Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch Keeps Watch for Nesting Shorebirds

Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and Shorebird Monitoring (AMITWSBM) has started conducting beach nesting bird surveys on Anna Maria Island (AMI) to locate, monitor, and protect imperiled shorebird species nesting on our beaches. In March, American oystercatchers, Least terns, Black skimmers, and Snowy plovers begin scoping out areas to nest in Florida. Nesting shorebirds prefer open sandy areas, gravel, or shell bars with sparse vegetation on sandy beaches, coastal islands, and gravel-tar rooftops. Their nests, called “scrapes,” are shallow saucer-shaped depressions dug on the surface of the sand. Birds may make several scrapes in an area before laying eggs. During this time, birds are very susceptible to disturbance; if flushed while establishing a nest site, they may move to a less suitable location.

AMITWSBM is part of the Florida Shorebird Alliance and conducts surveys to identify areas where shorebirds are establishing nest sites. They look for birds resting on the middle to upper parts of the beach and engaging in mating or courtship behaviors such as offering a stick or fish to their mate. If courting or mating birds are seen in the same location over several days, AMITWSBM will be on the look out for eggs in the scrapes. When eggs are laid, they are speckled to camouflage them from aerial predators such as gulls and crows which means they can accidentally be stepped on by naive beachgoers. When beach-nesting birds are forced to fly or run from their nests, they leave their eggs and chicks susceptible to predators and heat. Therefore, when eggs are observed, AMITWSBM personnel will post a buffer – a stake and string boundary with nesting shorebird signs – around the area to prevent humans from approaching too close. Once a nesting area is posted, AMITWSBM will conduct daily surveys to document the progress of the nest site.