Give Our Shorebirds Space and Quiet
August 29, 2021 —
Hi everyone, happy Friday!
As you may have gathered from the subject line, this is the last weekly update of the season. It is near the end of August and all of our chicks are grown. Some may still hang around our area; I’ve already started to see groups of Skimmers and Snowy Plovers growing in number at Siesta and Lido. Some may migrate away; the Least Terns are completely migratory and will all eventually make their way to South America.
A summary of the final numbers from this season (for Sarasota) is below:
Black Skimmers:
peak nests: 273
peak adults: 887
total fledged chicks: 180
peak nests: 273
peak adults: 887
total fledged chicks: 180
Least Terns (Lido and Longboat):
peak nests: 93
peak adults: 230
total fledged chicks: 74
Snowy Plovers:
total nests: 7
peak adults: 10
total fledged chicks: 0
The main causes of loss were predation (by fish crows and laughing gulls), over wash from TS Elsa and illness that may be related to red tide.
Overall, all our amazing volunteers put in 544 hours and educated 2723 people about the nesting birds!!
Some highlights/positives were there were no major impacts on nesting from the big holiday weekends and we were able to band both Skimmer and Least Tern fledges this season!
Overall, it was a great season and I look forward to seeing what next year has in store! In the meantime, I’m wishing everyone stay well and safe.
Stay safe this weekend during the storm everyone!
Kylie Wilson
Shorebird Coordinator
(941) 266-5407
(941) 266-5407
Get more information regarding Shorebird Nesting from Rachel Brown Hackney’s February 5 Sarasota News Leader article Please Help the Snowy Plover