Management and Restoration of Bird Island Rookeries and Beach Nesting Birds

Topic: Management and Restoration of Bird Island Rookeries and Beach Nesting Birds

Discussion Group Leaders: Ann Paul and Mark Rachal, Audubon of Florida Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary, and Rob Patten, Coastal Dunes, Inc.

Birds that nest in colonies are given the name colonial birds. Today this talk is about tree nesting birds. These birds are noisy, have large, odoriferous nests and are slow growing birds. Due to their size, hiding from predators is not an option. Adults nest on islands that don’t have mammalian predators. Mammal deterrence of inland swamp colonies are protected by alligators or currents. Adults on their nest can defend eggs from aerial predators.

Brown pelican species are of special concern. They breed and live year round in Florida. They nest in trees, stay one month on eggs and provide another three months of long term nesting care.

Great blue herons take three months after the eggs hatch for the young to fly from the nest.

Great egrets were hunted nearly to extinction and are still recovering.

Snowy egrets, little blues and tricolored heron are also important species. The reddish egret is the rarest heron in North America; about 375 are nesting in Florida.

We also see some cattle egrets, green herons, black crowned night herons and yellow crowned night heron. White ibis and roseate spoonbill are also tree nesting birds.

Wood storks are endangered both on the state and federal level.

American oystercatchers can also be seen here in Florida.

• How do we manage these birds? What do we do? Cortez Island used to be very active for birds. The job of Audubon is making sure birds are protected, taking census, etc. Cortez Island is a natural mangrove island. At Roberts Bay bird colony, an erosion control device was put into place. We post signs for bird sanctuary and educate the public not to disturb these nesting islands. We also look out for fishing gear and clean up so that birds don’t get entangled. At Bowlees Creek Bird Sanctuary we work on restoration. The island is close to shore, which means it is not a successful nesting colony because of predators, however, it is useful for stopover from migratory birds. Here we have removed non-natives and it is used for nesting by great blue herons.

Questions

Is Bowlees Creek natural?

• It is a dredge spoil island where we killed exotics, put seed down and in the future plan to do planting and let natives bloom.

How can you preserve an area in this time of thin finances?

• If you find island that could be a good island to preserve, how do you move forward with it? You have to really push to get it protected. Someone needs to be the captain and keep pushing to get government response, it is also important to work together between different volunteer groups. Start talking to your local government and be prepared for a long time frame. Encourage individuals, government and volunteer groups to partner with Audubon and each other to make something happen.

What makes these projects fall apart?

• Boat traffic destroys islands like Stickney Point Island, once mud is gone, trees fall down. Little Skiers is also decreasing. Currently, there are no birds on Bird Island that were there historically, these birds have had to move. There is nowhere near the level of population seen historically. This part of the world went through a bottleneck when birds were killed for feathers for hats. This gave rise to wildlife protection like Audubon Society.

Why are tricolored herons declining?

• Birds depended on freshwater foraging areas and lots of wetlands, however, freshwater wetlands are in trouble. They say the nursery is in the estuary but grocery store is in the freshwater wetlands.

Is there concern that wave breaks will provide more access for predators?

• Some different ideas that were proposed would have caused more erosion. So far, there has been no mammal predation for 25 years, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Tidal movement has changed due to breakwater. No mammals have made it out to Roberts Bay Island. However there is concern for fish crow predation (a snow bird that takes chicks from the nest and work as a pack). Aerial predators are an issue, but this isn’t a new issue and the birds will deal with it like they always have. Dogs quickly destroy nesting areas as well.

To what are the greatest losses due?

• Freshwater losses are the most important. We need to protect freshwater wetlands.

Are you aware of any efforts to encourage making more artificial islands?

• We don’t want to create nesting islands right now. It is our goal to protect ones that already exist. However, if creation of new islands does happen, we do have specific ways to do so.

Is the Cortez area fish preserve important to these birds?

• Habitat restoration of fish preserves should help birds. We are working with fish groups.

All of the organizations I’ve worked for have the same types of people, but when you are approaching a group, try to develop relationships with an individual or groups of individuals and make sure you’re with the right people.

• Not only are we trying to protect mangrove islands, but also let them grow and develop and see if mangroves move toward wetland. We should marry the idea of protecting and creating! Also, be prepared to change your goals and be flexible if something you thought would achieve one goal ends up achieving a different goal. Don’t be afraid to make partners with industry that are willing to give back.

Have you seen predation by reptiles?

• Not that we have seen personally, only heard about anecdotally.

Is there concern for reptiles/snakes/taegu lizards going into turtle and bird’s nests?

• Not that we’ve witnessed.

Does Audubon look at exotics and take a stance on them?

• We think they should be eradicated. Also, a huge problem is posed by feral cats. Cats are not native and should be kept indoors. For some, this stance is controversial but Audubon feels feral cats are a very dangerous non-native impact on birds.