Super SeaWatch: EcoSystem

2018 Progress Report

HERE ARE OUR STEPS, SEQUENTIALLY:

1) Our 2018 Super Seawatch happened successfully on March 25th, plus several days before and after that (a few counts are still underway this week, during the Count Period). THANK YOU ALL!

2a) We are now receiving trip reports, both via bird lists emailed to us, and as eBird checklists which were Shared with the account "LIS seawatch" in the central eBird database. We are more than 80% through this process.

2b) We are now at March 30th, approaching the end of the first week after March 25th. On the left you will see an interim report on what eBird data we have received so far, including how many reports had each species in them.

3) After we and eBird receive all these expected trip reports (probably in the next week or two) we will request the eBird system to give us an extract from their central database, and create our own local database.

4) After that we will manually fold-in the non-eBird trip reports, into our local database, so it combines both eBird and non-eBird trip reports.

5) After that we will begin the structuring and analysis of all the data, and report the results here, at this website. All contributors will be notified by email when this step is completed.

2018 Super Seawatch

PLEASE RESERVE MARCH 25TH, AT LEAST FOR AN HOUR OR TWO.

We are currently planning the 2018 LIS Super Seawatch. We agreed to run this count annually, at least for a few years, to establish a baseline for longer term comparisons and detection of any trends.

Sunday March 25, 2018 is the preferred count date, although we will accept count reports from any other day that week, the last 7 days of March, from March 25 through Saturday March 31. We are looking for ONE count this year for each location (most of which are shown by the blue symbols in the LIS map above), not TWO counts for each location, as we did in 2017.

We are currently (during March) analyzing our 2017 data. Aiming to publish a report here during April. Remember that the 2017 Super Seawatch was really TWO counts: one centered on March 25 and one centered on April 9. In 2018 it is ONE count, centered on March 25.

This is a project of the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA), with support from multiple bird clubs in New York and Connecticut. Thank you all!

Data Entry 2018

You may enter data (estimated number for each species) several ways, including:

#1) by using your eBird account and "sharing" your eBird report with our NEW eBird group account called "LIS seawatch" dedicated 100% to this project, OR...

#2) simply email your species-by-species count to the data administrator : robben99@gmail.com

Method #1 (eBird) is preferred, if possible.

If you do use eBird, PLEASE write your name [plus any other team member names] somewhere in your trip comments, since eBird tends to drop observers names! when we extract data from their database!

And however you do your trip report, please note the names of any additional observers on your team.

Data Analysis for 2017

It is now July 20th and we are in the middle of data structuring & analysis; painstakingly carefully.

It is June 5, 2017 and we will assume that all eBird data has been entered and shared with us from our LIS Seawatches (actually in late June we found some gaps and are backfilling those missing reports now). We are moving ahead with the analysis of all our data, starting with our eBird data. Remember this is a big experiment, partly to learn the best ways to use eBird and its data (and to combine it with non-eBird data), and we may have to make adjustments as we go along, perhaps to learn by mistakes. So the initial steps are about the MECHANICS of doing this process.

First, I went into the eBird account for this, and clicked on DownloadMyData (you can do this for all your eBird data also). Five minutes later that requested data came to my email account as a Zip file, which I double-clicked to expand, resulting in a CSV file, which I then imported into GoogleSheets online. I deleted rows which were not 2017 or not for "marine birds", very broadly defined (we can always delete the questionable species later). That resulted in this online dataset, which you can click and view, as one table with about 1,400 rows (this is a preliminary table, with less than half of our data, so these steps will be done again in early July to get the complete table, with about 3,000 rows):

MyEBirdData 7799 with landbirds deleted and 2017only - Google Sheets

Note that although each row has a Location (such as Stratford Point), it does not indicate the person (the eBird account) which shared their eBird checklist with our "LIS seawatch" eBird account, so I will have to re-attach that data somehow as we proceed. Also, we have some seawatch reports "on paper" (in emails, as text or photos) which were not entered into eBird, so we will re-incorporate that data later on, after we decide how we will use the eBird data.

There are also some reports (some rows in the table) from January and February which will be put off to the side.

My first scan of this data sees very few rows for the April 9 seawatches.... where are those eBird reports? I will look into this tomorrow.

OK, we found this April eBird data and have accepted it all into our eBird account. Cataloging it all this week.

