St. Petersburg Audubon Society

2007 Beach-nesting Bird Nesting Season

The 2007 nesting season was an exciting one! Twenty three rooftops supported Least Tern colonies and fledged young. Volunteers worked hard to make sure any chick that fell off a roof got a round-trip ticket back. This year we had more colonies on larger buildings such as grocery stores, and we also noted that the local avian predators are becoming more aware that the terns are on the rooftops. There were fewer Black Skimmers on the rooftops this year (approximately four occupied rooftops), but more American Oystercatchers nested on rooftops (six nests).

Volunteers walked all of the beaches three times in Pinellas County and some in Sarasota and Manatee counties. In addition, volunteers spent hours monitoring and protecting ground colonies. Probably the most exciting successes of the year were the municipal beach colonies of Black Skimmers. A colony on Belleair Beach had over 250 nests and fledged many young. A small colony on Indian Shores had only about 20 nests but also fledged young. In addition, Black Skimmers did well on Egmont Key where a whopping 550 nests were recorded.

There were seven ground-nesting colonies of Least Terns, and colonies at Anclote Bar and Egmont both did fairly well, although they were relatively small. On all of our beaches, a total of 18 American Oystercatcher nests were recorded and eight of those produced chicks. Seven Snowy Plover nests were seen and eight chicks were recorded.

Twenty Wilson’s Plover nests were seen and these produced 23 juveniles. Overall, most of the nesting was on the Northern Islands and Egmont Key, but some nests were seen elsewhere. Pre-posting efforts at both areas and amazing rangers/state & federal biologists produced high nesting success.

Big thanks to all of you who helped monitor, protect and educate! I’m looking forward to next year.