Save
Our Shorebirds:
We're
All In This Together
Story
by K. Andarin Arvola
We park the car
and walk along the Ten Mile River, following it out to the Pacific.
Everything is washed in the pale pink and orange of the recently
risen sun. It’s a brisk morning, a little past six.
We’re out and about, and so are the birds.
I’m on a walk to count shorebirds. I’ve never walked the
route down along the ocean to Ward Avenue; ridden it all my life on
my horses though. My leader, Becky Bowen, assures me I can do this—“it’s
only about three miles”. It was the “about” I should
have listened to, it’s actually 3.8 miles. But I made it. She
was right, I could do it.
About halfway down the beach we see the deep indentations of a runner’s
foot steps; in the hollow of the toe of fourteen footprints are fourteen
snowy plovers. Hunkered down to escape the wind, what a rare present
for us!
Snowy plovers are special to anyone who’s ever seen them in photos
and especially if they’ve seen them “in person”.
They’re rare and endangered.
Besides seeing rare birds, I learn about shorebirds and begin to identify
and count them for Save Our Shorebirds (SOS). The project was started
in 2007 to save shorebirds, especially watchlisted birds that National
Audubon considers to be in population decline.
Save Our Shorebirds is fortunate to receive grant dollars from the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation through National Audubon and TogetherGreen,
an Audubon national conservation program funded by Toyota, Inc. Other
funding sources are from private donations (and they always need more).
It’s obvious after a short conversation with Becky Bowen, the
Save Our Shorebirds coordinator, that she’s been bitten (hard)
by this project. I ask her what caught her interest. “I go to
the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society’s monthly meetings about
birds, both locally and internationally. I love those programs.
“Alison Cebula was in charge of the Western snowy plover program
for California State Parks and she had a sign-up sheet to check up
on plover nesting sites. I signed up.
“The last successful season was in 2004 with several nesting
plovers with chicks that hatched and fledged. But none since. I came
back every year because they’re so endearing. There are probably
only three thousand snowies on the coast,” Bowen emphasizes. “They’re
being destroyed by people; they’re run over by vehicles and horses;
people let their dogs off leash; they’re chased, harassed, and
killed. Viable nests are abandoned and the population plummets.
“I’ve always been for the underdogs in this world. Snowies
have done nothing to deserve this fate and I want to do something to
save them,” she says emphatically. “The problem is mostly
that people are uneducated about the birds.”
Initially, the goal was to provide a safe habitat for resident and
migrating shorebirds on three beaches in MacKerricher State Park. “We
thought we had a modest goal of working toward a 5 percent increase
in the amount of watchlisted shorebirds but there’s almost a
20 percent decrease of these birds. They are all in decline,” says
Bowen.
“We knew shorebirds were in trouble, but they’re in more
trouble than we thought,” states Bowen. “We have to remember,
everything is connected; if one species is in trouble, it’s a
good indication that others are. We’re determined to find out
what’s happening with these birds.”
Bowen tells me that there are many factors that impact the shorebird
population on the North Coast. “One of the problems is non-native
invasive plants, especially European beach grass. Then there’s
pampas grass. Oh, it looks so pretty with those large fronds waving
but when you learn more, it’s not a pretty plant.”
Another cycle that affects the shorebirds is that people leave trash
on the beach, which attracts ravens and the ravens prey on the shorebirds’ eggs
and chicks.
Bowen explains that “shorebirds travel thousands of miles in
their breeding cycles. First, usually in the Arctic, shorebirds get
in their wonderful plumage to attract mates, breed, and hatch their
eggs. After the young are juveniles the adults leave for points south,
the juveniles stay and later start on their own southern journey to
places they’ve never been. These migratory journeys are arduous—six-
to eight thousand miles. More than half of the juveniles die; they
get lost, blown off course, and/or food supplies are lacking.”
Alarming disturbances
Many shorebirds migrate through this area, Bowen informs me. “If
something scares them while they stop to feed and rest it sometimes
places fatal stress on them. They have to be left alone! That holds
doubly true of those shorebirds that breed here.”
I want to know, what disturbs them? What can scare a shorebird to such
an extent that it abandons its nest?
“Almost always it’s human-related. Humans, their dogs,
their horses, their vehicles.” Bowen continues, “Even their
airplanes buzzing the beaches.”
