WEBVTT

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[Mark] Everyone thank you for joining us today for our

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webinar, Nesting Waterbirds of Coastal North Carolina,

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we welcome Lindsay Addison as our presenter.

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I'm Mark Losavio, the Media and Outreach Coordinator

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for Monitor in Malice Bay, Potomac River

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National Marine Sanctuaries and I'll be your host today.

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[Jessie] And I am Jessie Frayser, the Education Outreach

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Support Specialist for Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

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and I'll be your co-host.

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[Mark] This webinar is brought to you by

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NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary

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in collaboration with the North Carolina

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Office of State Archeology.

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Partnering since 1975, NOAA and the state of

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North Carolina work to research, honor and protect

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the hallmarks of North Carolina's underwater

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cultural heritage, shipwrecks.

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These shipwrecks hold information

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about the ever-changing

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technologies and cultural and physical landscapes.

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They serve as uniquely accessible underwater museum

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and a memorial to generations of Mariners who lived,

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died, worked and fought off of our shores.

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This is one of the many webinars we'll be hosting

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in the coming months for submerged NC webinar series

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in collaboration with the North Carolina Office of State

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Archeology.

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[Jessie] Monitor is just one of the 15 national marine

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sanctuaries and two marine national monuments in the

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National Marine Sanctuary system.

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The system encompasses more than 620,000 square miles

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of Marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington state

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to the Florida Keys and from Lake Huron to American Samoa.

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During the presentation, all attendees will be

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in listen-only mode. You are welcome to type questions

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for the presenter into the question box at the bottom

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of the control panel on the right hand side of your screen.

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This is the same area, you can let us know

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about any technical issues you may be having

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that we can help you with.

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We'll be monitoring

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incoming questions and technical issues and we'll respond

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to them as soon as we can.

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We're recording this session and we'll share the recording

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with registered participants via the webinar archive page.

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A URL for this webpage will be provided at the end

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of the presentation.

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[Mark] So without further ado, we'd like to welcome

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Lindsay Addison, oh the coastal biologist for

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Audubon North Carolina and I will go ahead

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and change presenter here.

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Take it away.

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[Lindsay] All right, hello everybody and thank you very much

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for having me today and for attending.

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As was stated, I'm the coastal biologist for

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Audubon North Carolina and I'm gonna give everybody today

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a little tour of the nesting birds of North Carolina

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and I'm also gonna throw in a few non breeding birds,

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so I decided to make the title of my presentation

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very broad.

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And what I'd like to start off with is a little bit

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of background just on what is Audubon and why does

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the Audubon Society exist?

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So the reason the Audubon Society exists is because

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of the feathers coming out of this bird's rear end.

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They're called plumes or egrets, and they're

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the courtship plumage that herons and egrets grow

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every year in order to display and attract a mate.

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They also displayed and attracted a lot of interest

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from the fashion industry of the late 1800s

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and early 1900s.

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These feathers and indeed actual taxidermied parts

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or entire birds were incorporated into fashionable dress,

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namely women's hats. And as a result, these birds were

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hunted very heavily

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at a market type of scale in order to obtain these feathers

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and the feathers were so valuable that they were worth

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more per ounce than gold back at the turn of last century.

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So that's quite a lot of money and the way that

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these feathers would be obtained, was not through

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picking them up after the birds molted them out,

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but by shooting them while they were still on the birds.

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So basically people would go to the areas

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where these birds nest and they nest in groups

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called colonies and they would spook them all up

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by whooping and hollering and then they would shoot them.

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So this is not the type of of harvest that that populations

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can sustain and people of the day began to notice

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that these birds were diminishing in number

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and various Audubon societies were formed

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in order to protect the nesting sites.

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And in fact, in many states, Audubon societies

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were the precursor to state wildlife agencies,

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that fact is true in North Carolina as well

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as in other states.

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And and what these Audubon societies did was they hired

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wardens to protect areas that they either bought,

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so they owned them or had some other agreement to protect,

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and they also advocated to protect birds

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through legislation and through education.

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So folks that were worried about birds

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would let other people know that,

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"Hey, when you wear this hat with these feathers in it,

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it's actually getting these birds killed

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and it's not worth it."

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So that was very effective and the advocacy side of it

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in the legislature was very protective.

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You may have heard of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

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that was enacted back in 1917 and was a direct result

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of these efforts centered around preventing the plume trade

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from driving birds like great egrets and great blue herons

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to extinction.

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So it was very successful and these Audubon societies

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kind of continued throughout the 1900s educating people,

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trying to get kids into birdwatching,

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trying to gather data about birds.

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And now that we're here in the present day,

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the National Audubon Society still exists.

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I work for the state office of the

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North Carolina State Office of the National Audubon Society.

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And we face various different threats,

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not hunting for plumes, but a multitude of other threats

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that affect coastal birds, especially nesting birds.

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And some of these are natural, some of these are manmade

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and some of these are kind of a synergy between natural

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and anthropogenic sources.

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So for example, nesting birds on the coast do have to

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deal with over wash and flooding from storms,

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king tides and other sources of inundation

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such as hurricanes, but those problems are exacerbated

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by sea level rise, which is a result

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of anthropogenic climate change.

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Another example of a threat to coastal birds is

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coastal development, which can result in

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degradation of habitat and some coastal development

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and some coastal engineering projects are a response

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to issues that are exacerbated by climate change.

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We also have temperature stress on beaches,

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especially due to the way that the sand gets very,

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very hot during the heat of the day.

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If you have ever tried to walk across the beach

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without wearing your flip flops,

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you have probably experienced this.

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But if you put a thermometer on the surface of the sand

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on a typical hot day in North Carolina,

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you'll see that that thermometer registers over

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150 degrees Fahrenheit.

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So these birds really need to spend time with their nests,

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keeping their eggs cool and their chicks cool

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just as much as they need to keep them warm

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during rain events or cool overnights during the spring.

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Another challenge for these birds is depredation by a whole

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variety of predators, everything from gulls and crows

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to raccoons and foxes and a lot of these animals

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that are problems as far as being predators on these species

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are generalist species.

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They can eat lots of different things, they can live

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in lots of different habitats and coastal birds tend to be

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specialists that want a very specific habitat to nest in.

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And these generalist predator species can take advantage of

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human food sources such as our trash cans,

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they can take advantage of special things like crawl spaces

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that give them extra access to denning, breeding areas.

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So we actually can increase their populations artificially

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and then when you have too many raccoons or too many foxes,

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it can really be a problem for success of of nesting birds,

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especially those species, such as the least terns

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that you see in the picture here that nest on the ground.

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And finally, another threat that coastal birds face

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year round, but especially during nesting when they

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need to be, again, regulating the temperature of their eggs

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and their chicks and protecting them from predators

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is disturbance from people and pets.

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So causing birds to flush up away from their young

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or simply causing them to flush up and waste their energy

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during migration or winter when they need those calories

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for survival and not for fleeing from people

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is also a problem.

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So we face a whole lot of

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different challenges on the coast with managing birds

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and so that's informs a large part of our work.

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And what we do in North Carolina in our coast program

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is we manage a network of sanctuary sites

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that consists of about 15 islands represented by

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the little black dots that you see on the map.

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And those black dots support somewhere between 35 to 40%

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of North Carolina's nesting coastal waterbirds every year.

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So we manage a very significant portion of the population of

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these species in the state and we do that

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with one full-time person, two seasonal staff members

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and a host of volunteers.

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And if you're wondering what does 40% of

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North Carolina's nesting coastal waterbird population

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look like, that's over 40,000 nesting adults.

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So quite a lot of birds and these are a lot of different

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species, which I'll give you a brief overview of

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in a moment.

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What type of work do we do on our sanctuary sites?

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We do managing, monitoring and research.

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Management is any activity that you do to try to improve

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or enhance habitat for birds or whatever your target species

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might be.

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In the upper left hand corner, you can see

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volunteers helping to put up a posting and a lot of our work

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around, especially nesting birds, is trying to reduce

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anthropogenic disturbance, so putting up signs

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and string helps to keep people away from sensitive

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nesting areas during those critical times of year.

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We also do habitat modification, enhancement,

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creation in order to sustain nesting habitat

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and in the lower right hand you can see a controlled burn

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on one of our islands in order to remove vegetation,

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so species that want to nest on the open bear sand

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will have access the following spring.

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We also do monitoring, so monitoring is basically

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how you know if your management is doing any good.

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This could involve bird surveys, it could involve doing

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nest tracking to see how many eggs are laid

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and how many chicks are fledged and then finally,

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research is answering a specific type of question

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that you might develop.

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So that's a more directed specific type of project

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and the whole goal of all of this work is to preserve

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a stable and diverse shorebird, waterbird populations

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for North Carolina and indeed for the Southeast.

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And we want to make sure that our sanctuaries provide

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opportunities for research and study of shorebird

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and waterbird ecology, specifically with projects

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that have relevance to their conservation.

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And so these are more specifically examples of where we work

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around the state, just to give you an idea.

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So our work is primarily in the sanctuary system

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is primarily focused in the Southern half of the state

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from Ocracoke Inlet all the way down to Brunswick County

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and the type of work that we do at the areas with the

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red stars is productivity monitoring,

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which is more intensive tracking of pairs

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and their nesting success.

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So we might follow the nest of a variety of species

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in any given year, oystercatchers, black skimmers,

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gull-billed tern, least terns, piping plovers,

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Wilson's plovers, those are examples of species

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whose nests we've monitored.

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And that involves visiting them several times a week

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to see how they're doing, see how many nests they lay

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and determine the fate of those nests

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and then if they hatch, determine the fate of those chicks.

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Other nesting seasoned work, including keeping track of

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how many species are using each site as well as doing

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sea turtle monitoring on our Barrier island site

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involves less frequent visit and various types of censuses

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where we report the outcome of that data to the state.

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And of course we do management at all sites as needed

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and type of management just depends on the site

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and its various needs.

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So what type of islands do these birds like to nest on,

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on our sanctuaries?

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00:13:37.770 --> 00:13:40.260
There's three main types of islands that we

259
00:13:40.260 --> 00:13:43.890
kind of categorize and the first one is just natural islands

260
00:13:43.890 --> 00:13:45.180
that are not barrier islands.

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00:13:45.180 --> 00:13:49.350
So usually these are marshy, they are,

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00:13:49.350 --> 00:13:52.530
as the title suggests, not made by people,

263
00:13:52.530 --> 00:13:56.370
they just ended up there by natural forces.

264
00:13:56.370 --> 00:13:59.940
And that's what you're looking at there in the upper

265
00:13:59.940 --> 00:14:04.620
left hand corner is an example of what we call a shell rake.

266
00:14:04.620 --> 00:14:07.740
And so this is actually, it might look like sand

267
00:14:07.740 --> 00:14:09.870
because it's light in color, it's actually a mix

268
00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:13.020
of some sand, but mostly old oyster shell.

269
00:14:13.020 --> 00:14:16.740
And these shell rakes, fringe marshes in a lot of places

270
00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:19.710
and they're created by the presence of oysters

271
00:14:19.710 --> 00:14:22.900
and as oysters age out of the population and their shells

272
00:14:24.093 --> 00:14:28.290
fall onto the sea floor, they get pushed up by wave energy

273
00:14:28.290 --> 00:14:31.260
and storms to form these windrows along the edge

274
00:14:31.260 --> 00:14:34.740
of marsh islands and they create wonderful nesting habitat

275
00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:36.660
for a variety of different species.

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00:14:36.660 --> 00:14:39.340
Things like oystercatchers, willetts, laughing gulls

277
00:14:40.218 --> 00:14:41.816
like to nest on them.