PS: and do not worry about any of your data getting lost, it wont! We have it all in safekeeping, for analysis this Summer.

Purpose

Here are some of the reasons we are doing this project (similar to the material in the Goals block lower in this right sidebar):

-- To take a snapshot of "all" (well, as many as we can see) the birds in Long Island Sound at a point in time: late March in 2017 and 2018, for comparison every ten years going forward, to document changes and trends.

-- To learn more about the occasional gull concentrations around that time of Spring in LIS. We know this happens in the Bridgeport-Stratford-Milford waters, but not sure where else (is this happening any other place/s in LIS?), and would like to know. So that we can figure out what is causing this, sometimes ten, or twenty thousand or more gulls. Is it their food there, and what is the composition of that food, etc.? Are these gull masses responding to fish, to plankton (what kinds?), etc?

-- To strengthen the alliance of birders all around LIS, in both states, so we become a stronger combined force for good conservation.

April 9th seawatch 2017

As of May 12th I just got back from a trip to DC, lobbying for conservation and science (and for awareness of some of our planetary possibilities, e.g., Thwaites Glacier: popular & Thwaites Glacier: scientific) . This SuperSeawatch project will resume as my top priority next week.

As of May 4th we have the data inputs we need, but I need to take a trip. Will focus on this project after mid-May and publish it here. Will also notify all of you by email when this site has been updated with the results of the two counts.

As of 4/28 we are still waiting for a few more reports to come in. Hope to start the analysis over the next several days. All will be published here during May.

As of 4/18 we are still waiting for some more reports from 4/9. And am learning more of the R programming language this week, to help us manage and analyze all our data, which hopefully will be complete in the next week.

I have to work on another project for a few days, and seawatch reports continuing to roll in. Returning to this over the weekend. Sorry for the delay.

As of noon on 4/11 we are waiting to receive a lot more reports from the weekend. Will intake a lot of these reports on Wednesday and publish a preliminary update here in about a week.

As of noon on 4/10 we have received 5 more reports. We expect to receive almost 80 reports for the 4/9 counts, and will publish a preliminary summary in several days, even before having received all those reports.

As of 5pm today, 4/9, we have already received 14 seawatch reports from the field (and 25 as of 9pm)! Several with numbers of Gannets moving around LIS today (I had about 200, all adults, all flying straight to the west, low over the water, way out in the middle of LIS, off Old Lyme, after noon, plus 9 coming close to shore and plunge diving just off the beach).

PLEASE remember, if you do eBird reports, to "share" them with "LIS seawatch"

THIS COUNT IS ON, FOR THIS WEEKEND!

CAN YOU DO THE APRIL 9th COUNT?

Please confirm ASAP (by email to robben99@gmail.com) if you will or will not be doing this big seawatch count on Sunday April 9th, and your location(s). This is the second and last of our seawatch counts this year. Scroll far down to see the list of LOCATIONS or click on this link: LOCATIONS to jump down there.

Abstract

This project is another demonstration of how a large number of bird watchers and other naturalists can quickly come together, cooperate, and have a positive impact, such as the useful citizen-science being done here. This project is the creation of 70+ observers counting birds at 110 coastal locations, to establish a baseline to be used for comparison in future years and decades, because we all care about the current and future health of the planet. It also focuses on the phenomenon of thousands of gulls surface feeding, what they may be eating (perhaps barnacle cyprids and/or the common LIS copepod Acartia hudsonica), and the possible ecosystem drivers for all that. It's also a lot of fun! (suggestions to improve this abstract will be welcomed). And, yes, this project is meant to support science, citizen-science, conservation, birds, all of Nature, and our great grand children.

Updates before 3/25/2017

As of March 24th at 8pm:

Our March 25th seawatch counts are ON!

If you signed-up for a location (see the LOCATIONS list below, to the left), please go ahead and do it tomorrow, at your convenient time.

And the WEATHER looks good enough for 3/25:

Temperatures warming up to around 50F.

Light rain beginning around 1pm Saturday.

Please do your count(s) and send in the data as soon as convenient for you (see the Example post below). If you have any questions ask any of our admin team, or send an email to Tom at robben99@gmail.com

RESULTS will be displayed at this website, starting next week, as they roll in. As text, as data table and eventually as a map.

