Mike Salisbury, UR - Food for Thought

Here's a link to the graphs/blog from last week

Site B

Notice how Site B has the least amount of gulls/terns in the graph from last week? This has been a common occurrence during my observations. I've come up with a few ideas why Site B consistently has fewer birds. If you look at this picture of Site B you can see people hang out from the water line to the trash cans, this is basically the entire beach. It is worth noting this is an uncrowded day at Site B.

Site A

Let’s take a look at Site A. I’ve noticed people generally stay close to their vehicles on the west side of the traffic lane. On crowded summer days, people spread out, but the traffic lane breaks up the crowd. This means the traffic lane is an abiotic ecological factor in the coastal ecosystem (where there is beach driving). This break in the crowd provides space for birds to congregate/flock.  

It seems like we have conditioned birds to a certain extent (particularly gulls/terns); when these birds see people, they think food.  Like all animals, birds need space. Site B, on average, doesn’t provide them with a comfortable amount of space (too many people/disturbances).  So gulls/terns are attracted to people because of conditioning, but only when there is enough space.  As a result, Sites A and C have the most gulls/terns. 

Mike’s gull/tern equations:

People + very little space = very few gulls/terns

People + space = hungry gulls/terns

People + food + space = more hungry gulls/terns

People + feeding the birds+ space = a lot of gulls/terns

Put a Bird on It

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Comments from last week:

Amanda Sterns (sec. 51)--I've been to the beach but I've never seen a bird's nest. Where do they build their nests and is nesting seasonal?

Shorebirds build nests during spring and summer on Florida beaches. Depending on bird species, nests can be anywhere above the high-tide mark, on the beach or in the dunes. Coastal development has forced some birds to nest on gravel roofs as well. This is a problem because chicks have been known to walk off these roofs. Additionally, these nests are more vulnerable to avian predators such as hawks, crows, gulls, herons, etc. 

Nesting Snowy Plover

Black Skimmers nesting on Daytona Beach

This is a close up of a nesting Black Skimmer
 

Nesting Wilson’s Plover on Flagler Beach