On the Sound, Birds are Moving, Dissolved Oxygen is Falling

Anything going on on Long Island Sound lately? Beaches in Westport (and probably elsewhere) were closed last Thursday because of last week’s heavy rains, but they reopened Friday. Today, water temperatures in the Sound range from 70.4 at the surface to 62 near the bottom. Dissolved oxygen concentrations range from good to bad, depending on location and depth.

Here are some mid-morning DO readings from the MYSound gauges (the higher the DO, the better; the lower it gets, the harder it is for marine life to survive):

Execution Rock: 3.8 milligrams per liter (or 48 percent of saturation) at the top; 8.2 (88 percent) 15-feet down; 2.6 (31 percent) at the bottom.

Western Sound: 4 milligrams per liter (51 percent) at the top; 3.8 (48 percent) 15-feet down; no bottom reading.

Norwalk Harbor: 7.2 milligrams per liter (88 percent) at the top, which is the only reading from there.

Central Sound: 4.7 milligrams per liter (62 percent) at the top; 3 (about 40 percent) 15 feet down; 4.8 (61 percent) at the bottom.

And just as summer is settling in, fall bird migration is starting. The Connecticut Bird Report noted that short-billed dowitchers, least sandpipers, greater yellowlegs and lesser yellowlegs have been seen on Sound beaches and marshes over the past couple of days.