All the main Connecticut locations are now covered by at least one experienced bird watcher. Thank you!

We expect a few more New York locations to be added in the last few days before March 25th. Thank you NY birding partners!

This is a 100-mile long seawatch and anybody can suggest and volunteer for additional coastal points (NY or CT) not already on our list.

As of mid-March this project is being extended to New York waters to reflect growing interest in this project.

This webpage (including its text and maps) will evolve to support this project, and to publish its results. More details in the ten days leading up to March 25th. Note that this is still a DRAFT website, with wording being adjusted, and is not findable via internet search engines. If you would like to request any changes to this website or its wording, please email to robben99@gmail.com

Two Steps to Sign-Up 2017

Goal

The goal of this project is count and document the gulls and other birds along the 100-mile Long Island Sound coast of CT on two dates, 3/25 and 4/9 in 2017, and to do similar counts in future years for comparison, to see how these populations and distributions might be changing.

We are hoping to piece-together a big quantitative snapshot of most of the gulls and other "water birds" along the perimeter of Long Island Sound on two particular days, which are typically in the middle of the Spring plankton bloom. There appear to be changes happening in this marine ecosystem and we want to document a baseline to be used in future years for comparisons.

We may also publicize this large effort in order to get many more people focusing on and thinking about the importance of Long Island Sound and its healthy waters.

Additionally, this will be another demonstration of the ability of the many bird watchers, naturalists, citizen-scientists and scientists to rapidly mobilize collaboratively and take wide-scale action. And this is just by galvanizing a tiny fraction of our whole community of people who care about the good health of the planet, for now and for the future, both for humans and for nature.

Overview

This private draft webpage (search engines do not scan this page) will become our official public Super SeaWatch website in a few days, after it gets populated with more information.

A first step is to list all the main locations (on the left, in the main area), and associate at least one key birder's name with each. Can we each put our name next to one of these locations?

These seawatches need not take a lot of time.

And we should probably allow birders to add additional locations if they want, after we have all our main locations covered by at least one experienced birder.

Observers List 2017

WITH THEIR MARCH 25TH LOCATION:

Almost all of these observers contributed their time and effort in the field on March 25th! THANK YOU ALL!!

*Adamo, Robert... Jamesport NY.

*Aurelia, Mike.. Greenwich Point area.

*Batsford, Bill.... NewHaven area.

*Bair, Jim.. Oyster River or Milford Pt.

*Benson, Gail.. Playland in Rye, NY.

*Bonomo, Nick. Plankton tow from his boat off Stratford CT.

*Broker, Steve. New Haven area on 3/25

*Brush, John. NewLondon-Orient NY ferry.

*Burke, Tom.. Playland in Rye, NY.

*Comins, Patrick. Stratford Point.

*Devlin, Ian. Boat captain for potential LIS trips.

*Dugan, Patrick... Shippan Point.

*Ehlinger, Cynthia.. for April 9.

*Flynn, Larry. Norwalk Islands.

*Fuirst, Matt.. NY, North Shore: Sunken Meadow, West Meadow, Port Jefferson, NY.

*Futuyma, Douglas. NY, North Shore: areas around Stony Brook.

*Gallo, Frank. for April 9.

*Green, Tina. Burying Hill Beach.

*Griswold, Andy. OldSaybrook (Harveys Beach, Cornfield Pt).

*Hanly, Pat. Orient Point, Orient, NY.

*Howe, Christine. NewHaven for 3/25.

*Kiley, Aidan. Southport Beach & Penfield Reef.

*Komara, Micky. Hammonasset.

*Kruitbosch, Scott. Stratford Point, etc.

*Lamont, MaryLaura.. Northville (near Riverhead), NY.

*Lust, Preston. Compo Beach, in Westport.

*Lynch, Pat... Stratford Point.

*Mantlik, Frank. Long Beach, Russian Beach, Merwin Point, Oyster River to Gulf Beach.

*Martin, Stephan. Shippan Point.

*Mitra, Shai.. Orient-NewLondon etc. ferry locations.

*Mueller, Keith. Thimble Islands probably.

*Murtha, Sean. Greenwich Point Park.

*Ogren, John. Westbrook.

*Peretto, Maggie (and HAS field trip on 3/25). Milford Pt, Silver Sands, & Birdseye Boat Ramp.

