   As of last year, there were six essay prompts, one of which was topic of your choice. This will no longer be the case. As the Common Application has announced “the new prompts and the written guidance around them are the culmination of two years of discussion about the role writing plays in a holistic selection process.”  These new prompts should be reviewed in the coming months and students should choose the essay topic that will most effectively allow their voice and personality to shine.

   Besides the change in topics, there are two other important edits to the essay portion of the Common Application. 1) There will no longer be a topic of your choice, leaving five guided prompts and 2) students MUST write essays that are between 250-650 words. This will be strictly enforced and electronic uploads will not accept essays that do not meet the word specification.

   Please be on the lookout for information on the INTENSIVE COLLEGE APPLICATION PROGRAM that will run throughout the summer. There will be different sessions to best accommodate anyone interested in the program. Each program will last only two weeks (about 2 hours per day) and students will leave with a completed and polished Common Application essay and short answer, a résumé, a completed version of the Common Application, a refined college list, interview skills, college visits and a better understanding of the entire admissions process. Once the dates are finalized, information on this program will be mailed out. Space is very limited with only 40-50 spots available, so start thinking about if you would like to be part of this program now. This intensive program is a great way for students to have most of the application aspects completed before senior year even starts!   

Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA

mardi gras party

"Hey, y"all!"

My friend Alison had a spectacular Mardi Gras party a couple of years ago to celebrate her birthday.  Here are a few fun photos from that night... 

Birthday girl Alison is in the center

 

these boys also play at Disneyland in New Orleans Square

the tables and the food were spectacular, and
the chef was flown in from the Big Easy

me and Suzy Q

Ciao!

Fabiana

Used Surfboard Deal

Couple of Rob Royal's 4 fin personal rides he's letting go, both look like they could be a lot of fun. Top is a 5'6" PU/PE (I like that shape a lot), bottom is a 5'8" epoxy. They're barely ridden, in Santa Cruz and only $225 each without fins. That's a couple of very good scores for someone. Email him at royalsurfboards@gmail.com.

valentine's dinner setting

Having some fun thinking about Valentine's Day.  

I set up a couple of different settings....

table 1

table 2

{"Debutante" camellias from my garden} 

do you have a favorite?

ciao! Fabiana