| Least tern © Dave Kandz |
Bird enthusiasts are hoping the twittering and buzzing and fluttering going on at the north end of Fort DeSoto Beach will translate into nests and eggs and chicks this year.
Too many times in recent years, the payoff just hasn't materialized. Volunteers and some ambitious rangers are working overtime to turn that around. But posting and roping off the beach where the shorebirds are most likely to nest won't be enough. "The public – the beach-goers and boaters – have to buy into the cause for it to be successful," said Beth Forys, a founding member of Sun Coast Shorebird Partnership.
A professor of biology and environmental studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Forys has joined with numerous other volunteers, biologists and park managers to come up with a plan for helping out the least terns, black skimmers, Wilson's plovers and others that depend on wide open swaths of sand to make their nests and rear their young.