278
00:14:41.816 --> 00:14:43.800
Another type of island the birds nest on are called dredged

279
00:14:43.800 --> 00:14:46.740
material islands and these are islands that are manmade.

280
00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:50.700
Either whole cloth, meaning there was never an island

281
00:14:50.700 --> 00:14:54.630
there before and now there is, or some islands

282
00:14:54.630 --> 00:14:57.930
were natural at one point, but they received dredge material

283
00:14:57.930 --> 00:14:59.700
back in the day when you could pretty much do

284
00:14:59.700 --> 00:15:04.700
whatever you wanted with dredging and they were created

285
00:15:04.931 --> 00:15:08.610
generally through the maintenance of navigation channels.

286
00:15:08.610 --> 00:15:10.950
So especially the US Army Corps of Engineers,

287
00:15:10.950 --> 00:15:13.350
which is tasked with maintaining navigational channels

288
00:15:13.350 --> 00:15:16.890
in the United States, when they do a dredge project,

289
00:15:16.890 --> 00:15:19.710
they will often come to us or whatever other

290
00:15:19.710 --> 00:15:23.190
relevant organization is working in that area

291
00:15:23.190 --> 00:15:25.200
to see if there's a place that they can put

292
00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.200
the dredge material that would be beneficial to wildlife.

293
00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:32.340
And as you can see, these are big sandy mounds

294
00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:35.280
for the most part, these are the types of dredged islands

295
00:15:35.280 --> 00:15:38.460
that birds like to nest on and they provide

296
00:15:38.460 --> 00:15:40.890
wonderful habitat, they can kind of stand in

297
00:15:40.890 --> 00:15:44.610
for a sandy habitat that is not available elsewhere

298
00:15:44.610 --> 00:15:47.190
and in the photo on the upper right you might notice

299
00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:49.710
there's kind of a cloud of of white dots, that's about

300
00:15:49.710 --> 00:15:53.460
6,000 royal terns all flushing up because a bald eagle

301
00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:54.293
flew overhead.

302
00:15:54.293 --> 00:15:59.293
I happened to be at the site watching from a distance

303
00:15:59.310 --> 00:16:03.180
and I got to see this site of all of these birds

304
00:16:03.180 --> 00:16:06.630
hitting the air at once, bald eagles are predators

305
00:16:06.630 --> 00:16:10.110
and can cause quite a lot of damage to a nesting colony,

306
00:16:10.110 --> 00:16:14.700
so they were reacting completely appropriately

307
00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:16.710
to that flyover.

308
00:16:16.710 --> 00:16:18.810
And I should say that the top two pictures,

309
00:16:18.810 --> 00:16:21.060
the natural and the dregged-material island photos

310
00:16:21.060 --> 00:16:24.030
are from the Cape Fear River, which is a really important

311
00:16:24.030 --> 00:16:27.213
area in North Carolina for nesting coastal waterbirds.

312
00:16:28.321 --> 00:16:32.070
Finally, barrier islands are natural islands as well,

313
00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:34.650
but we separate them out because they're kind of unique

314
00:16:34.650 --> 00:16:35.820
in their character.

315
00:16:35.820 --> 00:16:40.200
They're these narrow ribbons of sand fronted by a beach

316
00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:43.508
and usually on the sound side there's some type of marsh

317
00:16:43.508 --> 00:16:45.360
system.

318
00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.131
And one of the interesting things about barrier islands

319
00:16:48.131 --> 00:16:50.161
is that they are actually supposed to move,

320
00:16:50.161 --> 00:16:52.440
they're supposed to change, they're very dynamic systems.

321
00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:56.610
And when an island is undeveloped, it can do that,

322
00:16:56.610 --> 00:17:00.150
the dunes can get knocked over by hurricanes

323
00:17:00.150 --> 00:17:02.608
and form big sandy expanses.

324
00:17:02.608 --> 00:17:03.930
And then the dunes regrow

325
00:17:03.930 --> 00:17:07.830
and there's a whole process of kind of dynamic creation

326
00:17:07.830 --> 00:17:11.864
and destruction that actually sustains, maintains, creates,

327
00:17:11.864 --> 00:17:14.790
and destroys bird habitat as well as habitat

328
00:17:14.790 --> 00:17:15.900
for other wildlife.

329
00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:19.170
It becomes more challenging for birds to nest

330
00:17:19.170 --> 00:17:22.140
on developed barrier islands simply due to the fact

331
00:17:22.140 --> 00:17:25.000
that they are no longer as dynamic, they're being kind of

332
00:17:25.995 --> 00:17:27.210
artificially held in one place.

333
00:17:27.210 --> 00:17:30.060
And so there is less habitat usually available,

334
00:17:30.060 --> 00:17:33.240
but on developed barrier islands, the ends,

335
00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:37.740
the spits at the terminus of of the island are usually good

336
00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:40.350
areas for nesting birds and that's usually on

337
00:17:40.350 --> 00:17:43.563
developed islands where you will find nesting birds.

338
00:17:45.060 --> 00:17:47.730
So why do birds like to nest on islands?

339
00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:52.080
One of the things about birds is that a lot of the species

340
00:17:52.080 --> 00:17:55.380
we work with nest on the ground or in low shrubs

341
00:17:55.380 --> 00:17:58.800
and that means that mammalian predators just really can't be

342
00:17:58.800 --> 00:18:00.361
a big thing.

343
00:18:00.361 --> 00:18:03.780
As discussed before, overabundant mammalian predators

344
00:18:03.780 --> 00:18:05.910
are a big threat to nesting birds.

345
00:18:05.910 --> 00:18:10.080
So islands that are isolated enough, far enough away

346
00:18:10.080 --> 00:18:12.870
from land or small enough that they don't really support

347
00:18:12.870 --> 00:18:17.070
populations of foxes or raccoons year round are ideal

348
00:18:17.070 --> 00:18:17.903
for nesting.

349
00:18:17.903 --> 00:18:20.130
And it was really hard to find a picture

350
00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:23.044
of a raccoon that didn't look cute and friendly,

351
00:18:23.044 --> 00:18:27.240
so that is the meanest raccoon picture I've found.

352
00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:31.440
Islands also need to be high enough above the high tide line

353
00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:35.100
or even above the high, high tide line to avoid flooding,

354
00:18:35.100 --> 00:18:38.040
so we really can't have flooding, they need to have

355
00:18:38.040 --> 00:18:41.490
enough elevation to prevent nests from being swept away.

356
00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:45.330
And last of all, you wanna have the right type of habitat,

357
00:18:45.330 --> 00:18:47.700
whether that's a sandy substrate as in the case

358
00:18:47.700 --> 00:18:50.640
of this oyster catcher nest, or whether it's a tree

359
00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:53.580
or a shrub that a heron or an egret might like to nest in,

360
00:18:53.580 --> 00:18:55.260
you need to have the appropriate habitat

361
00:18:55.260 --> 00:18:59.490
and islands do provide a variety of habitats for nesting

362
00:18:59.490 --> 00:19:02.797
birds along the North Carolina coastline,

363
00:19:02.797 --> 00:19:05.550
so that's what we're looking at for islands

364
00:19:05.550 --> 00:19:07.980
being good habitat for birds.

365
00:19:07.980 --> 00:19:11.264
So I wanna kind of go through and talk about

366
00:19:11.264 --> 00:19:14.004
some of the species nesting on these islands.

367
00:19:14.004 --> 00:19:16.189
And it's interesting because a lot of times people go

368
00:19:16.189 --> 00:19:17.907
to the beach and if they go to the middle

369
00:19:17.907 --> 00:19:20.498
of a developed barrier island and kind of do

370
00:19:20.498 --> 00:19:22.710
the typical human beach thing, you might not see these birds

371
00:19:22.710 --> 00:19:25.030
if you go to the ends of the barrier islands

372
00:19:25.881 --> 00:19:30.881
where the inlets are or if you take some kind of eco tour,

373
00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:34.680
you might go to some other estuarine natural islands

374
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:37.320
or passage dredged material island and get to see

375
00:19:37.320 --> 00:19:38.827
these guys.

376
00:19:38.827 --> 00:19:41.640
But a lot of people just don't get to see these

377
00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.400
nesting birds because again, these are islands tend to be

378
00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:48.510
fairly remote, fairly isolated and not necessarily

379
00:19:48.510 --> 00:19:51.900
where the vast majority of people are spending their time

380
00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:53.970
recreating and vacationing on the Carolina coast.

381
00:19:53.970 --> 00:19:56.250
So the first species I'm gonna talk about are royal

382
00:19:56.250 --> 00:19:59.604
and sandwich terns and they're kind of whooped together

383
00:19:59.604 --> 00:20:00.437
with some other species that aren't found

384
00:20:00.437 --> 00:20:03.270
in North Carolina as crested terns because they have,

385
00:20:03.270 --> 00:20:06.239
as you could see, kind of that shaggy mohawk

386
00:20:06.239 --> 00:20:07.860
on the back of their head.

387
00:20:07.860 --> 00:20:10.610
So they are business in the front and party in the back

388
00:20:12.118 --> 00:20:17.118
and we are presenting for you the numbers of pairs nesting

389
00:20:18.300 --> 00:20:21.453
on Audubon managed sites in North Carolina.

390
00:20:22.449 --> 00:20:27.420
So you could see for most recent complete year of data,

391
00:20:27.420 --> 00:20:31.110
we had over 3,500 pairs of royal terns and over 1200 pairs

392
00:20:31.110 --> 00:20:33.570
of sandwich terns nesting on Audubon sites

393
00:20:33.570 --> 00:20:37.200
and that's over a third of the North Carolina population.

394
00:20:37.200 --> 00:20:39.900
As you can see, both of these species nest

395
00:20:39.900 --> 00:20:42.000
in very dense colonies.

396
00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:43.440
All of the birds with the

397
00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:47.370
orange bells are royal terns and they incubate

398
00:20:47.370 --> 00:20:52.370
for about four weeks and even though they are nesting

399
00:20:52.978 --> 00:20:56.550
very densely, they can locate their own specific egg

400
00:20:56.550 --> 00:21:00.240
in all of this and the eggs are in fact quite variable.

401
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.880
They have different shading on them, different patterns

402
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.240
of spots, so that probably helps them to locate their egg

403
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.000
as well as the bird's ability to remember spatially

404
00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:12.420
where within the colony their nest is located.

405
00:21:12.420 --> 00:21:16.050
And unlike some of the other species we manage these birds

406
00:21:16.050 --> 00:21:19.410
typically lay only one egg and they lavish a lot of care

407
00:21:19.410 --> 00:21:21.393
and attention on their only chick.

408
00:21:22.765 --> 00:21:25.170
And they have to take care of those chicks for five

409
00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:28.560
to six weeks before they fledge and they start off

410
00:21:28.560 --> 00:21:30.810
when they first hatch, spending time as cute

411
00:21:30.810 --> 00:21:34.170
little fuzzy guys with the individual parents.

412
00:21:34.170 --> 00:21:37.259
Both the male and the female take care of the egg

413
00:21:37.259 --> 00:21:38.100
and take care of the chick.

414
00:21:38.100 --> 00:21:41.054
But when they reach about somewhere between two

415
00:21:41.054 --> 00:21:42.780
to three weeks of age, the chicks all start

416
00:21:42.780 --> 00:21:45.300
grouping together and they form what's called a creche

417
00:21:45.300 --> 00:21:48.743
and that's basically a herd of thousands of tern

418
00:21:48.743 --> 00:21:51.780
chicks roaming around one of these dredge-material

419
00:21:51.780 --> 00:21:53.379
islands and it's quite a site.