*Perreault, Stephane. Stepping Stone Park, NY.

*Provencher, Dave. Stonington Point and Town Dock.

*Quinn, Glenn.. NY: Sands Point Preserve to Prospect Pt.

*Repasz, Craig... Stratford Point.

*Reynolds, Sandra. Port Jefferson Harbor, NY.

*Robben, Shoon. Old Lyme & vicinity.

*Robben, Tom. Old Lyme & vicinity.

*Rusch, Phil. Eastern Point & vicinity.

*Schrimpf, Michael. CedarBeach, Mt.Sinai, NY.

*Sepenoski, John. Orient Point and vicinity.

*Sherwonit, James.. Old Saybrook area.

*Smiley, Russ. Stonington Point.

*Sonshine, Jeffrey and Ruth.. Greenwich Point.

*Spector, Stephen. for April 9th SilverSands & MilfordPt.

*Sternberg, Howard. Tuxis Island, East Wharf, West Wharf & vicinity.

*Teltser, Jory. Sherwood Island.

*Tudor, Guy. Orient Point, Orient, NY.

*Ulsamer, Gale.. Silver Sands and Milford Point.

*Valente, Rosemary.... Cedar Beach, NY.

*Wahle, Lisa.. TBD.

*Wick, Robert.... Gardiners/Napeague bay, NY.

*Williams, Glenn. Eastern Point & vicinity.

*Winston, Dave.. Cove Island.

*Wolter, Paul & Maureen.. Thimble Islands.

*Young, Byron.. Mount Sinai Harbor, NY.

*Zarkov, Hans!.... ?Possible for Plum Island.

62 observers plus others TBD, including more NY birders. Note that this group spans a wide range of bird watchers, from those about 15 years old, to people many multiples of that.

Experiment

This is a wide-scale experiment in citizen-science, and we expect to LEARN a lot from it. Can we take useful samples of seawatch bird data at 20+ locations across 100 miles of LIS coastline? TBD (we actually ended up doing 110 locations, not 20!!).

At the minimum, this should give us some additional historical documentation of birds in LIS during the Spring of 2017 (to establish a baseline for future comparisons). It will give us factual data, some of which may be useful in conservation of parts of our environment.

Boat Trip

We will have at least one boat trip in some of these LIS waters sometime during March or April (date TBD). This will be distinct from the seawatches and this boat trip is currently in planning. We will tow a net for plankton (2 nets: 80micron and 200micron mesh), which will be analyzed, thanks to Prof. Hans G. Dam and his lab at the University of Connecticut.

NOTE:

We will do a similar plankton tow and analysis on June 11th in the GOM Gulf Of Maine, for comparison with LIS, and anybody is welcome to join that boat/pelagic trip ( HAS Field Trips and scroll down to June 11 trip). Just contact robben99@gmail.com

Our October 22, 2016 GOM trip for comparison, already revealed that GOM plankton are very different from LIS plankton, e.g., GOM had many more radiolarians (0.1mm protozoa) than LIS had (Radiolaria).

Recent Observations 2017

April 6th : these reports updated.

Dates are the dates the observations were made.

"Subject: Westport Seawatch

Date: Thu Apr 6 2017 9:06 am

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

Westport-Burying Hill Beach-

Two hours of seawatching from 7-9am yielded 17 Northern Gannets and 58 Bonaparte's Gulls. Also birds were headed east into the wind and a majority of the birds were close to shore affording excellent views. Visibility was better than expected even though there was heavy rain at times. Wave heights were continually building with the wind,very gusty at times, and the rising tide. High tide was at 8:15."

Tina Green

March 22:

"Subject: Gannets

Date: Wed Mar 22 2017 16:44 pm

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

There were about 10 Northern Gannets flying by in a quick look at Stratford Point just now, including one just off the Bluff.

Patrick Comins"

March 22:

"Subject: Southport Bonaparte's Gulls & Gannets

Date: Wed Mar 22 2017 15:26 pm

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

Southport-Southport Beach- 5 Bonaparte's Gulls roosting at the water's edge, perhaps a sign of things to come.

Also 3 Northern Gannets and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull earlier this afternoon.

