6/5 Milford, Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center. 10am-1PM, and walk on sandbars from 1-2:15Pm. High tide, receding. started out overcast, but turned sunny 70-77F. We had several class visits this morning. Plus lots of visitors,- some from out of state. Our Purple Martin colony is very active with 32 active nests having 117 eggs! A female Purple Martin with an orange leg band on her left leg was visiting gourd 39. Our ospreys have 3 chicks ( 2 seem larger than the third one). On the marsh:- viewed with bins- 6 Great Egrets and 26 Mute swans far out, and a vocal Clapper Rail. Walking around - On the grounds & feeders: 1 Cedar Waxwing on a post adjacent to marsh, 2 Mockingbirds, many House sparrows and Common Grackles, 6 Mourning doves, 3 Cardinals, 5 Starlings with 3 recently fledged young, 6 Robins, 2 Song sparrows. After 1PM, I walked the sandbars during low tide: Frank Mantlik's Laughing gull flock was visiting and was loud and active along the shoreline (estimating 200), 2 Great Black backed gulls, (herring & ring billed gulls) Piping plovers- some on sand bar, 3 in nest exclosure with 3 chicks running around, 7 American Oystercatchers (1 with yellow leg bands), and about 150 Semipalmated Sandpipers feeding at low tide, 19DC Cormorants diving & fishing further out. Many Horseshoe crabs mating and laying eggs. Bev Propen, Orange