420
00:21:53.379 --> 00:21:55.140
It looks like a whole bunch of little sheep.

421
00:21:55.140 --> 00:21:59.580
And the adults will watch over the flock of chicks,

422
00:21:59.580 --> 00:22:02.280
but they will pretty much only feed their own chicks

423
00:22:02.280 --> 00:22:05.040
and we think they recognize each other by the

424
00:22:05.040 --> 00:22:07.410
distinctiveness of their calls.

425
00:22:07.410 --> 00:22:10.050
As the adults fly in with fish that they've caught

426
00:22:10.050 --> 00:22:13.710
from the ocean, they cry out and the chicks respond

427
00:22:13.710 --> 00:22:16.263
and they meet up and the chick is fed.

428
00:22:17.130 --> 00:22:19.380
One of the interesting things about royal terns

429
00:22:19.380 --> 00:22:22.740
as well as sandwich terns is that they're almost

430
00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:25.830
entirely dependent on barrier islands for nesting

431
00:22:25.830 --> 00:22:29.820
in North Carolina and indeed throughout much of their range.

432
00:22:29.820 --> 00:22:32.340
So dredge material islands, I think I said barrier islands,

433
00:22:32.340 --> 00:22:36.300
but anyway they pretty much only nest on dredge-material

434
00:22:36.300 --> 00:22:38.280
islands in the state.

435
00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:43.280
And as you can see from the bar chart below, well over 80%,

436
00:22:43.320 --> 00:22:48.147
in most cases, over 90% of royal terns nest on

437
00:22:48.147 --> 00:22:50.272
dredge-material islands.

438
00:22:50.272 --> 00:22:51.813
And that's partially because of habitat loss,

439
00:22:53.105 --> 00:22:55.730
some of the lower islands in Pamlico Sound

440
00:22:55.730 --> 00:22:58.620
or Core Sound have eroded away over the years

441
00:22:58.620 --> 00:23:02.940
and they don't have a natural site to nest on.

442
00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:05.340
And another challenge of course is that there's not a lot of

443
00:23:05.340 --> 00:23:09.378
barrier island nesting habitat available due to development,

444
00:23:09.378 --> 00:23:11.610
especially in the Southern part of the states.

445
00:23:11.610 --> 00:23:15.497
So they have really done well by adapting to use of

446
00:23:15.497 --> 00:23:17.588
dredge-material islands.

447
00:23:17.588 --> 00:23:18.826
And as you can see,

448
00:23:18.826 --> 00:23:22.170
the process of maintaining a dredge-material island

449
00:23:22.170 --> 00:23:24.270
can also maintain bird habitat.

450
00:23:24.270 --> 00:23:27.240
On the left hand side, this is a island called

451
00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:31.020
Ferry Slip Island located on this South Pelican Island

452
00:23:31.020 --> 00:23:34.937
located on the Cape Fear River and on the left you can see

453
00:23:34.937 --> 00:23:39.937
what it looked like prior to a dredge-material deposit.

454
00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:44.100
It was very vegetated and not a very good habitat

455
00:23:44.100 --> 00:23:46.380
for royal or sandwich terns, because these are one of those

456
00:23:46.380 --> 00:23:49.830
species that wants to nest out on open bare sand.

457
00:23:49.830 --> 00:23:53.100
And when the navigational channel got a little bit

458
00:23:53.100 --> 00:23:56.880
too full of sand, the US Army Corps of Engineers came along

459
00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:59.070
and they basically ran a pipeline dredge

460
00:23:59.070 --> 00:24:00.840
from the channel onto the island.

461
00:24:00.840 --> 00:24:04.127
And you could see in the the middle picture there,

462
00:24:04.127 --> 00:24:04.960
on the left hand side of that picture,

463
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:07.410
there's a pipe that is spraying out slurry,

464
00:24:07.410 --> 00:24:10.560
which is a mix of water and sand and the bulldozer

465
00:24:10.560 --> 00:24:13.530
shapes it and then at the end of the project you end up

466
00:24:13.530 --> 00:24:16.200
with beautiful new sand habitat.

467
00:24:16.200 --> 00:24:19.448
This is same island after that project

468
00:24:19.448 --> 00:24:22.470
and that provides wonderful nesting habitat

469
00:24:22.470 --> 00:24:24.183
for these and other species.

470
00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:30.140
Another type of species and one of the most well-liked birds

471
00:24:30.330 --> 00:24:32.970
on the coast is the brown pelican.

472
00:24:32.970 --> 00:24:37.970
Audubon has usually between 1,015 pairs nesting

473
00:24:38.070 --> 00:24:41.970
on our sites and the brown pelican is one of those species

474
00:24:41.970 --> 00:24:45.600
that can nest in a lot of different habitats.

475
00:24:45.600 --> 00:24:48.330
They'll nest in trees and shrubs and they'll also nest in

476
00:24:48.330 --> 00:24:49.692
grass.

477
00:24:49.692 --> 00:24:52.560
And unlike the terns, which didn't make much of a nest,

478
00:24:52.560 --> 00:24:54.150
you probably saw that their egg is pretty much

479
00:24:54.150 --> 00:24:57.210
just sitting there on the sand in a shallow scrape.

480
00:24:57.210 --> 00:25:02.210
Brown pelicans nest on actual nests, there's about 25%

481
00:25:02.670 --> 00:25:05.940
of the state's pelicans on Audubon Islands.

482
00:25:05.940 --> 00:25:07.770
And these are what the nests look like on the

483
00:25:07.770 --> 00:25:10.470
upper left hand corner, you can see the pelican

484
00:25:10.470 --> 00:25:14.130
is constructing the nest, both the male and the female

485
00:25:14.130 --> 00:25:16.221
contribute to the nest building.

486
00:25:16.221 --> 00:25:20.277
And it's basically a really well constructed structure of

487
00:25:20.277 --> 00:25:22.410
sticks and grassy vegetation.

488
00:25:22.410 --> 00:25:25.500
They lay two to three eggs and those are just white eggs

489
00:25:25.500 --> 00:25:28.650
and they are very big, so they're about three times the size

490
00:25:28.650 --> 00:25:33.000
of a chicken egg, but they don't have any coloration,

491
00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:35.910
no spotting, the pelicans just have to remember

492
00:25:35.910 --> 00:25:38.583
where their nest is in the colony.

493
00:25:38.583 --> 00:25:41.010
They are also a group nesting bird, just like the terns.

494
00:25:41.010 --> 00:25:42.630
They incubate for about a month,

495
00:25:42.630 --> 00:25:45.332
sometimes a little bit more and again,

496
00:25:45.332 --> 00:25:48.480
both sexes will incubate and when they first hatch out,

497
00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.030
they pretty much look like tiny little dinosaurs.

498
00:25:51.030 --> 00:25:52.380
Some people find them to be cute,

499
00:25:52.380 --> 00:25:53.880
some people find them to be ugly,

500
00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:55.880
I think the answer is that they're both.

501
00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:00.480
But it takes them quite a while to raise a pelican chick

502
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:04.290
up to adulthood, some of that time depends on if there

503
00:26:04.290 --> 00:26:07.740
are siblings or not, they actually compete quite fiercely

504
00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:10.560
with the other chicks in the nest, there's a lot of pecking

505
00:26:10.560 --> 00:26:11.393
and stabbing.

506
00:26:11.393 --> 00:26:14.070
So if you grew up with an antagonistic relationship

507
00:26:14.070 --> 00:26:17.490
with a sibling, you might actually be a pelican.

508
00:26:17.490 --> 00:26:21.300
But in the end, oh, I don't have a picture of a big chick.

509
00:26:21.300 --> 00:26:24.450
But in the end you do end up usually with an adult pelican,

510
00:26:24.450 --> 00:26:27.930
they can typically fledge two to three chicks out of a nest

511
00:26:27.930 --> 00:26:30.960
and a lot of birds have that where they lay

512
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:35.160
a couple more eggs perhaps than they might expect to raise,

513
00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:38.103
so that's kind of their version of an insurance policy.

514
00:26:39.870 --> 00:26:42.870
A lot of different species of Herons and Egrets nest

515
00:26:42.870 --> 00:26:44.595
in the coastal zone of North Carolina.

516
00:26:44.595 --> 00:26:47.444
And those species include the great egret,

517
00:26:47.444 --> 00:26:49.622
which is pictured here, the snowy egret,

518
00:26:49.622 --> 00:26:52.020
the tri-colored heron, the little blue heron,

519
00:26:52.020 --> 00:26:53.850
and the black-crowned night heron.

520
00:26:53.850 --> 00:26:56.850
And we usually have somewhere again around a quarter

521
00:26:56.850 --> 00:26:58.980
of the state's nesting egrets and herons

522
00:26:58.980 --> 00:27:01.320
kind of lumped together as a group.

523
00:27:01.320 --> 00:27:03.539
And as you can see from this picture,

524
00:27:03.539 --> 00:27:06.180
they're a bird that likes to nest in some kind of structure,

525
00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:09.930
so typically a shrub or a tree and all of these species

526
00:27:09.930 --> 00:27:11.763
build nests out of sticks.

527
00:27:13.080 --> 00:27:18.080
And just as a couple of specific ID helps,

528
00:27:18.540 --> 00:27:20.490
people often will ask, what's the difference?

529
00:27:20.490 --> 00:27:23.790
They see a white long-legged wading bird,

530
00:27:23.790 --> 00:27:26.910
and they don't know if it's a snowy egret or a great egret.

531
00:27:26.910 --> 00:27:29.700
And the Great Egret is a much larger wading bird.

532
00:27:29.700 --> 00:27:33.480
It has a yellow bill and black legs and one of the ways

533
00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:35.910
you can tell them in flight when they're flying

534
00:27:35.910 --> 00:27:37.950
is it's really easy to count the wing beets.

535
00:27:37.950 --> 00:27:41.190
They're a much larger bird, so they flat more slowly

536
00:27:41.190 --> 00:27:45.360
and that just kind of helps to give you like that first

537
00:27:45.360 --> 00:27:47.700
correct impression of what species you're looking at,

538
00:27:47.700 --> 00:27:49.323
so wing beat is helpful.

539
00:27:50.561 --> 00:27:51.930
And then a snowy egret is much smaller

540
00:27:51.930 --> 00:27:54.980
and these are pictures, they're two different pictures,

541
00:27:54.980 --> 00:27:58.170
but they're pretty much to scale, because they're taken

542
00:27:58.170 --> 00:28:00.990
in the same area at the same distance.

543
00:28:00.990 --> 00:28:03.030
And so the snow egret is much smaller

544
00:28:03.030 --> 00:28:07.020
and you'll notice that it has yellow, yellow feet.

545
00:28:07.020 --> 00:28:09.060
And so the way, if you're trying to figure out

546
00:28:09.060 --> 00:28:12.090
how to remember what's snowy egret, if you remember,

547
00:28:12.090 --> 00:28:16.440
don't eat the yellow snow and snowy egrets have yellow feet.

548
00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:20.250
They also have a black bill and both of these birds

549
00:28:20.250 --> 00:28:23.670
are in their breeding plumage, so you can see those egrets

550
00:28:23.670 --> 00:28:26.119
the plumes coming off of their backs.

551
00:28:26.119 --> 00:28:28.160
And you'll also notice that the great egret

552
00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:32.846
has got really kind of bright green in front of its eyes.

553
00:28:32.846 --> 00:28:36.221
That unfeathered part of the bird's

554
00:28:36.221 --> 00:28:38.280
face is called the lores.

