Post-season Partnership Meetings
November 4: Nature Coast. Email Blair Hayman (Rebecca.Hayman@MyFWC.com) or Janell Brush (Janell.Brush@MyFWC.com).
November 4: Southeast. Email Natasha Warraich (twarraic@sfwmd.gov).
November 7: Suncoast. Email Holley Short (Holley.Short@audubon.org) or Elizabeth Forys (forysea@eckerd.edu).
November 18: Space Coast. Email Amanda Hipps (Amanda.Hipps@MyFWC.com) or Hailey Dedmon (Hailey.Dedmon@MyFWC.com).
Benefits of returning fallen chicks to rooftop nests
In the Tampa Bay Area, Audubon staff and volunteers go above and beyond to ensure birds like least terns find the habitat they need to raise their young each spring and summer, including gravel rooftops. A new study by Beth Forys, Marianne Korosy, and Jeff Liechty shows how just how effective it is to return chicks to rooftop colonies after they fall.
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Because beach habitat across the region is busy with human visitors, many beach-nesting birds are instead finding refuge on rooftops. While rooftop nesting colonies can be as productive as beach colonies and provide relief from most forms of disturbance, these chicks face a threat unique to rooftops: falling off.
Audubon Florida has monitored rooftop nesting in Florida for decades. Evidence has long suggested that returned-to-roof chicks fare well. Many survive to adulthood and go on to raise their own families.
Over the course of nine years, biologists banded a total of 168 healthy least tern juveniles that had fallen from 16 different nesting rooftops. Fifty of those birds were resighted a total of 347 times, with an overwhelming majority coming from a single, narrow staging beach (not a least tern nesting area) along the Gandy Bridge causeway in the middle of Tampa Bay. Seven of the terns were resighted while nesting: three on nearby beaches, three at rooftop colonies in Pinellas County, and one on a Levy County beach. Resighting birds while they are nesting means they have survived to adulthood and are ready to raise the next generation of least terns.
A 30% resighting rate is good: It means the birds are successfully fledging after placement back on rooftops. The banding study also confirmed that at least 39% of those birds survived to one year of age. After one year of age, 82% of the terns survived each year thereafter.
Returning fallen chicks to the roof results in their long-term survival. The data are valuable for understanding population dynamics and show that putting juveniles back on rooftops is a viable management tool for least terns and potentially other rooftop-nesting seabirds.
Although rooftops may offer an alternative nesting habitat for least terns, juvenile survival likely depends on habitat quality after they leave the rooftop.
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This work would not be possible without dedicated volunteers with St. Pete Audubon Society and Clearwater Audubon Society, who monitored and chick-checked rooftops, rescued chicks, and re-sighted banded birds across the region. Read the published study here: ace-eco.org/vol19/iss1/art7/
Photo by Beth Forys
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The Florida Shorebird Database is closed for the season!
The FSD closes today, November 1, for data entry. Thank you so much to everyone who helped with collecting and entering data this season!
All data entered into the FSD are double-checked as part of the annual review process to make sure everything is collected and entered consistently across the state. Reviewing the data also helps clarify any unique circumstances you may have encountered over the season. This process allows the data to be used in analyses like the abundance estimates. Be on the lookout for emails from the data review team! And thank you in advance for your patience and help reviewing the data!
Do you still have surveys that have not been entered into the FSD yet? Let us know! We can work with you to make sure those are included in the database. Email us at FLShorebirdDatabase@MyFWC.com.
Thank you FSA Monitors!
Thank you for your dedication to shorebird monitoring this season! Your hard work is essential for advancing shorebird and seabird conservation in Florida! We know it's been a hard hurricane season, and even in those tough circumstances, you have done such a great job.
Thank you for being a monitor during the season and thank you for your diligence entering the data in the FSD.
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