2013 Pre-Season Treasure Coast Shorebird Partnership Meeting

2013 Pre-Season Treasure Coast Shorebird Partnership Meeting

Location: St. Lucie County’s Oxbow Eco-Center at 5400 NE St. James Drive, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983

Date: February 20, 2013

Time: 9am – 12pm

Meeting Participants:

Heather Hitt (FWC), Rick Herren (IRC), Alex Kropp (FWC), Naomi Avissar (FWC), Kim Colstad (Coastal Tech), Brian Sharpe (FDEP-IRLAP), Marc Virgilio (FDEP-IRLAP), Rangel Diaz (MDC), Billi Wagner (IRC Breeding Bird Atlas), Ricardo Zambrano (FWC), Carol Rizkalla (FWC), Matthew Koenig (USFWS-Hobe Sound NWR), Niki Desjardin (EAI), Jeff Bach (FPS), Kaitlin O’Toole (Disney), Rachel Smith (Disney), Ryan Welsh (Inwater Research), Ellie Van Os (FOS), Pam Hopkins (FOS)

Presentation on Florida Shorebird Alliance – Naomi Avissar, FWC (see presentation attached)

Round robin for shorebird sighting/issues/challenges last year – Everyone

-Marc Virgilio – monitored spoil islands in SL and IR counties, had some oystercatcher and least terns nesting on a few, some islands have disturbance from recreation, putting signs at the islands might actually draw people in to read them, there are signs at boat ramps with maps of which islands are for conservation and which are for recreation but hard to tell one island from another and these designations are not enforceable.

-Ricardo Zambrano – saw ground nesting in SL county only at power plant but least terns were behind fence and hard to monitor success without employees’ assistance; in MT county there was ground nesting of least terns at Hobe Sound NWR, Jupiter Island and Sailfish Pt (which was dredged this past year though accreted significantly again – this area is pre-posted and monitored by EAI); Bird Island (MC2) had oystercatchers nesting, is posted and will be established as a CWA by November, which is enforceable to keep people off the island.

-Niki Desjardin – monitors lots of beaches in all 3 counties for DEP construction compliance and turtle nesting, surveys for birds while out there (not much nesting).

-Ellie Van Os – checks FOS property, which borders the IRL and has not seen any nesting.

-Billi Wagner – while working on the Breeding Bird Atlas, noted some nesting activity on the roof of the Winn Dixie at Indrio and the Turnpike Feeder in PSL; used to have nesting at Deep Six but they put up an owl decoy; saw lots of species (including Caspian terns and stilts) nesting on Delta Farms (corner of 512 and 60) but not sure if they were successful because permit to visit site was only for 1 month.

-Rick Herren – egret marsh (a water reclamation site monitored by IRC) has some nesting shorebirds; saw killdeers nesting on the beach in IRC; has seen pipingplovers on the beach but no sign of nesting

-Jeffrey Bach – the state park staff monitor their beaches and have seen colonies of seabirds but not much nesting. Jason DePue is developing a statewide monitoring protocol for the FPS which follows FWC’s BBP as a minimum, plus extra monitoring requirements.

-Ryan Welsh – based at the power plant in SLC and monitors that beach area for turtles; only nesting activity seen as behind the fence at the power plant and 2 employees may monitor it but don’t record or report it (Ricardo will get in touch with Jodi Glass and Dave Niche).

Presentation on monitoring rooftops and overview of historic rooftop sites – Ricardo Zambrano, FWC (see presentation attached)

Review of survey methods, count windows, and entering data into the website – Alex Kropp, FWC (see presentation attached)

Schedule monitoring/in-the-field training activities for rooftops, spoil islands and beaches – Heather Hitt, FWC

-All historic rooftops in MT and IR counties were assigned a volunteer to check for activity, though if there is nesting we may need to recruit more volunteers for chick-checking

-Need to reach out to people in SLC (Audubon?) for checking rooftops

-Suggestion to approach schools about rooftop projects- build platforms and set up webcams, etc.

-If anyone sees rooftop activity let Heather know

-Heather will keep a chick-a-boom at her office in Vero in case anyone needs it

-See attached excel spreadsheet for roof and route survey assignments

-Heather will send out a doodle poll for in the field training activities on monitoring/chick-checking at rooftops and beach surveys (may combine training with Space Coast Partnership)