Photo: American Avocet, Georgy Semenov/Audubon Photography Awards
Deirdre Bryant
World Shorebirds Day, an event sponsored by the Shorebird Conservation Society, was September 6th. Around this time people around the world celebrate the planet’s shorebirds, including by participating in the Global Shorebird Count, an annual event since 2014. This year’s count took place September 1-7, and data collected by volunteers was entered into eBird. The information collected from tens of thousands of volunteers is used to track population abundance and distribution, which are fundamental to the assessment of their status. Trends identified in repeated citizen science projects like this help determine whether a population of a bird species is declining or increasing, or is in need of coordinated conservation efforts.
But before we talk more about the count, let’s review what a shorebird is. They are sometimes thought of as any bird that visits the coastlines of the sea and large lakes, but the term isn’t quite accurate. The term “shorebird” actually describes a member of the order Charadriiformes, which includes birds such as sandpipers, plovers, snipe, and avocets, among others. While “shorebird” is a colloquial term, it has gained popularity to describe the species in that order. Besides the beach, you can find them in saltwater wetlands, tidal lagoons, brackish impoundments, mudflats, flooded pastures, and even evaporation ponds. But they also can be an upland species. The Killdeer is a good example. It is a very common, large plover that can be found on the beach, but also is commonly found on lawns, golf courses and farms.
American Avocet, Mary D’Agostino/Audubon Photography Awards
As for what shorebirds look like, they come in many shapes and sizes but many have relatively long legs, a round head, and a long bill used to probe the sand, mud, gravel and water for food. Their diet consists of mollusks, worms, larvae, tadpoles, and small fish. Common threats to shorebirds include climate change (such as from storms affecting nest sites), coastal development, pollution, and egg predation (by rats, foxes, and raccoons). Another unfortunate threat is the unintentional trampling of camouflaged eggs by people or their beach vehicles.
Many individuals in the United States, specifically in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey on the east coast, and California, Oregon, and Idaho in the west, have submitted checklists on eBird for the Global Shorebird Count; however, there have been only two locations in Virginia surveyed (as of the 2021 count), suggesting that the Global Shorebird Count is not well known here. If you are interested in participating in next year’s count, Chincoteague, Wallops Island and Kiptopeke are terrific spots for observing shorebirds in Virginia. There are also many spots closer to home in Northern Virginia where shorebirds stop off during migration, such as Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County.
Participating in citizen science projects can help conserve birds and other natural resources, but other everyday actions are just as or more important to preserving habitat for future generations of shorebirds.
When in a shorebird area, properly dispose of your garbage or take it with you to avoid attracting predators such as gulls, raccoons and rats, which may come for the trash and then move on to prey on shorebirds and their eggs.
Never release balloons anywhere! Birds can become entangled in the ribbon when the balloon comes back down, and some marine life can ingest the balloons and die. Scroll down on this Clean Virginia Waterways site for information on alternatives to releasing balloons at celebrations.
Watch where you step. Again, shore-nesting birds lay their camouflaged eggs directly on the sand (or rock or caliche paths or parking lots). Next spring and summer, pay attention to signs to avoid areas where eggs are likely to occur, and never enter roped off areas or areas where large congregations of birds occur. Birds will vocalize loudly or dive-bomb you if you enter a nest area. Killdeer also are famous for feigning injury to steer you away from their nests.
Finally, if a location is barred because coastal habitat rehabilitation is underway, respect the signs and do not trespass.
If you missed World Shorebirds Day, there is still plenty of time to plan a weekend trip to Virginia’s eastern shore or Cape May to catch some of the migrating birds skittering along the sand before the season is over. If you plan on visiting the beach this fall for World Migratory Bird Day (which is on October 8th this year), you are likely to find American Avocet (shown in the photos in both breeding and non-breeding plumage), Semipalmated Plover, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Willet, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitcher, Black-bellied Plover, and American Oystercatcher. Make sure you share your findings on eBird!