A Day in the Life: Shorebird Program Manager

A few minutes before sunrise, Megan Hatten arrives at the Ten Thousand Islands Field Research Station in Goodland. As the Southwest shorebird program manager for Audubon Florida, she and Derek Salge, her counterpart with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, start assembling the day’s supplies: first aid kit, handheld radio, life jackets, and boat keys. Today, they plan to mark off shorebird nesting areas at Dickmans Island, a small island just south of Marco Island, located within the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve boundary.

“We’ll take these smaller signs to put up at the front section, which is where most people are walking,” Hatten says to Salge. She loads two types of signs, a box with spools of string and colorful flagging, and various power tools onto a cart and rolls it down the dock to the boat. They both climb onboard; Hatten starts the engine and points the boat out toward the open water.

As they arrive at the beach, they see that several boats have already pulled up on the sand. Eager beachcombers pick through mounds of shells along the breaking waves, paying little attention to the flocks of shorebirds that are doing the same. Hatten and Salge split up, each taking a set of signs and various tools in different directions to mark the areas of the beach where threatened shorebirds like Wilson’s Plovers have already started setting up territories.

“Right now, we are seeing a variety of wintering birds on this beach, staging for spring migration,” says Hatten. “And, over there is where the Wilson’s Plovers typically scrape their nests,” she adds as she points over her shoulder.

After taking a water break, Hatten and Salge finish the hard work of digging holes between the high tide line and the vegetation and begin the second step: Connecting the signs with string and flagging to create a protective circle around the best nesting spots. The birds don’t always remain within the roped-off areas, so signs alert humans to nearby nesting activity, hidden amidst small plants.

“We put up these signs and string to help protect eggs and chicks from being trampled, because they are well camouflaged and very hard to see,” Hatten says. Beyond that, parent birds’ only chance of protecting their brood is to dive-bomb approaching threats, which can use a lot of energy. If disturbed too many times, the birds may abandon their nests.

Within two hours of arrival, both nesting areas on the island are posted, the tide has risen, and the beachcombers head back to their boats. Two women approach Hatten and, after a short conversation, thank her and say they are glad to know that Audubon Florida is protecting the birds that nest here.

Hatten’s work is not done; in fact, it has only just begun. She still has a few more nesting areas to post in the region, but with nesting season now underway, her job is about to shift from installation to education. 

Upon returning to the dock, Hatten fields an interview with the local newspaper to raise more awareness, because, even in places where signs and flagging are installed, birds are vulnerable to disturbance. Signs don’t stop unleashed dogs, errant beach balls, or kites flying overhead from causing chaos for nesting birds.

In a few weeks, Hatten will host a meeting with regional interagency partners, including the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Collier County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Marco Island, and others, to ensure everyone is on the same page about posted areas, rules of the beach, and important dates. It is going to be all-hands-on-deck for the upcoming Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays.

Her next task: recruiting a crew of volunteers to staff information stations at nesting beaches like this one over the coming months. Staff and volunteers team up to educate beach visitors about the fuzzy fluffballs wandering in their midst, and ensure law enforcement officials are notified of any issues.  Through the charisma of our avian friends, we grow our network throughout the hemisphere, inspiring new constituencies—and future generations—to act on behalf of birds and people. 

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