Wildlife predators take another alarming toll. As stated, ravens are
especially brutal on shorebird populations. They prey upon eggs, fledglings
and adults. Hawks take fledglings and adults as do foxes, raccoons,
weasels, skunks and feral cats.
The method and results
Volunteers train for SOS by spending a morning with Ron Le Valley of
Mad River Biologists, an organization certified by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
With interesting facts presented in an entertaining fashion, Le Valley
takes us through most of the birds we’re likely to see on the
shores along the North Coast. He points out the similarities and differences
of dozens of birds. It’s a daunting amount of information but,
not to worry.
Off we go with experienced birders who can make sense of the whole.
Pretty soon more and more of the birds reveal their particular characteristics
and we begin to know, for example, a snowy plover from the other plovers.
Although I was raised on the coast, I knew virtually nothing about
shorebirds, which was one of the reasons I became involved in SOS.
By being a member of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society I’d
already learned about the birds in the redwoods and meadows around
my home so I figured it was time to go further. It’s hard to
resist a walk on our sparsely populated beaches, and combined with
the bigger goal, it is simply a good thing to get out for a walk more
often.
All three beaches within MacKerricher State Park are observed in the
same manner; Glass Beach, Virgin Creek Beach and Ten Mile Beach from
the Ten Mile River south to Ward Avenue. From mid-June through mid-September
each beach is surveyed every day and a record of, not only birds, but
people, dogs, horses, and evidence of off-road vehicles is compiled,
Bowen informs me.
The 2009 season’s information is being compiled. In 2007, the
total number of surveys was 261; in 2008 the figure was 250 surveys.
The total number of shorebird sightings in 2007 was 21,195; in 2008
the number was 15,597, a sharp decline.
Volunteers were in the field 1,354 hours and a conservative estimate
of the number of miles hiked is sixteen hundred for the summers of
2007 and 2008.
Sometimes there are exceptionally rare birds spotted by SOS volunteers.
Just this year the legendary local birder Toby Tobkin spotted the Hudsonian
godwit, which had never been seen on the North Coast. This bird breeds
in the Arctic but uses a flyway through the center of the United States. “Word
spread like wildfire about the sighting and people came from far and
wide to view it,” says Bowen. “Which brings business to
the area”.
Currently, Joleen Ossello is the director of Save Our Shorebirds. Ossello
is a 2009 graduate of the College of the Redwoods Marine Science Technology
Program. It’s her job to gather all data, compile it, and enter
it into a database that goes to Cornell University and is posted on
the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society’s website. The information
is also given to local schools and libraries.
One thing leads to another
As with most endeavors, the SOS journey to learn about shorebirds leads
to other things. There’s no telling what will come out of it. “We
need to become more aware of the fragility of our own local ecosystem.
Our actions do have an impact,” Bowen states.
One of the first realizations was the need for education. The students
and science department at the College of the Redwoods, the art community
and the classroom all became players in Save Our Shorebirds.
“If we’re going to help the world, we need to educate the
young,” Bowen emphasizes. To that end, a lesson plan was developed
about the Western snowy plover for the use in coastal elementary school
classrooms. That lesson plan has led to a book, which led to a translation
into Spanish by Loreto Rojas, who teaches at College of the Redwoods.
From the book’s translation came a partnership with Mendo Litho
in Fort Bragg for printing. Additionally, a demo tape was produced
by KZYX [radio station] in Philo. “The goal is to get enough
funding for every kid on the coast to have their own book,” says
Bowen.
Students in elementary classrooms produced enough art for an art show.
With the help of Janet Self of Flockworks, a Mendocino business, the
show was hung at the Odd Fellows Hall in Mendocino in 2007. “Everyone
won!” Bowen enthuses. “Over eight hundred people came to
view the student art, many who would not necessarily have thought about
shorebirds.”
From that project approximately three hundred posters were produced
and put up at many of the beaches. “No one touches the kid art
posters. Other signs are shot at, defaced, and damaged, but not the
kid art.
“It’s the power of education, the appeal of children,” adds
Bowen. “The children just understand about protecting life like
we (adults) have forgotten. They’re observant, they know.”
Another educational program for kids that Bowen tells me about is the
Junior Ranger program at MacKerricher State Park. The program is for
children from eight to twelve years of age who are camping at MacKerricher.
