The annual winter survey period is right around the corner – February 7-16, 2014.
Team leaders are organizing volunteer survey crew members to walk miles of Florida’s beautiful coastline during this 9-day period, tallying numbers of shorebird and seabird species. If you can readily identify these species, WE NEED YOU! If you want to learn to identify Florida’s wintering shorebirds and seabirds or if you want to improve your skills, WE NEED YOU!
Teams will be counting Piping, Snowy, Wilson’s, Semipalmated, and Black-bellied Plovers, American Oystercatchers, a multitude of sandpiper species including Red Knots, several species of terns and gulls, Black Skimmers, and others. The data is reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as to state and local park managers. This is an annual statewide survey that could not be accomplished at this statewide scale without the help of citizen scientists. Team leaders will enter the data in a Google spreadsheet so that anyone interested can see what other teams found across the state.
No experience is necessary to join an experienced team in your area. Some teams may be transported by boat to barrier islands for the surveys but most will be surveying beaches accessible from the mainland. Most teams will walk a minimum of 1-2 miles. Come on out and join other citizen scientists for Florida’s one-time annual winter shorebird survey!
For information on how you can get involved with surveys in:
- Escambia County east to Wakulla County, contact Bonnie Samuelsen bsamuelsen@audubon.org
- Pasco County south to Collier County, contact Marianne Korosy mkorosy@audubon.org
- Nassau, Duval, and St. Johns counties, contact Jacqui Sulek jsulek@audubon.org
- Volusia County south through the Florida Keys, contact Marilyn Knight Marilyn_Knight@fws.gov
