In this IssueMay 11. Global Big Day and World Migratory Bird Day May 13 - 19. May count window for the Breeding Bird Protocol. Whenever possible, weekly surveys are preferred for routes with active nesting. May 25 - 27. Memorial Day Weekend! Shorebirds and seabirds nesting along the coast need more support during busy holiday weekends. Can you help? Please check the FSA website. TrainingsMay 2. 6.30pm. Bird Stewardship Training. Black Skimmer Colonies in Pinellas County (virtual, by Zoom). For more information, please contact Holley Short. Link to join: https://audubon.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJckf-qtrzMuH9RLnEHT5YxZP1Ya9RHZWCKp May 22. 10am. In person Rooftop Monitor Training. Brevard County. Exact location TBD. For more information, please contact Amanda Hipps.  | | If you like talking about birds, and want to be a part of essential shorebird and seabird conservation work in Florida, consider becoming a Bird Steward!Bird Stewards play an important role in shorebird conservation by chaperoning nesting sites and chicks on busy beaches. |
While chaperoning sites, stewards also educate beachgoers about the incredible birds that rely on Florida's coasts to breed, feed and rest. Bird Stewards are needed at shorebird nesting areas during the breeding season, especially during high beach traffic weekends and holidays. Learn more about becoming a Bird Steward. To sign up, contact your local Audubon Stewardship Coordinator below and they will get you trained to be a Bird Steward. Training includes information about the specifics of the nesting site, how to identify imperiled shorebird species of Florida and how to effectively educate the public. Northeast. Timucuan Shorebird Partnership beaches include Huguenot Memorial Park, Talbot Islands, Ft. Clinch, and others. St. Johns Flagler Shorebird Partnership beaches include Anastasia State Park, Julia’s Island, Ft. Matanzas, and others. Contact Chris Farrell. Florida Panhandle. Pensacola Beach, Navarre Beach & Causeway in Santa Rosa County. Beaches in Walton, Bay, Gulf, and Franklin counties. Rooftop monitoring and chick-checking at various sites from Pensacola to Panama City. Apply here for Northwest Florida/Panhandle. Tampa Bay. For beach nesting and rooftop-nesting stewarding in Ft. De Soto Park, Shell Key Preserve, contact Logan Davis / Redington Shores, St. Pete Beach in Pinellas County, contact Shannon Curran / Three Rooker Island, located north of Honeymoon Island with boat transportation provided for volunteers, please contact Colton Bailey / Rooftop monitoring and chick-checking at various sites in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Sarasota counties, please contact Kara Cook / Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key in Sarasota County, contact Emily Briner. West/Southwest Florida. Locations where we work include beaches and rooftops in Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties. Apply here for West/Southwest Florida. Southwest Florida. For Lee County beaches include Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area of Fort Myers Beach, North Captiva Island, and other areas. Contact Madison Krueger. Collier County beaches include Big Marco Pass, Second Chance, and Caxambas Critical Wildlife Areas and other areas. Contact Kailey Kurth. All stewarding is undertaken in cooperation between Audubon Florida and the Florida Shorebird Alliance. Your involvement is greatly needed and appreciated! Photo by Jean Hall Community Based Social Marketing as an approach to changing human behavior to benefit shorebird conservationEvery year, as we flock to our favorite beach destinations for sun and fun, shorebirds and seabirds return to Florida’s coasts from their wintering locations as far away as the Caribbean and South America. Not only does our beach serve as an important stopover for many bird species that are recharging and refueling from their cross-continent journeys, it also provides essential habitat for birds to nest and raise their young right here on the beach. When people unintentionally disturb birds with their activities on the beach, they prevent them from getting the resources they need to survive. This is referred to as human disturbance. When dogs and people knowingly or unknowingly get too close, birds can be disrupted while trying to search for food, and adult birds may be frightened away from their eggs and chicks–which they spend all season tirelessly protecting. This leaves their babies vulnerable to fatally high temperatures, being eaten by gulls and other predators, and even being crushed under foot or paw. While these acts may be unintentional, it’s important to give birds space and keep them safe. Part of being safe includes birds being able to eat and rest enough to survive. We all share the shore! Human disturbance is a leading threat to shorebird survival to many bird species along the Atlantic Flyway. Audubon, Virginia Tech, Manomet, USFWS, and the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative (AFSI) are working together on a collaborative, multi-pronged project aimed to directly address the threat of human disturbance to shorebirds. Among other resources, AFSI has created a guide that applies social science such as Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) to address human disturbance on shorebirds.  