While Floridians hold their breath and wait, hoping the oil spill will spare our beaches, Audubon recognizes the urgent need to ensure our beach-dependent wildlife like nesting terns, plovers and other shorebirds have as successful a breeding year as possible in those areas that are not impacted by the spill. In this way, we hope their successes will help offset the dramatic losses of threatened wildlife that may occur elsewhere in the Gulf.

One way to help beach nesting birds is to provide bird stewards--chaperones who volunteer a few hours of their time in a shift on the beach to help ensure beachgoers and individuals preparing for the spill do not enter nesting areas, and help educate beach visitors about these remarkable species.

Increasing bird steward efforts in the following counties now can help us ensure birds in these locations have a better chance of survival: Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Nassau/Duval and St. Johns.

We are looking for two categories of volunteers. Click on your category of interest to sign up:

1) Bird Stewards will function as site ambassadors for a shift or shifts. We will train you on the bird protections and biology you will need to be successful. These individuals should like spending time on the beach and interacting with the public.

2) Site coordinators will be responsible for scheduling the bird steward volunteers at their sites, to ensure that all shifts are covered. These individuals do not necessarily have to perform beach steward functions as long as all shifts are covered, but should enjoy "organizing" tasks and have the time to dedicate to coordinating shift scheduling.