Partner Spotlight: Ann Wiley of the Southeast Florida Shorebird Partnership

Ann Wiley has dedicated the last four years of her summers to monitoring rooftop-nesting birds in South Florida. As a passionate member of the Southeast Florida Shorebird Partnership she works with the FWC and rooftop business owners and managers to protect numerous nesting sites each year. 

Like so many Floridians, Ann is a transplant, originally from Seattle, WA. However, she has called Florida home since 1984 and has been involved in numerous conservation efforts since.  Ann is an ecological tour guide in the Everglades and a volunteer with Sea Turtle Oversight Protection.  While volunteering for sea turtles, Ann first learned about nesting least terns. When starting a night shift with sea turtle watch, her fellow volunteers informed her about beach-nesting least terns and children mistaking their eggs for iguana eggs.  Ann immediately coordinated with FWC Biologist, Ricardo Zambrano, to post the area and because of their efforts least tern chicks fledged from the site. 

Now, Ann routinely monitors rooftop nesting birds.  She is proud of building owners and managers that love breeding seabirds and do all they can to help protect the birds.  Although she counts mostly least terns on rooftops, it is the acrobatic black skimmer that Ann calls favorite. If Ann could do anything she wanted for shorebirds, she would close off large swaths of beaches during the nesting season and only the Queen of England could enter. 

Thank you, Ann, for your ongoing dedication to Florida's shorebirds and seabirds!  Your consistent enthusiasm and support for beach-nesting and rooftop-nesting birds is one of the reasons the Florida Shorebird Alliance is such a success. South Florida wildlife is lucky to have you!

Thank You for Another Successful Breeding Season!

The 2019 shorebird and seabird breeding season is coming to a close.  Another season of hard won gains for some of Florida's most charismatic coastal inhabitants.  As most of our partners know, many of the breeding shorebirds in Florida are management dependent.  Without an army of well-orchestrated stewards, rooftop monitors, route surveyors, biologists, law enforcement officers, and nesting-site sign posters, the birds would have a very difficult time surviving on Florida's busy beaches.   

To all of the volunteers, land managers, interns, students, officers, shorebird staff, partnership coordinators, curious beachgoers, and countless others "THANK YOU" for your ongoing dedication to raising another generation of Florida's beach-nesting birds.  Without the vast network of Florida Shorebird Alliance partners hard at work each season, we would have very different stories to tell.  In every way, your dedication is priceless.  We hope you take time to celebrate your success this season!

Now that the nesting season is coming to a close, we ask you to take a little time to double-check your nesting data for this year. The more you can help us with data review, the more data we will have available for the post-season FSA partnership meetings!

Here’s a quick check list of things to look for:

Are your site locations correct (not in the water or in heavily vegetated areas)?

If the location is correct but the image is old, please add a comment stating that the location is correct.

Do all of the sites have a Final Outcome?

Please remember: for solitary sites, the nesting outcome Complete means that the eggs hatched. If there isn’t a roving chick record to confirm that the nest hatched, please include a comment detailing the evidence that led you to mark the nest as complete. If chicks are never observed and there was no evidence to confirm a successful hatch, mark the nest as No chicks left the nest or I don’t know the outcome of this site.

Are there duplicate entries for any of your visits?

Are your count types correct?

Remember: for colony and rooftop sites, if you could see the entire colony or rooftop, your count type is probably Direct. If you couldn’t see the entire colony or rooftop and you had to do a little bit of math to calculate the count, your count type was an Estimate count. If you’re unsure, you can consult our handy Quick Guide to Count Types. 

Are there any other typos?

Thank you for another dedicated season of shorebird monitoring! Please email FLShorebirdDatabase@MYFWC.com for support.

In Case You Missed It

In July the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission released the 2019 “Florida Shorebird Alliance Monitoring Data at Work” annual report.  Led by FWRI’s shorebird data team, the annual report presents monitoring data from 2011-2018 and summarizes how FSA monitoring data is used to measure progress toward conservation goals, identify information gaps, and adaptively manage for the long-term recovery of shorebird and seabird populations.

The revamped report features:

• Summaries of posting and monitoring effort
• Focal species minimum counts
• Rooftop nesting trends
• An example of the role of predation management in increasing productivity
• Focal species fact sheets

A huge THANK YOU to all of the shorebird monitors, stewards, and FSA partners. This report is a reflection of your hard work and dedication, and we are extremely grateful! Please email us with any questions.