Tina Green"

March 21:

"Subject: Barrow's Goldeneye and Oystercatchers, Tuxis Island

Date: Tue Mar 21 2017 13:10 pm

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

Tuxis Island, Madison, 2 pm - Barrow's Goldeneye continues. Moves around a lot, usually by itself. Sometimes in close. Other times out far next to or east or west of Tuxis Island. Also, three very vocal Oystercatchers on Tuxis Island.

Howie Sternberg"

March 21:

"Subject: Stratford seawall

Date: Tue Mar 21 2017 12:48 pm

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

Right now about 3,500 gulls plankton feeding.. Stretching back toward Russian Beach.. Here with Greg H.

Bill Banks"

March 21:

"Subject: Hammonassett SP American Oystercatchers and Bonaparte's Gulls

Date: Tue Mar 21 2017 13:58 pm

From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

I spent a quiet and chilly morning at Hammonassett SP today. Highlights were two American oystercatchers seen at the end of Meig's point and two Bonaparte's Gulls surface feeding with other gulls off the shell beach.

Jack Swatt Wolcott"

March 20:

Mike Warner reports, "Subject: Stratford Gulls

Date: Mon Mar 20 2017 12:53 pm

3/20/17 Stratford Long Beach.

1:48 pm. 1500 to 2000 Gulls in the water at distance looking over the first jetty. Use of scope helpful.

Seen with Steve Spector.

Mike Warner."

March 8:

Stephen Spector reported, "last night, just west of Point Lookout (in the Gulf [just east of Silver Sands State Park]), a group of surface-feeding gulls mixed with an equal number of ducks, mainly Greater Scaup, but also Long-tailed. The Scaup seemed to be pecking at the surface. Total in this group around 1000. The whole group moved around Point lookout (moving east) and disappeared. Surface feeding has been going on in the Gulf for a few weeks now. Steve"

March 6th:

Nick Bonomo reported, "I ran the coast from Chaffinch Island to Old Saybrook on Monday PM [March 6]. Only sign of gulls along that whole stretch was 1,000 plankton feeding off Hammo. 80% RB, 20% herring. Fifteen or so Bonaparte's."

March 5th:

Bob Dixon reports, "... conservatively 2500 gulls (with some Brant mixed in) at Stratford Pt and probably double that at the Lordship Seawall in Stratford."

March 3rd:

Patrick Comins reports very approximately 3,000 gulls off Stratford Point today.

February 28th:

Paul Desjardins reports, "5 Bonapartes Gulls off Meigs Point at Hammo".

February 27th:

Patrick Comins reports, "A group of about 100 gulls was plankton feeding off [Stratford] point and I scoped it from the porch.".

February 26th:

Greg Hanisek reports 60 Bonapartes Gulls at Hammonasset Beach State Park, and says, "This the first flock of Bonaparte's I'm aware of as the spring 'gull season' gets under way in LIS."

February 26th:

M. Aurelia reports, "Observed ten Bonaparte gulls in Greenwich Harbor @ the tip of Grass Island near the sewage out fall and southern most boat dock late afternoon".

February 26th:

Angela Dimmitt reports, "6 Bonaparte's Gulls off Stratford sea wall (Marnick's restaurant), being blown east - relocated off Park Boulevard.".

February 25th:

Nick Bonomo reports, "there was plankton feeding late this morning at the west end of Seaside Park in Bridgeport. Several hundred gulls, ducks, and geese were involved. There was fog at the time, limiting visibility. At the other (east) end of the park, 8 NORTHERN SHOVELERS were with many other dabbling ducks.

A quick afternoon check of the coast between Merwin Pt (Milford) and West Haven Boat Ramp (West Haven) revealed no plankton feeding and very few birds overall.".

February 25th:

The gulls and plankton bloom phenomenon has begun! With 500-600 gulls...

From: Frank Mantlik via CTBirds

Date: February 25, 2017 at 4:06:43 PM EST

To: Birds CT

Subject: [CT Birds] GLAUCOUS GULL -Seawall

2/25, 4pm - Stratford- a fairly large flock of plankton-feeding gulls now straight off Marnick's Restaurant includes a first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL.

Frank Mantlik

Stratford

AND LOOK AT THE CHART ON THE LEFT TO SEE THE GROWING NUMBERS OF GULLS AT STRATFORD POINT, NOT FAR FROM FRANK'S OBSERVATION...

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EcoSystem