As part of a larger effort to monitor waterbird distribution and populations in the Long Island Sound region, the SNEP staff biologists Andrew MacLachlan and Tom Halavik organized a cooperative waterbird survey in late May with staff from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.  This one-day field effort visited five sites adjacent the Connecticut shore between Guilford and Westport that were unexpectedly left unsurveyed last year during the regular triennial sound-wide inspection.  The triennial survey involves cooperative efforts to collect data by multiple state, federal and non profit partners to monitor herons, egrets, cormorants, oystercatchers, and other waterbirds.  Without the data from these five sites, the 2007 sound-wide assessment would have been much less valuable. 

Andrew and Tom were assisted by Marci Caplis from the Regional Office of the USFWS, and Julie Victoria, a Connecticut DEP wildlife biologist and coordinator of many of Connecticut's fish and wildlife monitoring actions.