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These islands are for the birds, too

A declining number of nesting shorebirds on barrier islands shows the effects of human-animal interaction.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published June 26, 2006

DUNEDIN - Approaching the sand bar north of Anclote Key on Friday for the first time since Tropical Storm Alberto, her fears for the colony of birds nesting there intensified.

"What I hope we don't see are fireworks," said Sally Braem, Honeymoon Island State Park biologist. "Two years ago, they were shot into the colony."

Closer to shore, 14 boats surrounded the small island. Some boaters were fishing, some floated on tubes in the water, and others were walking the beach.

Most of the twine and posts surrounding a nesting colony of least terns, a species Florida lists as threatened, had survived the winds of the storm.

But one section was down and a small dog ran into the colony from that direction. A group of least terns, feisty little terns with Batman-like masks, flew up in the air.

When birds that nest on the beach are frightened away from their nests, officials say, eggs and chicks can dehydrate in the heat of the sun and waiting predators can swoop in for lunch.

Brandy, a young Papillon-shelty mix, didn't know about that, nor did her owners.

"Not thinking, like probably a lot of people don't think, that the dogs could be stepping on eggs," said Leslie Holmes of Hudson, after hooking a leash back on Brandy. "But we're catching on."

Braem said as many as 600 boats have been counted using the small sand bar in one day. A few years ago, boaters organized as "Save Our Sandbar" deflated a state proposal to monitor activities on the sand bar more closely.

"On Saturday, it's wild here," Holmes said. "They have all kinds of dogs running around here."

This year, Pinellas beach-nesting birds have all but abandoned mainland municipal beaches in favor of barrier islands, where storms, predators and human disturbance threaten nesting success each year.

The resourceful least tern also is moving to flat, gravel roofs in increasing numbers, where they face a new set of perils. And black skimmers, a Florida species of special concern, seem to be increasing their roof nesting, even though they generally have less success there.

As the Fourth of July, a big boating weekend, draws near, state officials and Audubon Society volunteers who do their best to protect beach-nesting birds through nesting season hope boaters will give the birds a little space so they can fledge their next generation.

Officials also point out that fireworks are not allowed on any of the islands.

"This is the birds' last chance," Braem said.

Tracking the nesting success of beach-nesting birds such as least terns, black skimmers, American oystercatchers, snowy and Wilson's plovers, laughing gulls, and other terns is kind of a shell game. As colonies are destroyed, the birds often fly to another location and try again.

But Audubon volunteers and state parks officials do their best to piece together a count, to make sure no population is decimated before anyone notices.

The overall numbers they report in the last few years show a dramatic decline in the number of beach-nesting least terns and black skimmers

Beth Forys, a professor of biology and environmental science at Eckerd College, collects data on least terns and black skimmers nesting on Pinellas beaches and rooftops, as well as those nesting in Sarasota and Manatee counties and on Egmont Key in Hillsborough County. The number of least terns counted nesting in 2003 was more than twice the number counted this year: 1,042 to 418. And the number of black skimmers counted nesting in 2003 was nearly twice the number counted this year: 2,568 to 1,355.

Audubon of Florida, which counts beach-nesting birds in Hillsborough Bay and on other Tampa Bay islands, reports a similar decline in numbers for least terns and black skimmers.

Those numbers have some overlap with the numbers compiled by Forys, as both include some islands.

In the Audubon count, the number of least terns declined by about two-thirds, from 514 in 2003 to 158 in 2005.

Black skimmers declined by more than half, from 2,454 in 2003 to 978 in 2005.

Talk with Nancy Douglass, a nongame biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Southwest Region, and interpreting those numbers becomes dicey.

"From the hodgepodge of what we can put together, it looks pretty grim," she said. "But the truth is, we don't have the good science that backs up that anxiety."

She said a lot of people are trying desperately to count the birds, but "nobody has their eye on the ball from the big-picture perspective."

That would take funds and a scientific study design that measures nesting success, not just the number of birds nesting. Douglass said the commission did a comprehensive study of colonial nesting seabirds from 1998 to 2000. But due to competing priorities, that study has yet to be published. But when it is, the study will provide a baseline for future studies.

"These birds are my passion," she said. "I would like to see us commit the resources to do this work."

She describes the black skimmers like this:

"On the one hand, they are clowns and bark like dogs on the beach," she said. "Then they take off with those long, elegant wings..."

And as a small and scrappy person herself, she feels a kinship with the least terns.

"It's so cool that they fly all the way to South America for the winter," she said. "And they are such pioneers. They are always the first one to colonize a new habitat."

She admires the way the least tern has tried to work with humans, even adapting to roof nesting.

"If we can't find it in our hearts and lifestyles to accommodate them," she said, "what hope is there for all the other species that might not be so adaptable and tenacious?"

[Last modified June 25, 2006, 22:05:28]