555
00:28:38.280 --> 00:28:41.400
So you've got a bright green on the great egret

556
00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:43.950
and then the snowy egret actually gets bright pink

557
00:28:43.950 --> 00:28:46.230
there in front of it's eyes, so that's pretty neat

558
00:28:46.230 --> 00:28:48.690
and that's just a hormonal change.

559
00:28:48.690 --> 00:28:53.280
When spring arrives, these birds develop these bright colors

560
00:28:53.280 --> 00:28:58.280
that aid them in attracting a mate and they will capitalize

561
00:28:58.590 --> 00:29:01.470
on just about any type of of vegetation.

562
00:29:01.470 --> 00:29:06.210
So this is a marsh island again on the Cape Fear River,

563
00:29:06.210 --> 00:29:11.210
it has a lot of kind of subtidal area with

564
00:29:11.210 --> 00:29:14.406
spartina growing, so very nice productive marsh.

565
00:29:14.406 --> 00:29:17.820
But there are some small mounds, slightly higher elevation

566
00:29:17.820 --> 00:29:22.820
that support little thickets of cedar and marsh elder

567
00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:27.665
and that is what these birds like to nest in

568
00:29:27.665 --> 00:29:29.551
and you could see them all standing there

569
00:29:29.551 --> 00:29:31.470
on the cedar trees.

570
00:29:31.470 --> 00:29:34.830
Their eggs across all of the egrets and herons are bright

571
00:29:34.830 --> 00:29:37.140
blue, no one really knows why.

572
00:29:37.140 --> 00:29:39.810
And just to kind of follow one species,

573
00:29:39.810 --> 00:29:42.666
it takes almost a month for a great egret

574
00:29:42.666 --> 00:29:43.624
to hatch their eggs.

575
00:29:43.624 --> 00:29:45.720
They will lay three to four eggs in a nest

576
00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:49.320
and it takes quite a while over a month,

577
00:29:49.320 --> 00:29:51.450
close to two months to fledge the chicks.

578
00:29:51.450 --> 00:29:54.120
And fledgling just means they're old enough to fly

579
00:29:54.120 --> 00:29:58.470
and they start off as quite like the pelican chicks.

580
00:29:58.470 --> 00:30:02.419
They start off as as as quite floppy and not very

581
00:30:02.419 --> 00:30:06.490
able to do much, they don't have many feathers

582
00:30:06.490 --> 00:30:07.323
and they're very weak.

583
00:30:07.323 --> 00:30:09.630
But as they get bigger, they become more erect,

584
00:30:09.630 --> 00:30:11.640
they become more assertive.

585
00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.150
They hound the parents for food, they have a special sound

586
00:30:15.150 --> 00:30:17.850
that they make for to beg for food,

587
00:30:17.850 --> 00:30:20.610
it sort of sounds like someone shooting,

588
00:30:20.610 --> 00:30:24.153
you know like a super Marios sound effect in a video game.

589
00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:27.930
So it's kind of a funny, funny kind of soundscape

590
00:30:27.930 --> 00:30:30.926
if you enter a colony and listen to the chicks

591
00:30:30.926 --> 00:30:32.280
calling to their parents.

592
00:30:32.280 --> 00:30:36.356
And I have heard people say they look kind of like Fraggles

593
00:30:36.356 --> 00:30:40.620
and I really can't disagree, so that's what it looks like

594
00:30:40.620 --> 00:30:43.290
if you're a baby egret or a heron.

595
00:30:43.290 --> 00:30:45.900
And the next species we'll talk about are

596
00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:50.820
American oystercatchers and we have about 25%

597
00:30:50.820 --> 00:30:53.070
of the states nesting oystercatchers,

598
00:30:53.070 --> 00:30:57.400
so you'll see it's kind of a theme for some of these groups.

599
00:30:58.396 --> 00:31:01.290
And oystercatchers, unlike the other species we've looked at

600
00:31:01.290 --> 00:31:04.380
so far, are solitary nesters, they do not nest

601
00:31:04.380 --> 00:31:07.620
in a group called the colony, they nest on a territory.

602
00:31:07.620 --> 00:31:11.430
Each pair has its own territory and some of the territories

603
00:31:11.430 --> 00:31:12.510
are quite large.

604
00:31:12.510 --> 00:31:15.510
They will spread out on barrier islands and be several

605
00:31:15.510 --> 00:31:19.980
hundred meters apart on natural or dredge-material islands

606
00:31:19.980 --> 00:31:23.670
where the habitat area is smaller, they tend to

607
00:31:23.670 --> 00:31:27.261
be a lot closer together and as you can tell from that

608
00:31:27.261 --> 00:31:29.580
oystercatchers nest on a variety of habitats.

609
00:31:29.580 --> 00:31:32.460
This is a marsh nesting pair here that was nesting

610
00:31:32.460 --> 00:31:35.485
in Ocracoke Inlet.

611
00:31:35.485 --> 00:31:37.676
And this is a couple of oystercatcher chicks

612
00:31:37.676 --> 00:31:39.780
and their egg sibling that are

613
00:31:39.780 --> 00:31:43.440
in the process of hatching out on a barrier island.

614
00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:46.170
It takes them about a little bit more than two weeks

615
00:31:46.170 --> 00:31:49.980
to hatch and then one of the interesting things about

616
00:31:49.980 --> 00:31:54.870
the chicks is just how much parental care they require.

617
00:31:54.870 --> 00:31:56.720
So when the chicks hatch out, you can see this

618
00:31:56.720 --> 00:31:59.310
is a newly hatched chick, it has a very short bill,

619
00:31:59.310 --> 00:32:02.880
it has very short legs and it requires the parents

620
00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:05.580
to feed it and what do they eat?

621
00:32:05.580 --> 00:32:07.980
They eat exactly what you think they eat based on the name.

622
00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:11.340
They eat oysters and other bivalves and the adults use that

623
00:32:11.340 --> 00:32:14.460
long orange bill to pry open the shellfish

624
00:32:14.460 --> 00:32:16.268
just like we shuck an oyster.

625
00:32:16.268 --> 00:32:18.934
they shuck an oyster and they bring the contents of the

626
00:32:18.934 --> 00:32:20.400
oyster back to the chicks.

627
00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:22.893
As the chicks get to be a little bit older,

628
00:32:22.893 --> 00:32:25.401
first they grow their legs so they can run

629
00:32:25.401 --> 00:32:27.840
and hide from predators, then they grow their wings

630
00:32:27.840 --> 00:32:30.090
so they can fly away from predators and the last thing

631
00:32:30.090 --> 00:32:33.180
that finishes growing on a oystercatcher chick is the bill.

632
00:32:33.180 --> 00:32:36.570
So even though they can fly at about 35 days of age,

633
00:32:36.570 --> 00:32:39.870
they don't necessarily have the skills and the bill needed

634
00:32:39.870 --> 00:32:41.790
to open up the shellfish.

635
00:32:41.790 --> 00:32:44.460
They can start learning, but it takes them a while.

636
00:32:44.460 --> 00:32:46.650
They have an instinct to probe and pry,

637
00:32:46.650 --> 00:32:49.560
but there's some skill that has to be developed.

638
00:32:49.560 --> 00:32:54.120
And therefore, even though around 35 days of age

639
00:32:54.120 --> 00:32:56.970
they're fledged, they still require another

640
00:32:56.970 --> 00:33:00.300
two to three months of parental care sort of supplemental

641
00:33:00.300 --> 00:33:03.360
feeding as they transition from being totally dependent

642
00:33:03.360 --> 00:33:05.060
on the parent for food,

643
00:33:05.060 --> 00:33:06.593
to learning how to get their own food.

644
00:33:06.593 --> 00:33:08.351
So in a way it's like they're

645
00:33:08.351 --> 00:33:10.080
going to college, so there's that kind of

646
00:33:10.080 --> 00:33:13.800
intermediate dependence between the adult and the chick.

647
00:33:13.800 --> 00:33:17.673
And this is an oystercatcher that has been banded,

648
00:33:17.673 --> 00:33:20.130
the reason it's wearing those bands is because we're

649
00:33:20.130 --> 00:33:21.510
tracking it as an individual.

650
00:33:21.510 --> 00:33:24.480
So it's not somehow found trash on the beach

651
00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:27.960
and put it on its legs, those were intentionally placed

652
00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:28.793
safely.

653
00:33:29.790 --> 00:33:32.910
And now since I've kind of started off talking about

654
00:33:32.910 --> 00:33:36.240
the pelicans and the egrets, which are birds that tend to

655
00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:39.930
nest on the non-barrier islands and with the oystercatchers,

656
00:33:39.930 --> 00:33:44.040
birds that nest in marsh, beach, various types of habitats,

657
00:33:44.040 --> 00:33:46.830
we're now transitioning to birds that nest exclusively

658
00:33:46.830 --> 00:33:51.150
or nearly exclusively on beaches, barrier island beaches.

659
00:33:51.150 --> 00:33:54.450
And two of the most common birds that people might see

660
00:33:54.450 --> 00:33:57.300
around the state are least terns and black skimmers

661
00:33:57.300 --> 00:34:01.800
and as I discussed, beach nesting species will be found,

662
00:34:01.800 --> 00:34:04.050
especially on developed barrier islands,

663
00:34:04.050 --> 00:34:06.870
they tend to be found at the tips of the island.

664
00:34:06.870 --> 00:34:10.170
So as you can see in the photo, in the upper right

665
00:34:10.170 --> 00:34:12.180
that is the spit, that's what I'm talking about.

666
00:34:12.180 --> 00:34:15.270
The ends of the islands at the inlets have these big open,

667
00:34:15.270 --> 00:34:20.270
sandy areas in most cases and those are what provide

668
00:34:20.310 --> 00:34:21.960
the nesting habitat.

669
00:34:21.960 --> 00:34:26.550
And least terns they're ubiquitous around the state

670
00:34:26.550 --> 00:34:30.270
and they tend to colonize any habitat very quickly.

671
00:34:30.270 --> 00:34:33.652
So as soon as there's a new sandbar or a new little

672
00:34:33.652 --> 00:34:36.450
bit of open sand, there very well could be a least tern.

673
00:34:36.450 --> 00:34:39.390
They have a distinctive kind of little kiki, kiki

674
00:34:39.390 --> 00:34:41.580
kind of call that people might have heard

675
00:34:41.580 --> 00:34:44.790
over their heads and they are the only tern

676
00:34:44.790 --> 00:34:47.220
in North Carolina, indeed in the United States

677
00:34:47.220 --> 00:34:48.900
that has a yellow bill.

678
00:34:48.900 --> 00:34:51.450
So they are very distinctive, they're small,

679
00:34:51.450 --> 00:34:52.625
but they're very feisty.

680
00:34:52.625 --> 00:34:54.833
The way that they defend themselves

681
00:34:54.833 --> 00:34:56.850
and their colonies is by mobbing.

682
00:34:56.850 --> 00:35:00.270
So if a predator or some other perceived threat like a

683
00:35:00.270 --> 00:35:03.000
person enters their nesting area, you'll hear them

684
00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:06.060
calling overhead, they'll swoop down,

685
00:35:06.060 --> 00:35:09.210
they'll often even poop on the intruder.

686
00:35:09.210 --> 00:35:11.660
And so sometimes that's how people will have been

687
00:35:13.274 --> 00:35:18.274
introduced to the terns is by getting attacked by them.

688
00:35:20.040 --> 00:35:22.650
But all that means is you just need to move away

689
00:35:22.650 --> 00:35:24.990
from the area and let them settle back down.

