March 11, 2023 —

Hello everyone, and happy 2023 shorebird breeding season!

The breeding season has officially begun, with the documentation of a Snowy Plover nest in the Panhandle (those birds love to get started earlier than the rest of us). Although we seem to be a couple weeks out from seeing our first nest, it’s time to start preparing!

First, thank you so much to those of you returning for another breeding season in the Tampa Bay area. Your help is so appreciated by myself and the birds – they truly couldn’t have a successful season without you! Next, thank you to those that have signed up to be stewards for the very first time! Your presence out on the beach with the birds is only going to aid in their success and strengthen our stewardship efforts.

If you haven’t had a chance to take a look over the Intro to Bird Stewardship slides, you can click here to view them in PDF format. This will especially be of interest to those that are new to the program and want to learn a bit more about what we do.

We have trainings coming up for a couple of different volunteer opportunities. They are free to attend and open to the public (so please share!), but you must register beforehand to get access to the Zoom links.

·        Bird Steward Training: Sarasota County, April 19^th at 7pm – Register here.

·        Rooftop Volunteer Training, , March 15^th at 6:30pm – Register here. Please contact Kara Cook, Rooftop Biologist, with any additional questions (kara.cook@audubon.org).

After the trainings, we will follow-up with schedules to sign up for volunteer shifts at sites as well as parking information and t-shirt pick-up for new volunteers.

Again, thank you so much for taking the opportunity to help our shorebirds and seabirds in the Sarasota area. We look forward to seeing you on the beach!

Holley Short, Shorebird Program Manager
Audubon Florida, St. Petersburg, FL
352.455.8993
FLbeachbirds.org