They meet with State Parks Interpretive Naturalist Michael Haas, learn
to identify the birds, and then go out on to the beaches and use their
knowledge in a practical way.
Concurrent with that program began the ongoing education of dog owners
about the peril their loose dog can cause to shorebirds; eggs eaten,
and adult birds killed or so frightened they abandon their nests. Meeting
that challenge is MCDOG (Mendocino Coast Dog Owners Association) whose
members provide a wealth of information about dogs and wildlife.
More partners
Naturally enough, California State Parks and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
departments are partners. State Parks Environmental Scientist Angela
M. Liebenberg supervises volunteer efforts and reports sightings to
a variety of agencies. She also walks the beaches, observing conditions,
birds, and human use and abuse. Liebenberg has extensive experience
and information about shorebirds.
Through instructor Bob Rhoades, who taught art at College of he Redwoods
(and just retired), students submitted art work in the fall of 2008
and spring of 2009 for the college’s art scholarship contest.
Out of that came an art show called
“Of Water and Wings and Artful
Things” held this spring. Prizes of a $1,000 for first place,
$500 for second, and $250 for third were awarded. The first-place winner’s
art work, by Ingrid Peterson, is now the official logo for Save Our
Shorebirds.
An unlikely partnership is with the local courts. Through Mendo-Lake
Alternative Services program, offenders elect to do community service
with SOS instead of paying fines. For instance, one fellow had three
loose dogs and was looking at a large fine. He did bird surveys on
Ten Mile Beach. At the end of his service he said he’d never
seen a Caspian tern hunt in the surf, never seen a snowy plover or
a black-bellied plover, and he’d learned how to spot them. “I
really learned something,” he emphasizes.
Another partnership that’s mighty handy after doing a bird survey
on a summer day on our beaches—Cowlick’s Ice Cream! The
shop located on Main Street in Fort Bragg graciously provided a wall
to be used by locals and visitors for postings of bird sightings, maps
and general local birding information. Plus, they have fantastic ice
cream—perfect for cooling off after a long walk burning calories.
Waves of shorebirds
David Jensen, president of the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society, talks
to me about the intangible benefits of the Save Our Shorebirds surveys.
“Just one of the side benefits of the SOS surveys is that it
makes folks who live here realize the importance of the beaches and
what goes on with them,” he says.
Jensen tells me that according to experts, our stretch of beaches emerged
from the ocean thirty- to fifty million years ago. A great explosion
of bird species coincided with the uplifting of our coastal land and
birds have made their homes here ever since.
“When we walk the beaches or simply stare out to the sea, our
thoughts, maybe our dreams or problems that preoccupy us can start
to slip away. By participating, the volunteers discover another layer
of richness that might otherwise go unnoticed,” he states. “People
don’t have to do the SOS surveys all the time, even a limited
exposure pays back many times.”
Jensen explains that it’s only now that the birds are threatened
by displacement, forced off ancestral homes by humans. “They’re
run over by trucks, chased by dogs, disturbed by horse and riders in
what has become an increasingly stressed existence.
“I invite you to stand on Laguna Point, which is directly west
of MacKerricher Park, after the first big storms in October and November
and watch wave after wave of migrating shorebirds. Watch them come
down out of the north to rest and feed before they head for their winter
grounds.”
Useful information:
Listserve for SOS schedules, information and photographs and data:
tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AudubonSOS
Mendocino Coast Audubon Society
www.mendocinocoastaudubon.org
National Audubon
www.audubon.org
MacKerricher State Park
Park Ranger 707.964.9112
Mendocino District Headquarters 707.937.5804
Winged Migration—a
great movie to better understand the perils birds undertake in migration.
Watchlisted Shorebirds
The following birds are on a watchlist (birds in population decline)
by the National Audubon Society: American Golden-Plover, Western
Snowy Plover, Wandering Tattler, Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit,
Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western
Sandpiper and Rock Sandpiper.
Plovers
By Maureen Eppstein
A dozen plovers in-
visible until
as if by standing still
a shape shift
upslope from tumble
and tongue of wave
bleached bull kelp
tangles on dry sand
as if
suspended between being
and not being
to witness
motion
of small speckled birds
intent on
shelter and food
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