More IBAs Announced

On August 15, 2002, Audubon Connecticut announced an additional seven Important Bird Areas scattered throughout Connecticut. Thanks to the efforts of Linda Vanderveer in New York, and the tremendous appeal of the IBA Program there was significant press coverage of the event. Coverage included, a front-page story in the Danbury News-Times, a blurb in the Hartford Courant, a story in the New London Day, and a live interview on WTIC AM. Stories are still to come in the New Haven Register, the Journal Inquirer, the New Haven Advocate, the Waterbury Republican, The Litchfield County Times and the West Haven News.

Additionally, a feature article on Connecticut’s IBA program may be upcoming in the New Haven Register, and a major article on grassland birds, in which Audubon is featured prominently, ran in Northeast Magazine, the Hartford Courant’s Sunday magazine.

The designation links the sites to more than 1,400 others in the United States, plus international sites identified by Bird Life International, a global organization dedicated to bird conservation. Getting this status puts the world on notice that the designated sites are especially valuable environmentally.

"Our goal is to raise awareness, to build coalitions and awareness,"said Patrick Comins, director of bird conservation for Audubon Connecticut, who has his office at Bent of the River.

Important Bird Areas are sites that provide habitat essential for the breeding, feeding, wintering or migration of one or more species of birds. IBAs may be large or small and either publicly or privately owned, and share characteristics such as high bird diversity, threatened or endangered species, or the presence of unusually large numbers of birds. To be designated an IBA, a site is nominated and then evaluated by a Technical Committee composed of the state’s top ornithologists who assess its statewide significance for birds. Land managers, scientists, and the general public may nominate sites. The designation offers the land no legal protection. But it does bolster its value within the environmental community.

Important Bird Areas in Connecticut (IBAs in the Menunkatuck Chapter are in bold) include:

• Audubon Center in Greenwich (including Quaker Ridge), Greenwich
  
• Bent of the River Sanctuary, Southbury
  
• Connecticut College Arboretum, Waterford and New London
  
• Cove Island Park, Stamford
  
• East Rock Park, New Haven
  
• Falkner Island unit of Stewart B. McKinney NWR, offshore of Guilford
  
• Great Captain’s Island, Greenwich
  
• Greenwich Point Park and nearby islands, Greenwich
  
• Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven
  
• Mamacoke Island and adjacent coves, Waterford
  
• Salt Meadow Unit of Stewart B. McKinney NWR, Westbrook.
  
• Sandy Point, West Haven
  
• Station 43, South Windsor
  
• The Nature Conservancy’s Devil’s Den Preserve, Weston, Redding
  
• White Memorial Foundation, Litchfield, Morris

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Last updated 18 September, 2004 .