Oil spill volunteers are helping Florida Audubon’s Northeast bird stewarding program and you can read about it and watch a video here.

Bird stewards are important to help boost populations of nesting shorebirds and seabirds in order to offset the losses of these species as a result of the Gulf Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Join Audubon’s efforts to respond to the oil spill and protect Florida’s birds and beaches.

Much still needs to be done to ensure beach-dependent bird populations remain strong on Florida’s east and west coasts. To help boost populations in the longer term, Audubon staff and volunteers are assisting land managers and agencies to implement proper management measures, including:

• Pre-posting of historical nesting sites: by posting (installing a symbolic fence of posts, signs and rope) an area of the upper beach where birds have nested in the past, we allow these birds to find a disturbance-free place to lay their eggs as early in the season as possible. This month the storm season starts in earnest in Florida and hopefully chicks will be big enough to fly or walk into the dunes to escape higher than normal tides.
• More comprehensive monitoring of beaches throughout Florida to find nesting sites and post them is needed, as well as regular monitoring of nesting birds to assess productivity.
• Managers need support to implement measures to protect the birds from the impacts of disturbances by dogs, nuisance predators and vehicles.