690
00:35:24.990 --> 00:35:27.570
They're just trying to tell you that you're too close

691
00:35:27.570 --> 00:35:30.840
to their very adorable chicks or eggs, which as you can see

692
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:32.790
are very well camouflaged.

693
00:35:32.790 --> 00:35:36.000
Black skimmers, very similar to the least terns like to nest

694
00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:40.020
on open sandy beaches, raise their young

695
00:35:40.020 --> 00:35:41.273
right out on the sand.

696
00:35:41.273 --> 00:35:44.520
And black skimmers are interesting, they like to nest

697
00:35:44.520 --> 00:35:47.700
in association with terns such as least terns

698
00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:50.280
or some of our other nesting tern species,

699
00:35:50.280 --> 00:35:53.696
gull-billed tern, common terns and that's because

700
00:35:53.696 --> 00:35:55.714
the terns tend to be a little bit more aggressive

701
00:35:55.714 --> 00:35:57.720
about attacking threats and the skimmers like to

702
00:35:57.720 --> 00:35:58.863
capitalize on that.

703
00:36:00.120 --> 00:36:03.000
One of the most important things we do in terms

704
00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:06.390
of bird management and bird protection conservation

705
00:36:06.390 --> 00:36:09.960
is we do management for these beach nesting species,

706
00:36:09.960 --> 00:36:12.840
because beaches are recreational hotspots for people

707
00:36:12.840 --> 00:36:15.630
that we like to come to swim and fish and play,

708
00:36:15.630 --> 00:36:18.450
but if people are not educated about where birds

709
00:36:18.450 --> 00:36:20.760
are nesting, they tend to just walk through

710
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:22.084
these nesting areas.

711
00:36:22.084 --> 00:36:25.350
And you can imagine if a big giant monster is walking

712
00:36:25.350 --> 00:36:27.600
through the maternity ward, that can be a little bit

713
00:36:27.600 --> 00:36:31.200
disruptive and not really helpful for success.

714
00:36:31.200 --> 00:36:33.450
And so we put up what's called symbolic fencing,

715
00:36:33.450 --> 00:36:36.810
which is signs with string between them.

716
00:36:36.810 --> 00:36:40.950
And we often also will have volunteers spend time at these

717
00:36:40.950 --> 00:36:44.460
sites on public beaches in order to educate the public.

718
00:36:44.460 --> 00:36:47.760
Showing them the birds with optics, showing them pictures

719
00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:50.160
of the birds as is happening in this photo.

720
00:36:50.160 --> 00:36:52.950
And just kind of generally trying to raise awareness

721
00:36:52.950 --> 00:36:55.320
as well as enhance the value of the area

722
00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:58.140
for people's entertainment and recreation.

723
00:36:58.140 --> 00:37:01.950
Because a lot of people, especially folks that are not

724
00:37:01.950 --> 00:37:04.440
from the coast, they don't realize birds nest on the beach

725
00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:08.250
at all and when they do, it can be another fun activity,

726
00:37:08.250 --> 00:37:11.400
birdwatching, that they can take part in.

727
00:37:11.400 --> 00:37:15.480
And the people that do the education outreach work,

728
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:18.450
we call them bird stewards and they basically again,

729
00:37:18.450 --> 00:37:21.480
are basically docents or ambassadors for the birds

730
00:37:21.480 --> 00:37:23.010
to increase awareness.

731
00:37:23.010 --> 00:37:26.640
And it's also a great way to spend time on the beach

732
00:37:26.640 --> 00:37:30.270
and you get to watch the birds raise their families

733
00:37:30.270 --> 00:37:31.893
throughout your volunteer time.

734
00:37:33.060 --> 00:37:35.490
Other work that we do with these nesting species

735
00:37:35.490 --> 00:37:37.833
includes productivity monitoring and banding.

736
00:37:38.677 --> 00:37:40.290
So I talked a little bit about the productivity monitoring

737
00:37:40.290 --> 00:37:43.050
before where we want to follow certain nests

738
00:37:43.050 --> 00:37:45.750
and pairs throughout the season to see how they do.

739
00:37:45.750 --> 00:37:48.450
We also want to understand population dynamics

740
00:37:48.450 --> 00:37:51.600
and the way that we do that is through banding.

741
00:37:51.600 --> 00:37:54.690
And banding basically allows us to uniquely identify

742
00:37:54.690 --> 00:37:56.790
an individual throughout its life.

743
00:37:56.790 --> 00:38:01.790
So the bird gets a unique color and code and resighting them

744
00:38:01.980 --> 00:38:05.280
allows us to know the answer to two very basic questions,

745
00:38:05.280 --> 00:38:07.560
where do they go and how long do they live?

746
00:38:07.560 --> 00:38:11.040
But that translates into a whole lot of other things like

747
00:38:11.040 --> 00:38:13.726
the survivorship among different age classes,

748
00:38:13.726 --> 00:38:16.470
population structure, population dynamics,

749
00:38:16.470 --> 00:38:19.140
so there's a lot you can do with this data.

750
00:38:19.140 --> 00:38:22.590
And one of the species that we band are oystercatchers,

751
00:38:22.590 --> 00:38:25.680
we also banned royal terns, sandwich terns

752
00:38:25.680 --> 00:38:26.610
and black skimmers.

753
00:38:26.610 --> 00:38:31.440
So here you see pictures of a black skimmer chick

754
00:38:31.440 --> 00:38:35.970
getting a band on the upper right and on the lower right

755
00:38:35.970 --> 00:38:38.850
you can see this is a royal tern chick recently fledged

756
00:38:38.850 --> 00:38:42.420
and he's supporting some new bird banding bling.

757
00:38:42.420 --> 00:38:45.000
And we've been working with partners around the state

758
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:48.210
including the National Park Service and the North Carolina

759
00:38:48.210 --> 00:38:52.080
Wildlife Resources Commission to band black skimmers

760
00:38:52.080 --> 00:38:52.913
and royal terns.

761
00:38:52.913 --> 00:38:57.913
So that's been a really fun project and we have learned

762
00:38:57.960 --> 00:39:00.990
a lot about survivorship and recruitment back

763
00:39:00.990 --> 00:39:02.107
into nesting colonies.

764
00:39:02.107 --> 00:39:04.307
We also do work with students

765
00:39:05.878 --> 00:39:08.670
with different various research projects.

766
00:39:08.670 --> 00:39:12.570
One of the most recent ones that we've just wrapped up

767
00:39:12.570 --> 00:39:16.260
a couple of years ago and now is being written up

768
00:39:16.260 --> 00:39:18.570
for publication in a scientific journal.

769
00:39:18.570 --> 00:39:20.580
We did some food chain monitoring on the

770
00:39:20.580 --> 00:39:23.190
Lower Cape Fear River, which is an area where we do a lot of

771
00:39:23.190 --> 00:39:24.690
our work.

772
00:39:24.690 --> 00:39:27.930
And the Lower Cape Fear River is a site that has received

773
00:39:27.930 --> 00:39:31.410
a lot of pollution over the years from different point

774
00:39:31.410 --> 00:39:35.490
and non-point sources, so industry runoff and so forth.

775
00:39:35.490 --> 00:39:40.490
And a UNCW graduate student who now holds her PhD

776
00:39:40.950 --> 00:39:43.980
thanks to this effort named Anna Zarn came out

777
00:39:43.980 --> 00:39:48.480
and we looked at mercury levels in the water,

778
00:39:48.480 --> 00:39:51.390
the substrate, shellfish and the oystercatchers

779
00:39:51.390 --> 00:39:52.410
that eat the shellfish.

780
00:39:52.410 --> 00:39:55.050
So that was a really interesting project

781
00:39:55.050 --> 00:39:58.590
and it incidentally started right after Florence,

782
00:39:58.590 --> 00:40:01.800
so that was an interesting time to be starting a research

783
00:40:01.800 --> 00:40:02.850
project.

784
00:40:02.850 --> 00:40:06.780
Another project we've been working on and is getting close

785
00:40:06.780 --> 00:40:09.450
to being wrapped up and and getting ready to move into

786
00:40:09.450 --> 00:40:13.650
the publication stage is tracking fine scale habitat use by

787
00:40:13.650 --> 00:40:18.650
breeding American oystercatchers and how we do that

788
00:40:18.720 --> 00:40:21.687
is by putting data loggers on them, they wear them

789
00:40:21.687 --> 00:40:24.360
and they have a little harness that goes around their legs

790
00:40:24.360 --> 00:40:25.830
and it sits on the back.

791
00:40:25.830 --> 00:40:28.920
And the data logger that you see here in the upper right

792
00:40:28.920 --> 00:40:31.380
is basically talking to the same satellite system

793
00:40:31.380 --> 00:40:32.595
that your car talks to

794
00:40:32.595 --> 00:40:35.220
when it tells you when to make a left turn.

795
00:40:35.220 --> 00:40:36.720
And they wear it for about a year,

796
00:40:36.720 --> 00:40:40.050
then we recapture them and take the data logger off

797
00:40:40.050 --> 00:40:43.230
and it gives us the oystercatchers location

798
00:40:43.230 --> 00:40:47.700
within about four meters every 30 to 60 minutes.

799
00:40:47.700 --> 00:40:50.970
And from that we can understand the type of habitat

800
00:40:50.970 --> 00:40:53.580
that they're using, we can understand differences

801
00:40:53.580 --> 00:40:56.940
in habitat use between birds nesting on barrier islands

802
00:40:56.940 --> 00:41:00.300
versus dredge islands versus natural islands,

803
00:41:00.300 --> 00:41:03.240
so there's a lot of different types of information

804
00:41:03.240 --> 00:41:06.210
we we're gaining from this work as well.

805
00:41:06.210 --> 00:41:10.387
And I do want to touch on, I realized we were getting into

806
00:41:10.387 --> 00:41:13.860
the fall and it's no longer the breeding season.

807
00:41:13.860 --> 00:41:16.980
So I am gonna piggyback a little bit of information about

808
00:41:16.980 --> 00:41:19.890
non breeding birds on the coast because a lot of management

809
00:41:19.890 --> 00:41:23.746
effort is focused on breeding birds, reducing disturbance

810
00:41:23.746 --> 00:41:27.870
at breeding bird sites, enhancing and managing habitat

811
00:41:27.870 --> 00:41:31.200
at breeding bird sites, but it's very important

812
00:41:31.200 --> 00:41:33.060
to protect non breeding birds as well.

813
00:41:33.060 --> 00:41:36.600
So in the state, the way that we work with

814
00:41:36.600 --> 00:41:38.970
non breeding birds is pretty much to do surveys

815
00:41:38.970 --> 00:41:41.530
and those are international shorebird surveys

816
00:41:42.480 --> 00:41:45.333
or oystercatcher roost surveys.

817
00:41:45.333 --> 00:41:46.830
So the international shorebird surveys

818
00:41:46.830 --> 00:41:50.040
are part of a hemispheric wide protocol

819
00:41:50.040 --> 00:41:53.580
that basically counts arctic breeding shorebirds

820
00:41:53.580 --> 00:41:55.605
at different coastal sites.

821
00:41:55.605 --> 00:41:57.906
And what is an arctic breeding shorebird?

822
00:41:57.906 --> 00:42:00.750
So basically a sandpiper or a plover species

823
00:42:00.750 --> 00:42:03.180
that nests literally on the arctic tundra.

824
00:42:03.180 --> 00:42:06.570
So that can be a sanderling, the little sewing machine birds

825
00:42:06.570 --> 00:42:09.300
that run back and forth in the surf, that could be

826
00:42:09.300 --> 00:42:11.640
a willet the bigger birds that you might see eating

827
00:42:11.640 --> 00:42:12.693
mole crabs.

