Environmental Success at Long Beach - Patrick Comins
We're on Long Beach West on Long Island Sound, with Patrick Comins. Thousands of migratory shorebirds - including Dunlin like these - stop over here on their long migratory journeys. But this ecological gem could have been lost. Good news! Today it's part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, which is now an Important Bird Area.
BirdNote®
Environmental Success at Long Beach - Patrick Comins
An Interview with Patrick Comins, by Chris Peterson
This is BirdNote!
[Long Island Sound waves]
MM: We’re on a barrier beach called Long Beach, on Long Island Sound, with Patrick Comins, Executive Director of the Connecticut Audubon Society.
PC: (G15T3 1:08) …this area is one of the most important areas for birds in Connecticut… (G15T3 1:34) [Introduce Dunlin]..Thousands of migratory shorebirds stop over here each year on their long migratory journeys…. G15T11 :50 ...sometimes from as far away as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Tierra del Fuego – whether they’re beach-foraging shorebirds like Sanderlings or Red Knots or Dunlins, or whether they’re marsh-foraging shorebirds like Whimbrels – there’s some habitat for them here. ... [Call of Whimbrel]
MM: But this ecological gem could have been lost. Today, it’s restored to its natural state and recognized as an Important Bird Area, along with the adjacent Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. Long Beach is also restored and allows public access.
PC G15T3 The story here … really, it’s of environmental successes ….G15T6…. ….it’s just a spectacular area …
[Waves]
PC: G15T7 ….– birds and humans are not entirely incompatible – and as long as the access is well managed and people are respectful of the birds, we think things will be better for both the birds and for the people here.
MM: Conservation offers hope for birds and the environment we share. Hear more success stories at birdnote.org
[Waves and Dunlin]
I’m Mary McCann.
###
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Flock of Dunlin and Whimbrel W.W. H. Gunn
Ambient recorded by C. Peterson G14 T1
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2019 BirdNote December 2019 Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# SotB-cominsp-01-2010-12-10 SotB-cominsp-01b
Chris Peterson
Writer
Mary McCann
NarratorSights & Sounds
