September brings a feeling of satisfaction for our beach bird conservation team as we celebrate the chicks fledged by “our” birds. But this season also brings anxiety as we anticipate the threats these young birds and their parents will face during migration and the winter season. Hazards include entanglement in fishing line; collisions with power lines, kite boarders, and skim boarders; being blown off course in a storm; and loss of foraging or resting habitat due to sea level rise and storm erosion. We can sometimes mitigate the risks of entanglement or impacts from recreation or power lines. But there are no immediate solutions to loss of habitat from sea level rise or hurricanes.
No one understands and documents the loss of offshore shorebird habitat better than Patrick and Doris Leary. They have made it their mission to monitor and share photos and survey data from the Big Bend area of Florida, Northeast Florida, and coastal Georgia. Avid bird observers and advocates, Doris and Pat have devoted hundreds of hours walking beaches to document migratory and wintering flocks of birds. They spend additional time at home reporting re-sights and locations of banded birds to the American Oystercatcher Working Group (AOWG) and to other researchers who band birds with field-readable bands. Many biologists have been relieved and thrilled to receive news that a banded fledgling or adult has successfully made the trip south to Florida.
Recent missives from Doris and Pat, however, have brought less happy news. With multiple hurricanes hitting the Gulf Coast in recent years, the historic winter roosting sites off Cedar Key, Florida, are disappearing under flood tides or with storm erosion. On August 18th, they wrote to the AOWG: “Partners: Yesterday, on a 4.9′ spring tide (predicted 4.3′) we conducted a post-Debby pre-migratory survey of Cedar Key’s roost sites. As with Idalia’s impact almost one year previously, we found more, new, adverse impacts to all regional roost sites. We observed more uprooted or killed mangroves and more chronic erosion of substrates and more shoreline retreats. Although tides were much higher than typically recorded for the wintering season, Debby’s impacts were evident. Below are images of several of the primary roost sites we visit to record wintering flocks and gather banding data. Overview: All the airport roost were submerged, Gomez Key lost more mangroves and substrate, Rattlesnake Key’s SW spit was submerged while the north shoreline and NE spit were eroded (note lost shoreline behind spit in photo) McClamory Key’s N spit was neary overwashed. On the east side, Cedar Point was eroded, Corrigan’s Reef’s outermost rake was submerged or lost? The remnant mid-rake was nearly overwashed while the entire west end was submerged. Since we intitiated surveys in 2006 we have witnessed persistent and chronic erosion across the Nature Coast. That process seems to have accelerated in recent seasons and competition for roost space will only expand and intensify into the future.”
These photos shared by the Learys show just how much has been lost.
We have yet to see the damage from Hurricane Helene, which will likely prove substantial. With these islands disappearing, shorebirds relying on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a stopover or wintering site are losing valuable feeding and resting habitat and will be forced to mainland shorelines where they are subject to displacement by people and dogs. Human disturbance can have a significant impact on a short-billed dowitcher or whimbrel that must soon make a long-distance flight to South America, or on an overwintering oystercatcher needing fat reserves to provide fuel for migration south or north.
I’m grateful to Doris and Pat for all of their efforts monitoring birds and their habitat, and for educating us about the habitat losses in their region. While it may look bleak, there are some things we can do to help shorebirds as they lose habitat to climate change.
- Support organizations and municipalities engaged in coastal projects that create shell rake and other offshore islands for birds as refuges.
- Educate boaters about leaving dogs at home and refraining from coming ashore on islands where they see birds.
- Share the shore by walking around flocks of birds you see on beaches.
- Birders, respect refuge closure signs. Your checklist or photo isn’t as important as the survival of our threatend bird populations.
- Support saltmarsh and other coastal resilience projects.
- Take whatever actions you can to reduce your carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