828
00:42:14.130 --> 00:42:18.231
So we count those at five different inlets in the state,

829
00:42:18.231 --> 00:42:21.330
mainly in that Southern part of the state

830
00:42:21.330 --> 00:42:24.363
and we also monitor non-breeding oystercatchers.

831
00:42:25.200 --> 00:42:26.970
Again, because of the banding work,

832
00:42:26.970 --> 00:42:29.610
there's a lot of band resighting that can be done

833
00:42:29.610 --> 00:42:32.757
and we can also count numbers of oystercatchers.

834
00:42:32.757 --> 00:42:36.810
And those count locations are in the blue dots

835
00:42:36.810 --> 00:42:40.860
and the oystercatcher roof surveys are in cooperation

836
00:42:40.860 --> 00:42:43.920
with the North Carolina Coastal Reserve System

837
00:42:43.920 --> 00:42:45.990
and the National Park Service,

838
00:42:45.990 --> 00:42:49.032
specifically Cape Lookout National Seashores.

839
00:42:49.032 --> 00:42:50.880
So a lot of this work is accomplished through coordination

840
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:52.263
and the help of partners.

841
00:42:53.580 --> 00:42:56.130
So one of the interesting things about North Carolina

842
00:42:56.130 --> 00:42:59.370
and indeed most coastal areas is that birds rely on

843
00:42:59.370 --> 00:43:02.580
these habitats year round and one of the most

844
00:43:02.580 --> 00:43:05.220
important habitats for birds during the non breeding season

845
00:43:05.220 --> 00:43:06.480
are inlets.

846
00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:11.220
Inlets are used by a lot of different species

847
00:43:11.220 --> 00:43:14.700
and in fact the species listed below,

848
00:43:14.700 --> 00:43:17.850
which the abbreviations stand for a black-bellied plover,

849
00:43:17.850 --> 00:43:21.690
piping plover, which is in the upper right hand corner,

850
00:43:21.690 --> 00:43:24.450
red knot, ruddy turnstone, snowy plover,

851
00:43:24.450 --> 00:43:27.969
Western sand piper and Wilson's plover all are found

852
00:43:27.969 --> 00:43:31.290
more abundantly at inlets and more frequently at inlets

853
00:43:31.290 --> 00:43:33.677
than in other sandy coastal habitats.

854
00:43:33.677 --> 00:43:37.920
So why do inlets make such a difference for birds?

855
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:41.190
Inlets are kind of those gaps between barrier islands

856
00:43:41.190 --> 00:43:45.030
and in those gaps you have the right mosaic of habitat.

857
00:43:45.030 --> 00:43:49.170
You've got intertidal shoals where they can forage,

858
00:43:49.170 --> 00:43:52.260
and you have these open sandy spits where they can roost.

859
00:43:52.260 --> 00:43:56.192
Now you might think that a small bird like a piping clover

860
00:43:56.192 --> 00:43:59.848
would want to go hide in the bushes, but they don't,

861
00:43:59.848 --> 00:44:02.580
they want to sit out in the open and the reason they want to

862
00:44:02.580 --> 00:44:05.160
do that is because they want to be able to look at the sky

863
00:44:05.160 --> 00:44:07.691
and make sure that no predators are coming.

864
00:44:07.691 --> 00:44:09.720
And if they do, then they can flush up and flee

865
00:44:09.720 --> 00:44:12.550
and have some advanced warning, because the predators

866
00:44:13.443 --> 00:44:15.720
that are most concerning to them in the non breeding season

867
00:44:15.720 --> 00:44:19.020
are falcons, some Merlins and peregrine falcons.

868
00:44:19.020 --> 00:44:22.590
And they actually are bird species that specialize

869
00:44:22.590 --> 00:44:26.220
on eating other birds and this is the way they've adapted

870
00:44:26.220 --> 00:44:27.360
to deal with this threat.

871
00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:31.020
So inlets are very important and they are in fact

872
00:44:31.020 --> 00:44:36.020
so important that we focused our shorebird survey efforts

873
00:44:36.390 --> 00:44:37.223
at inlets.

874
00:44:37.223 --> 00:44:40.860
And when you compare inlets that are natural that have not

875
00:44:40.860 --> 00:44:43.890
been altered by terminal groins or jetties

876
00:44:43.890 --> 00:44:47.580
and too much dredging compared to those

877
00:44:47.580 --> 00:44:49.770
that have been altered, you'll find that birds

878
00:44:49.770 --> 00:44:52.260
are more abundant at natural inlets,

879
00:44:52.260 --> 00:44:55.650
which are the peak counts of shorebirds at the natural inlet

880
00:44:55.650 --> 00:44:59.734
in this study were in blue and the altered inlet

881
00:44:59.734 --> 00:45:02.250
mason borough inlet are the bars in red.

882
00:45:02.250 --> 00:45:04.860
So you could see it's pretty easy to tell

883
00:45:04.860 --> 00:45:09.480
that all of these shorebird species are more commonly found

884
00:45:09.480 --> 00:45:12.000
at inlets with these natural habitat features

885
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.740
than those without.

886
00:45:13.740 --> 00:45:16.080
And that's because in large part, this is where they get

887
00:45:16.080 --> 00:45:18.240
their food from these sandbars and shoals

888
00:45:18.240 --> 00:45:21.000
that don't exist in an inlet that's been too dredged

889
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:22.290
and too stabilized.

890
00:45:22.290 --> 00:45:24.240
So they'll eat things like mole crabs,

891
00:45:24.240 --> 00:45:28.410
which is the lower left picture donax or coquinas,

892
00:45:28.410 --> 00:45:32.460
those little tiny clams that if you're looking in the swash,

893
00:45:32.460 --> 00:45:34.110
you'll kind of see the waves uncover them

894
00:45:34.110 --> 00:45:35.610
and then they have to dig back down

895
00:45:35.610 --> 00:45:38.314
and then the waves uncover them and they have

896
00:45:38.314 --> 00:45:39.147
to dig back down.

897
00:45:39.147 --> 00:45:41.460
And then also another really important source of food

898
00:45:41.460 --> 00:45:44.010
for birds are polychaetes, if you've ever gone fishing

899
00:45:44.010 --> 00:45:46.974
with blood worms, you've gone fishing with a polychaetes

900
00:45:46.974 --> 00:45:49.320
and that's that marine worm that you see there

901
00:45:49.320 --> 00:45:50.910
on the right hand side.

902
00:45:50.910 --> 00:45:53.760
And the birds here that are foraging in the intertidal zone,

903
00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:56.010
those are red knots and so those are the shorebird

904
00:45:56.010 --> 00:45:59.280
that most famously makes the giant migration

905
00:45:59.280 --> 00:46:03.600
from the Arctic circle all the way down to the Southern tip

906
00:46:03.600 --> 00:46:05.317
of South America, Patagonia.

907
00:46:05.317 --> 00:46:07.283
So they have a truly impressive migration

908
00:46:07.283 --> 00:46:10.110
and it's all powered by these critters.

909
00:46:10.110 --> 00:46:14.490
And one of the big conservation threats to these species

910
00:46:14.490 --> 00:46:17.130
is actually alteration.

911
00:46:17.130 --> 00:46:19.710
So habitat alteration, so some dredging,

912
00:46:19.710 --> 00:46:23.820
some modification inlets and bird habitat can withstand

913
00:46:23.820 --> 00:46:24.960
but too much.

914
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:27.900
And you end up with basically impoverished ecosystems

915
00:46:27.900 --> 00:46:31.230
that don't provide the habitat, that's really high enough

916
00:46:31.230 --> 00:46:32.640
quality to support birds.

917
00:46:32.640 --> 00:46:35.640
So you could see we've done a lot to our coast to change

918
00:46:35.640 --> 00:46:40.640
the way that the habitat works and functions for birds.

919
00:46:41.460 --> 00:46:44.130
And one of the most harmful things you can do to inlet

920
00:46:44.130 --> 00:46:46.860
is to try to stabilize it with a terminal groin

921
00:46:46.860 --> 00:46:49.740
and so that's one of the things that was

922
00:46:49.740 --> 00:46:52.470
rather disappointing back in 2011 when North Carolina,

923
00:46:52.470 --> 00:46:55.683
which had a law prohibiting terminal groins,

924
00:46:56.730 --> 00:46:59.970
the law was changed to allow a certain number

925
00:46:59.970 --> 00:47:01.671
of terminal groins.

926
00:47:01.671 --> 00:47:06.671
So one of the things about store bird migration

927
00:47:07.500 --> 00:47:11.160
people don't always understand though, is that it starts

928
00:47:11.160 --> 00:47:13.260
a lot earlier than you think and goes a lot longer

929
00:47:13.260 --> 00:47:14.093
than you think.

930
00:47:14.093 --> 00:47:16.080
So people are still coming to the beach,

931
00:47:16.080 --> 00:47:19.140
the kids aren't back in school yet when the birds

932
00:47:19.140 --> 00:47:20.790
are coming back from the tundra.

933
00:47:20.790 --> 00:47:23.790
So you could see here, this is a black-bellied plover.

934
00:47:23.790 --> 00:47:27.450
You could see when the, if you look in the middle

935
00:47:27.450 --> 00:47:32.450
of the graph here, you can see there's lower numbers

936
00:47:33.121 --> 00:47:36.690
in the middle of the summer, but they start to peak again

937
00:47:36.690 --> 00:47:38.883
in July or in August.

938
00:47:40.652 --> 00:47:45.348
And that just goes to show that these birds that are using

939
00:47:45.348 --> 00:47:49.560
arctic nesting areas, they have a very narrow window of time

940
00:47:49.560 --> 00:47:51.660
when it's good to nest up there.

941
00:47:51.660 --> 00:47:54.000
And when it's good, it's really good because the tundra

942
00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:56.790
has a huge amount of invertebrate life,

943
00:47:56.790 --> 00:47:59.430
mainly different insects that they feed on

944
00:47:59.430 --> 00:48:01.020
when they're up there and breeding,

945
00:48:01.020 --> 00:48:03.535
but they start coming back quite soon.

946
00:48:03.535 --> 00:48:06.690
So we start to get migrants coming back South quite early

947
00:48:06.690 --> 00:48:10.560
and we do have migrating birds on our coast

948
00:48:10.560 --> 00:48:12.860
all the way into May.

949
00:48:12.860 --> 00:48:16.860
A similar type of pattern here with the semipalmated plover,

950
00:48:16.860 --> 00:48:18.960
The numbers, the scale has changed.

951
00:48:18.960 --> 00:48:21.780
So we do have quite a large number of them coming through

952
00:48:21.780 --> 00:48:24.870
and again, you'll see those peaks kind of late spring

953
00:48:24.870 --> 00:48:29.730
and late summer or early fall, so shorebird migration

954
00:48:29.730 --> 00:48:31.290
right now is underway.

955
00:48:31.290 --> 00:48:35.557
And one of the things that we want to use our shorebird

956
00:48:35.557 --> 00:48:38.580
survey data for is to address gaps in knowledge

957
00:48:38.580 --> 00:48:41.640
of where birds are found, how important inlets

958
00:48:41.640 --> 00:48:44.940
and others significant habitat types are to them.

959
00:48:44.940 --> 00:48:49.620
And then we can provide that to the regulatory agencies

960
00:48:49.620 --> 00:48:53.670
that make management decisions and policy decisions about

961
00:48:53.670 --> 00:48:56.400
where can people dredge and what type of shape

962
00:48:56.400 --> 00:48:57.570
do these projects take.