CBSM uses psychology and marketing techniques to encourage people to change their behavior. It focuses on working at the community-level to promote engaging in a behavior by removing barriers/constraints to the behavior and increasing benefits of the behavior. It has been used in a range of fields such as agriculture, conservation, energy, transportation, waste reduction, pollution, water efficiency, and watershed protection (McKenzie-Mohr, 2011). The approach recommends several strategies that can be applied together or individually to increase the benefits and encourage the behavior. The Guide to Applying Science and Management Insights and Human Behavior Change Strategies to Address Beach Walking and Dog Disturbance Along the Atlantic Flyway describes all of them and provides examples of how they can be applied. To go deeper in CBSM, visit the AFSI resources website and learn more about human disturbance and how shorebird protection can be addressed country-wide. |
 All About RooftopsThe 2024 breeding season is here, and rooftop-nesting birds are starting to nest! Here are a few tips on entering rooftop data, and how to retire rooftops from the Database. Thank you to all FSA partners who have been busy collecting and entering data so far! If you have questions or need assistance with data entry or collection, email us at FLShorebirdDatabase@MyFWC.com. We are happy to help! Rooftop Data Entry Tips When entering rooftop surveys into the FSD, there are three options to report rooftop nesting status: - No nesting yet this year: If no shorebirds or seabirds have been seen at the rooftop yet this breeding season, then the nest status should be reported as No Nesting Yet This Year.
- Active: As soon as a rooftop nesting shorebird or seabird is seen using the roof, then the nest status should be reported as Active. The rooftop will be considered Active for as long as birds are seen or heard on roof, hovering over the roof, or flying to and from the roof.
- No longer active: Rooftops are considered No Longer Active when the birds that were nesting on the rooftop are not currently present at the rooftop.
Remember that a rooftop can only be reported as No Longer Active if the rooftop has been Active at least once during the current breeding season. Likewise, once a rooftop has been reported as Active, it cannot later be reported as No Nesting Yet This Year. Instead, it should be reported as No Longer Active. If birds return to the rooftop, then the rooftop can be reported as Active again.  Retiring Rooftops We retire a rooftop from the FSD when a rooftop is no longer suitable for nesting, such as when a rooftop is reroofed with non-gravel material or the building is torn down. A rooftop that has been deemed no longer suitable for nesting does not need to be monitored. The FSD data team will retire the rooftop from the database, and you can focus your monitoring efforts elsewhere. Do you know of a rooftop that needs to be retired? Let us and your local partnership coordinator know! Email us at FLShorebirdDatabase@MyFWC.com. Be sure to include (a) the rooftop name and location, (b) why the rooftop is no longer suitable, and (c) when the rooftop became unsuitable. The FSD data team retires rooftops in batches several times a year. There may be a delay between when you report a rooftop for retirement and when the rooftop is retired from the database. Thank you! Your participation in this process helps us keep the list of suitable rooftops as accurate as possible. 2024 Global Big DayBe a part of birding’s biggest team! Global Big Day is an annual celebration of the birds around you. Join on May 11, help celebrate World Migratory Bird Day, and share the birds you find with eBird. | |  |
Participating is easy — if you have 5 or 10 minutes, report your bird observations to eBird online or with the free eBird Mobile app. If you have more time, submit several checklists of birds throughout the day. Your observations help to better understand global bird populations through products like these animated abundance maps brought to you by eBird Science. Last year, Global Big Day collected more data about birds on a single day than ever before. More than 58,000 people gathered 3.2 million bird observations on 148,000 checklists, setting new world records for a single day of birding. Learn more and participate at Global Big Day 2024. | 
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