The Great Meadows Salt Marsh is connected to the "back-side" of Long Beach by Lewis Gut, a body of water fed from several freshwater creeks and the waters of Long Island Sound through Bridgeport harbor. The Gut is a great area for canoeing or sailboarding. The barrier beach protects the Lewis Gut embayment from the wave action associated with Long Island Sound and has long been used as a seed area by local shellfishermen. The Gut was connected to the Housatonic River by Neck Creek, until the 20th Century.

 

The Great Meadows is an extensive tidal marsh ecosystem, behind and protected by Long Beach. Though it once occupied a much larger area, the Great Meadows still provides critical habitat for a diversity of fish and wildlife species. Approximately 250 species of birds can be seen at different times of the year and the area has been described by Roger Tory Peterson as one of the best coastal bird habitats in the states.

 

Historically, Great Meadows totaled as much as five square miles in area, which helped it become a mecca for bird life, that until the 20th Century was more diverse than any Connecticut site. Although greatly reduced in size, it offers remarkably diverse habitats and species. The north and west of Lewis Gut contains the only unditched high marsh left in the state. It encourages transient shorebirds and waterfowl to breed and feed.

 

Rare birds? - sure - we got them: Upland Sandpiper, Least Bittern, Seaside Sparrow, Pied - Billed Grebe, have all been sighted in recent years. Of course everyone knows of our two most famous spring visitors, the LEAST TERN and PIPING PLOVER. These two rare species are given special concern for their nesting sited on Long Beach. The Piping Plover population was originally devastated on the East Coast for the millinery trade of the 19th Century, with protection, the species recovered only to decline again due to human development and recreational use of its coastal habitats.

 

The Stratford Conservation Commission and the Nature Conservancy have led the way for protection of these remaining sites with positive results. In 1989, a record 10 pairs of Piping Plovers nested here and 35 pairs of Least Terns. Sadly, many eggs were lost to rats with human disturbance a secondary factor.

 

(To list the bird species here would be futile, as more than 270 species have been recorded since 1900!)