Audubon of Florida and its partners will use boats and vehicles, and walk along 170 miles of Florida’s beaches from the border of Georgia to Cape Canaveral on Friday, February 6, to survey the birds that spend their winters on our beaches.

“With so much ground to cover and considering the difficulty of identifying wintering shorebirds, the survey can only be successfully achieved through a tight partnership,” said Monique Borboen, Audubon’s Northeast Florida Policy Associate. “Volunteers from various Audubon chapters, who are expert bird watchers, will team up with professionals.”

Partners include: the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), counties, the City of Jacksonville,  State and National Parks, Amelia Island Plantation, and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM NERR).  The USFWS will be collecting the data and Friday’s systematic survey will allow USFWS to better assess where the birds are and over several years can provide population trend information.

Continue reading the full press release.