963
00:48:57.570 --> 00:49:02.010
So that's very helpful from a standpoint of advocating

964
00:49:02.010 --> 00:49:04.530
for bird conservation and the data of course does

965
00:49:04.530 --> 00:49:09.270
go to a database of all international shorebird survey data,

966
00:49:09.270 --> 00:49:11.100
so that's important.

967
00:49:11.100 --> 00:49:14.280
So I'm gonna wrap up here really quick just to hit one thing

968
00:49:14.280 --> 00:49:16.684
because I've got kind of a broad audience,

969
00:49:16.684 --> 00:49:18.870
a lot of different people, everybody goes to the coast.

970
00:49:18.870 --> 00:49:21.390
What's one of the most important things folks can do

971
00:49:21.390 --> 00:49:24.600
for birds is to be aware of the impacts of disturbance

972
00:49:24.600 --> 00:49:29.600
and again, disturbance is basically just anything

973
00:49:29.790 --> 00:49:32.190
that disrupts what the bird was doing naturally

974
00:49:32.190 --> 00:49:34.920
and most of the time birds and other wildlife

975
00:49:34.920 --> 00:49:37.440
are doing important survival behaviors.

976
00:49:37.440 --> 00:49:40.770
For example, in this photo, these are perfectly innocuous

977
00:49:40.770 --> 00:49:42.390
folks, they're just having a nice time,

978
00:49:42.390 --> 00:49:44.760
they're boating, having a little picnic perhaps.

979
00:49:44.760 --> 00:49:48.840
But because they are in proximity to an oystercatcher nest,

980
00:49:48.840 --> 00:49:52.490
which is in the red circle there, the oystercatchers

981
00:49:52.490 --> 00:49:54.900
are not taking care of those eggs and if it's too hot,

982
00:49:54.900 --> 00:49:57.090
those eggs could cook and become non-viable.

983
00:49:57.090 --> 00:50:00.600
So this goes to show if this was a posted area,

984
00:50:00.600 --> 00:50:02.550
the people would know not to be in that space

985
00:50:02.550 --> 00:50:04.920
and the birds could be with their eggs.

986
00:50:04.920 --> 00:50:07.530
Another type of disturbance that people don't really

987
00:50:07.530 --> 00:50:10.440
classify as disturbance or classify as a problem

988
00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:13.293
for wildlife is flushing groups of birds.

989
00:50:17.959 --> 00:50:21.660
And this can happen if people let their dogs run,

990
00:50:21.660 --> 00:50:24.970
this can happen if people decide that they want to

991
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:32.460
take a walk through the flock and take a picture of them,

992
00:50:32.460 --> 00:50:37.050
but basically it just tends to waste the bird's energy.

993
00:50:37.050 --> 00:50:40.680
And if you're a red knot migrating from the Arctic circle

994
00:50:40.680 --> 00:50:44.100
all the way to South America, you really need your energy

995
00:50:44.100 --> 00:50:47.190
for other things, so a really important thing folks can do

996
00:50:47.190 --> 00:50:49.830
is just simply walk around flocks of birds.

997
00:50:49.830 --> 00:50:51.840
If you see a group of birds on the beach,

998
00:50:51.840 --> 00:50:53.640
you don't have to worry if it's gulls

999
00:50:53.640 --> 00:50:55.950
or if it's a shorebird or if it's something else,

1000
00:50:55.950 --> 00:50:58.980
just walk around it and that will ensure that they're not

1001
00:50:58.980 --> 00:51:01.500
wasting their energy trying to get away from people.

1002
00:51:01.500 --> 00:51:04.680
Some other things folks can do to help birds is of course

1003
00:51:04.680 --> 00:51:07.620
to pay attention to any signage at the beach,

1004
00:51:07.620 --> 00:51:09.990
pay attention to how the birds are responding to you

1005
00:51:09.990 --> 00:51:13.830
if you're kayaking or visiting an area without posted areas.

1006
00:51:13.830 --> 00:51:15.720
If you see a bird freaking out nearby,

1007
00:51:15.720 --> 00:51:18.210
it probably is freaking out if it's in the spring

1008
00:51:18.210 --> 00:51:23.040
or the summer because it's got an egg or a chick nearby

1009
00:51:23.040 --> 00:51:24.840
and it would just like you to move away so that

1010
00:51:24.840 --> 00:51:26.820
it can settle back down.

1011
00:51:26.820 --> 00:51:31.410
And of course I have a dog, many people have dogs

1012
00:51:31.410 --> 00:51:33.660
and they are wonderful, but they also look like

1013
00:51:33.660 --> 00:51:35.310
natural predators to birds.

1014
00:51:35.310 --> 00:51:37.860
So it's helpful if you wanna take your dog with you

1015
00:51:37.860 --> 00:51:40.950
to a coastal area to try to go to an area where you don't

1016
00:51:40.950 --> 00:51:43.620
typically see birds so that you don't have that impact

1017
00:51:43.620 --> 00:51:44.820
on wildlife.

1018
00:51:44.820 --> 00:51:48.510
And of course sharing information with other folks

1019
00:51:48.510 --> 00:51:51.300
about what you've learned is always a great way

1020
00:51:51.300 --> 00:51:54.120
to help out as well as volunteering with

1021
00:51:54.120 --> 00:51:56.610
any coastal organization that's doing any type of work

1022
00:51:56.610 --> 00:52:00.000
to improve or enhance coastal habitats.

1023
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:02.610
These are the folks that took the pictures and I understand

1024
00:52:02.610 --> 00:52:04.410
there will be a question period now.

1025
00:52:06.600 --> 00:52:08.100
[Mark] That's right, thank you very much,

1026
00:52:08.100 --> 00:52:11.463
let me bring this back to the question screen here.

1027
00:52:14.430 --> 00:52:17.160
Alright, so I actually thought of a question

1028
00:52:17.160 --> 00:52:18.780
while you were talking about the oystercatchers

1029
00:52:18.780 --> 00:52:23.340
and I was wondering how do, would you band a bird?

1030
00:52:23.340 --> 00:52:24.300
Like how does it work?

1031
00:52:24.300 --> 00:52:26.130
You said you give them like a special color

1032
00:52:26.130 --> 00:52:28.770
and a special number and then I assume that bird just lives

1033
00:52:28.770 --> 00:52:31.293
its life, how do you go get that data again?

1034
00:52:32.130 --> 00:52:34.481
[Lindsay] So one of the really cool things about banding

1035
00:52:34.481 --> 00:52:38.370
birds is that it's the data collection part of it

1036
00:52:38.370 --> 00:52:40.290
is something that everyone can participate in.

1037
00:52:40.290 --> 00:52:44.160
If you have a pair of binoculars, a camera with a zoom lens,

1038
00:52:44.160 --> 00:52:45.960
which a lot of people have these days,

1039
00:52:45.960 --> 00:52:48.330
just go on Facebook and you can see that a lot of people

1040
00:52:48.330 --> 00:52:50.880
have got cameras or spotting scope,

1041
00:52:50.880 --> 00:52:55.200
if you're kind of the serious birder is look at bird legs.

1042
00:52:55.200 --> 00:52:59.010
So basically if you're looking at the bird

1043
00:52:59.010 --> 00:53:01.800
and you notice a little bump or something on its leg,

1044
00:53:01.800 --> 00:53:05.160
look a little closer and see if you can tell if it's a band,

1045
00:53:05.160 --> 00:53:07.890
if it's a band, see if you can read the code off of it,

1046
00:53:07.890 --> 00:53:10.890
note where on the leg it was, the color of the band,

1047
00:53:10.890 --> 00:53:12.150
and the code.

1048
00:53:12.150 --> 00:53:15.630
We also, in our shorebird surveys and our other work,

1049
00:53:15.630 --> 00:53:19.920
we are actively looking to read the bands ourselves.

1050
00:53:19.920 --> 00:53:24.540
So the great thing about bird banding is it's a combination

1051
00:53:24.540 --> 00:53:27.988
of paid staff doing their jobs and the public

1052
00:53:27.988 --> 00:53:30.600
contributing their observations as well.

1053
00:53:30.600 --> 00:53:34.500
And for example, the oystercatcher banding project

1054
00:53:34.500 --> 00:53:37.920
has been going on for about 20 years,

1055
00:53:37.920 --> 00:53:40.110
we have a coordinated banding scheme around

1056
00:53:40.110 --> 00:53:44.370
the entire US range from Texas to Maine.

1057
00:53:44.370 --> 00:53:48.810
And we have a database with over 90,000 records

1058
00:53:48.810 --> 00:53:53.810
and many, many, many, I think about approaching 5,000

1059
00:53:54.540 --> 00:53:56.960
of those records are from the public.

1060
00:53:56.960 --> 00:53:59.550
So just people on the beach that have noticed something

1061
00:53:59.550 --> 00:54:02.820
and they've reported it, so that's a really great question

1062
00:54:02.820 --> 00:54:06.450
and people get into it, we have folks that just really

1063
00:54:06.450 --> 00:54:09.303
enjoy bird band or bird band resighting.

1064
00:54:10.875 --> 00:54:12.213
[Mark] Oh, that's amazing.

1065
00:54:15.300 --> 00:54:18.450
[Jessie] Do you have any fun stories about bird families

1066
00:54:18.450 --> 00:54:20.973
that you've followed over the years?

1067
00:54:22.050 --> 00:54:25.078
[Lindsay] Oh yeah, so one of the really cool things about

1068
00:54:25.078 --> 00:54:28.103
banding or about doing this productivity monitoring work

1069
00:54:28.103 --> 00:54:32.278
is that, you know if you're just going someplace

1070
00:54:33.270 --> 00:54:35.520
and looking at a bird, it's a bird.

1071
00:54:35.520 --> 00:54:37.500
But if you've been monitoring its nest,

1072
00:54:37.500 --> 00:54:40.530
and especially if it's been banded as an individual,

1073
00:54:40.530 --> 00:54:44.040
it's that bird, you know it's like, oh, it's person to,

1074
00:54:44.040 --> 00:54:46.140
"oh, that's Sally," you know.

1075
00:54:46.140 --> 00:54:51.097
So one of my favorite oystercatcher chicks

1076
00:54:51.097 --> 00:54:54.780
that we banded on the Cape Fear River

1077
00:54:54.780 --> 00:54:57.300
was on South Pelican Island, which is that island

1078
00:54:57.300 --> 00:55:00.930
that was in the example photo of a dredge-material island.

1079
00:55:00.930 --> 00:55:04.260
And that was a very, very sneaky, sneaky chick.

1080
00:55:04.260 --> 00:55:06.540
It was really hard to catch, it took three attempts

1081
00:55:06.540 --> 00:55:08.945
to catch it 'cause it would go and hide,

1082
00:55:08.945 --> 00:55:11.430
there was a small clump of grass in the area that it nested

1083
00:55:11.430 --> 00:55:12.480
in that year.

1084
00:55:12.480 --> 00:55:15.210
And I would try to sneak up on it and I failed

1085
00:55:15.210 --> 00:55:16.890
and I failed and then I succeeded.

1086
00:55:16.890 --> 00:55:20.730
And so I really enjoyed watching that chick grew up after

1087
00:55:20.730 --> 00:55:23.430
I banded it and I really enjoyed seeing it around

1088
00:55:23.430 --> 00:55:27.660
the Cape Fear River as it grew up and lived its life.

1089
00:55:27.660 --> 00:55:31.950
So I definitely enjoyed that and we have had a lot of fun

1090
00:55:31.950 --> 00:55:34.680
over the years watching oystercatcher families

1091
00:55:34.680 --> 00:55:38.280
at the South end of Wrightsville Beach, which is our most

1092
00:55:38.280 --> 00:55:40.556
public managed bird area.

