Coastal Stewardship Takes Flight as Shorebird Nesting Season Ramps Up

The end of South Litchfield Beach is a sprawling spit of sand, where tides and waves combine to create a wide beach that is popular with people and nesting birds. So Robert Purkerson wasn’t completely surprised when he found a bustling colony of Least Terns there on a beach walk last spring.  

But unlike many other tern nesting sites on the South Carolina coast, this colony hadn’t been fenced off yet. The tiny terns numbered in the hundreds and were nesting directly on the beach, not far from people walking the shoreline and dogs chasing balls through the surf. 

Purkerson and others who had discovered the colony reported it to Audubon and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). Shortly after, SCDNR installed protective fencing around the colony.  

Purkerson then worked with Audubon to rally volunteers who spent the summer monitoring the colony and educating people about the importance of sharing the shore with the birds. 

“Robert is a great example of all the ways that our stewards are on the frontlines of shorebird conservation,” said Abby Burke, senior coastal coordinator at Audubon South Carolina. “They are out there all spring and summer, walking the beach and engaging the public.”

South Litchfield was the newest South Carolina shorebird stewardship site added in 2025 by Audubon, working in concert with many conservation partners. Heading into the 2026 summer, the stewardship program is more active than ever before. Last year, we tallied 150 volunteers at 13 beaches spanning nearly the entire coast, from Huntington Beach State Park to Hunting Island near Beaufort. 

The growth comes at an important time for shorebirds, which have declined by 33 percent in the last half-century, due to habitat loss, climate change, and human disturbance. 

Species like Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers nest directly on the sand, leaving eggs and chicks exposed. When people or pets get too close, adults flush, and even brief exposure can be fatal for eggs and hatchlings.  

Nests are also camouflaged and easy to miss. Stewards and fencing can be the difference between life and death. 

Shorebird Stewards in Action

Audubon joined town of Kiawah Island biologists to put field-readable flags on six Wilson’s Plovers at Folly Beach Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve. These large-billed plovers are adept at hunting fiddler crabs but are otherwise understudied. The bands will help researchers track their movements across seasons. 

If you see a Wilson’s Plover with a green flag and a three-digit alphanumeric code, report it to Audubon’s Abby Burke at abigail.burke@audubon.org and town of Kiawah Island Wildlife Biologist Aaron Given at agiven@kiawahisland.org.  

Audubon restarted a stewardship program at a remote but heavily used boating area, where volunteer Scott Glass used his boat to regularly travel to the island. He recruited other volunteers to join him, and they helped educate boaters about the importance of sharing the space with nesting birds. 

Audubon staff piloted a shorebird nest monitoring project at Folly Beach Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve, where Audubon closely followed every nest. Staff tracked 14 Wilson’s Plover pairs and one American Oystercatcher pair and found that 8 plover chicks successfully fledged.  

Of the nests that failed, the causes were flooding and predators, and not human disturbance, suggesting  that stewardship efforts and protective fencing together are working at this site to prevent direct nest loss to human disturbance. Audubon plans to continue this nest monitoring project to see if this pattern is consistent across years and use data to continuously improve stewardship and outreach efforts at the site. 

For highlights from all our stewardship sites, explore our 2025 stewardship report.

As coastal pressures continue to grow, Audubon’s growing volunteer stewardship network offers a model for how conservation can scale: locally driven, science-informed, and rooted in the simple act of showing up. Get involved by contacting Abby at abigail.burke@audubon.org.  

If you want to make a difference but can’t volunteer, you can help by leashing your dog on the beach, walking around flocks of birds, obeying closed area signs, and not getting too close to nesting birds.