Volunteers needed to save rare birds

INDIAN SHORES - A speckled brown and black chick, only a couple of days old, peered up from a sandy nest on Indian Shores beach.

A seagull waited in the air for its parents to leave the nest so it could swoop down and snatch the eggs or chicks. It took the seagull less than a second to grab the baby and fly off.

Just as fast, Michelle Glean Simoneau ran over and scared the seagull away. The predator dropped the chick on the sand.

Simoneau put the chick on her raincoat and ran to the nearby aviary hospital, where they treated the baby, and saved it. It was the start of another day at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.

>>Photo Gallery: Black Skimmers colony

Simoneau helps to watch over a Black Skimmers colony on Indian Shores. Black Skimmers are birds of a species of special concern –birds whose populations are dwindling.

"We have about over 300 adults and about 100 chicks on the beach," Simoneau said. "They are roped off by the St. Pete and Clearwater Audubon Society."

Black Skimmers are the only bird in the world which have lower bills that grow bigger than their upper bills.

"They are called Black Skimmers because they feed by gliding along the surface of the water and skim the water with their lower bill," said Clearwater Audubon Society volunteer David Hopkins.

Hopkins says that he started monitoring the beaches and watching the birds after he retired a couple of years ago.  He enjoys watching the adults coming back with fish in their bill and feeding the chicks.

"Sometimes they come back with bigger fish and you think that there is no way it's going to get into that chick but it does," he said.

When he finds a bird colony, Hopkins posts signs to protect them.

"I am not the classic birder but I enjoy watching them, identifying them, and doing what I can to give them a place to grow," he says.

Beach conditions tough

Life on the Black Skimmers' colony on Indian Shores beach is tough. Adults, the citizens of the largest colony in Pinellas County, scrape out small shallow nests and lay their eggs. The sand colored chicks and eggs face the predators-- gulls, crows and humans.

As the human population took over the beaches, these birds face even more danger, Simoneau said. 

"We took over their habitat. We try to give them a little piece of nature back so that they can successfully reproduce," she said. "The Black Skimmers are here because they feel protected in this area by the sanctuary. They may know they are safe here."

The sanctuary also works together with the beach nesting program at Eckerd College.

"This is a community project to protect our birds; we have a lot of people from the community pitching in to help save these birds," Simoneau said.

Volunteers and bird stewards are protecting the area but they need more volunteers for the Fourth of July. The fireworks frighten the birds which will take off exposing the nests and endangering the eggs and the chicks. On this day, volunteers will surround the whole area, she says.

"We hold hands and form a human rope or chain around this area," she adds. "When the fireworks go off, the chicks starts scrambling. We gently urge the chicks to stay in the roped off area. It's a unique collaboration of volunteers."

This beach is a jewel for birders, says Simoneau who gets phone calls and emails from all over the world inquiring about the Black Skimmers.

"Every day, the beach is loaded with people taking pictures of them," she said. "We would like to invite the public to watch the chicks from the distance because they are just adorable."

A unique colony

The colony on Indian Shores is unique because it is the only colony on public beach, Hopkins says. Other colonies are in less populated areas like Egmont Key and Honeymoon State Park.

Even though Indian Shores beach is heavily populated and small, Black Skimmers feel at home on the beach at the Seabird Sanctuary for four years.

"They have nested on the beach on Sand Key for a while but they haven't come back there in the last two years. Sometimes, they come back to the same place several years in a row, sometimes they don't. We don’t know why," Hopkins said.

Hopkins says more volunteers are needed to monitor the bird colony.

"The more people we have working on this, the easier it is on everybody," he said. "Man is expanding their houses and paving their habitats, people wanna work and live on the beach, play on the beach. Well, this is where the birds have made their nests for thousands of years."

To volunteer at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary click on over to  www.seabirdsanctuary.com , call (727) 391-6211.