1093
00:55:40.556 --> 00:55:43.680
You can drive onto Wrightsville Beach, it's a busy

1094
00:55:43.680 --> 00:55:45.900
public beach with development.

1095
00:55:45.900 --> 00:55:47.940
So, you know that's good and bad.

1096
00:55:47.940 --> 00:55:51.300
The good side of it is the public really gets to enjoy them

1097
00:55:51.300 --> 00:55:54.420
and we've had many chicks fledge from there over the years

1098
00:55:54.420 --> 00:55:57.510
and we're still waiting for one to come back

1099
00:55:57.510 --> 00:56:00.450
and nest at its natal site, they don't always come back

1100
00:56:00.450 --> 00:56:03.000
to the place that they nested to breed.

1101
00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:07.980
But one of the chicks that fledged from Wrightsville Beach

1102
00:56:07.980 --> 00:56:11.250
did come back and start nesting two islands North

1103
00:56:11.250 --> 00:56:13.560
on Lea-Hutaff, another island that we manage

1104
00:56:13.560 --> 00:56:17.040
and so I particularly like that bird because I knew it

1105
00:56:17.040 --> 00:56:17.873
from a baby.

1106
00:56:19.355 --> 00:56:21.420
[Mark] Okay, I think we have a question.

1107
00:56:21.420 --> 00:56:23.700
We have time for a few more questions, so please make sure

1108
00:56:23.700 --> 00:56:27.570
you put them in the chat, but I am assuming

1109
00:56:27.570 --> 00:56:30.090
that birds probably don't respect our state borders

1110
00:56:30.090 --> 00:56:33.030
very much, so what does it look like to work with like

1111
00:56:33.030 --> 00:56:36.273
a South Carolina or Virginia team for this kind of stuff?

1112
00:56:37.350 --> 00:56:40.140
[Lindsay] Yeah, so one of the ways that we work together

1113
00:56:40.140 --> 00:56:43.170
is we have what's called the

1114
00:56:43.170 --> 00:56:44.790
American Oystercatcher Working Group.

1115
00:56:44.790 --> 00:56:49.020
And so it's a informal organization of pretty much

1116
00:56:49.020 --> 00:56:52.944
all of the different site managers and student researchers

1117
00:56:52.944 --> 00:56:57.300
and so forth who work with oystercatchers.

1118
00:56:57.300 --> 00:57:00.930
And that really encompasses oystercatchers,

1119
00:57:00.930 --> 00:57:03.120
we call it an umbrella species because they nest

1120
00:57:03.120 --> 00:57:04.800
in so many different coastal habitats

1121
00:57:04.800 --> 00:57:06.960
that if you're managing a site for the benefit

1122
00:57:06.960 --> 00:57:09.450
of oystercatchers, you're benefiting many other species

1123
00:57:09.450 --> 00:57:10.283
as well.

1124
00:57:10.283 --> 00:57:14.280
And so we have annual meetings where we get together

1125
00:57:14.280 --> 00:57:17.547
and talk, we collaborate.

1126
00:57:17.547 --> 00:57:21.600
Conservation science is also kind of a is a social activity,

1127
00:57:21.600 --> 00:57:24.003
you know because you need to know partners.

1128
00:57:24.990 --> 00:57:28.110
We've had research projects that have crossed state lines,

1129
00:57:28.110 --> 00:57:30.420
the banding has brought a lot of people together,

1130
00:57:30.420 --> 00:57:33.870
'cause we coordinate our banding schemes across states

1131
00:57:33.870 --> 00:57:38.870
and we have organized training of students for the

1132
00:57:39.600 --> 00:57:41.610
different skills that they need to work with oystercatchers

1133
00:57:41.610 --> 00:57:43.350
in the field.

1134
00:57:43.350 --> 00:57:47.010
So that's been a really great way to interact

1135
00:57:47.010 --> 00:57:49.530
and kind of the sort of substrate from which

1136
00:57:49.530 --> 00:57:52.560
all of that grows is sort of the connections

1137
00:57:52.560 --> 00:57:54.270
and social networking from the

1138
00:57:54.270 --> 00:57:56.120
American Oystercatcher Working Group.

1139
00:57:57.990 --> 00:57:59.220
[Mark] Really cool.

1140
00:57:59.220 --> 00:58:00.840
Think we have one more question, Jessie,

1141
00:58:00.840 --> 00:58:02.460
if you see one?

1142
00:58:02.460 --> 00:58:07.460
[Jessie] Yeah, so someone is asking in the chat about Texas,

1143
00:58:08.010 --> 00:58:12.990
so could you share where Audubon has bird programs

1144
00:58:12.990 --> 00:58:17.160
and a little bit more about kind of the far reaching

1145
00:58:17.160 --> 00:58:18.510
aspects.

1146
00:58:18.510 --> 00:58:21.876
[Lindsay] Yeah, so there is a state office in Texas,

1147
00:58:21.876 --> 00:58:22.934
Audubon, Texas,

1148
00:58:22.934 --> 00:58:27.803
and they manage a huge number of coastal islands in Texas.

1149
00:58:28.776 --> 00:58:32.830
So you can visit it's probably tx.audubon.org

1150
00:58:33.780 --> 00:58:36.088
and get involved with that.

1151
00:58:36.088 --> 00:58:38.820
I believe they have coming up in October,

1152
00:58:38.820 --> 00:58:42.960
a coastal cleanup day where different organizations

1153
00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:46.020
all around the state will get together

1154
00:58:46.020 --> 00:58:48.180
and go out to different coastal sites

1155
00:58:48.180 --> 00:58:50.010
and take trash off of the islands.

1156
00:58:50.010 --> 00:58:51.420
It's a great time if you had to do that

1157
00:58:51.420 --> 00:58:54.090
because there's not typically nesting in October.

1158
00:58:54.090 --> 00:58:57.122
I believe it's in October, so you'll wanna check me on that,

1159
00:58:57.122 --> 00:58:59.430
but we were just talking about that actually

1160
00:58:59.430 --> 00:59:02.010
on a call yesterday.

1161
00:59:02.010 --> 00:59:05.340
So there is a Audubon of Texas and there are

1162
00:59:05.340 --> 00:59:08.250
other bird conservation organizations working on the coast

1163
00:59:08.250 --> 00:59:10.050
in Texas, another great one is the

1164
00:59:10.050 --> 00:59:12.510
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.

1165
00:59:12.510 --> 00:59:14.940
They're out of Port Jackson, but they do work around

1166
00:59:14.940 --> 00:59:18.240
the state and they are actually the lead organization

1167
00:59:18.240 --> 00:59:20.190
working with oystercatchers in Texas.

1168
00:59:20.190 --> 00:59:23.220
So if you got kind of excited about oystercatchers

1169
00:59:23.220 --> 00:59:25.860
and wanna learn more about them in Texas,

1170
00:59:25.860 --> 00:59:27.820
they have a great program

1171
00:59:29.365 --> 00:59:32.550
and that's the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, so there's

1172
00:59:32.550 --> 00:59:37.200
definitely opportunities to get involved in that regard

1173
00:59:37.200 --> 00:59:38.310
in Texas as well.

1174
00:59:38.310 --> 00:59:42.570
And I would say every other state around the Atlantic Flyway

1175
00:59:42.570 --> 00:59:44.820
and the Gulf Coast has got great opportunities

1176
00:59:44.820 --> 00:59:47.100
to work with these species because we're not the only state

1177
00:59:47.100 --> 00:59:47.933
that has them.

1178
00:59:49.650 --> 00:59:51.000
[Mark] Alright, well thank you so much.

1179
00:59:51.000 --> 00:59:52.680
We actually have a lot of great questions in the chat,

1180
00:59:52.680 --> 00:59:54.810
but unfortunately I just have a few more things

1181
00:59:54.810 --> 00:59:58.470
to say before we leave you all today.

1182
00:59:58.470 --> 01:00:02.520
So if you have not already downloaded Lindsay's bio

1183
01:00:02.520 --> 01:00:04.740
in the chat box, you might want to do so now

1184
01:00:04.740 --> 01:00:07.590
in the bio you will find more information about Lindsay

1185
01:00:07.590 --> 01:00:09.740
and links that might be of interest to you.

1186
01:00:11.760 --> 01:00:12.593
Yeah.

1187
01:00:14.250 --> 01:00:16.140
[Jessie] And if you did not get your question answered

1188
01:00:16.140 --> 01:00:19.410
or if you have additional question, you can always send

1189
01:00:19.410 --> 01:00:23.310
them to Lindsay at the email address listed on this slide.

1190
01:00:23.310 --> 01:00:27.390
You can also learn about Audubon North Carolina at the URL

1191
01:00:27.390 --> 01:00:29.583
listed here at the bottom of the slide.

1192
01:00:32.670 --> 01:00:34.530
[Mark] A video recording of this presentation

1193
01:00:34.530 --> 01:00:36.630
will be made available on the Sanctuary's webinar

1194
01:00:36.630 --> 01:00:40.050
archive page found at the URL listed here at the top.

1195
01:00:40.050 --> 01:00:42.000
In addition, the webinar will be archived

1196
01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:44.520
on Monitor National Marine Sanctuary's website.

1197
01:00:44.520 --> 01:00:46.770
Click on the multimedia section in the toolbar

1198
01:00:46.770 --> 01:00:49.110
on the top to access the webinar box.

1199
01:00:49.110 --> 01:00:51.960
It usually takes about 10 days to be posted.

1200
01:00:51.960 --> 01:00:55.200
You will also find future webinars in that same section.

1201
01:00:55.200 --> 01:00:57.510
So make sure to stay tuned and don't worry,

1202
01:00:57.510 --> 01:00:59.970
all of this information will be sent to you in a follow-up

1203
01:00:59.970 --> 01:01:02.553
email once the recording is ready to view.

1204
01:01:03.900 --> 01:01:06.480
And of course, we invite you to follow us on social media

1205
01:01:06.480 --> 01:01:08.910
to stay in touch with what's happening on the sanctuary,

1206
01:01:08.910 --> 01:01:11.640
We will also update you on when this recording is ready to

1207
01:01:11.640 --> 01:01:13.083
view on social media.

1208
01:01:15.060 --> 01:01:16.980
[Jessie] And lastly, as you exit the webinar

1209
01:01:16.980 --> 01:01:19.020
and there's a short survey for formal

1210
01:01:19.020 --> 01:01:20.730
and informal educators.

1211
01:01:20.730 --> 01:01:23.820
If you are an educator, NOAA would really appreciate

1212
01:01:23.820 --> 01:01:25.290
it if you would take a minute or two

1213
01:01:25.290 --> 01:01:26.640
and complete the survey.

1214
01:01:26.640 --> 01:01:29.340
Your answers will help NOAA develop future webinars

1215
01:01:29.340 --> 01:01:32.760
to meet your needs and your participation

1216
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:35.490
in those surveys are completely voluntary

1217
01:01:35.490 --> 01:01:37.353
and your answers will be anonymous.

1218
01:01:39.810 --> 01:01:41.610
[Mark] Once again, we'd like to thank Lindsay

1219
01:01:41.610 --> 01:01:44.400
for her fabulous presentation, I really learned a lot about

1220
01:01:44.400 --> 01:01:48.030
birds and thank you so much for taking the time to join us

1221
01:01:48.030 --> 01:01:49.347
today, have a wonderful day

1222
01:01:49.347 --> 01:01:51.543
and that concludes the presentation.