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Rare oystercatchers nesting along causeway
As found in: The Bocanut TelegraphLocal bird afficionado and sea turtle patroller Nancy Lingeman always has her eyes on the sky and beaches looking for new and interesting shore dwellers. When she heard about the unique birds nesting by the Boca Grande Causeway, though, she had to give it pause.
“I haven’t seen any here before, I haven’t seen or heard of any in this whole area,” Lingeman said. “I think it’s kind of weird, but who knows. I don’t know why, but these two seem to like us.”
A pair of nesting American Oystercatchers on the Boca Grande Causeway have drawn some attention from passing motorists as well, especially when they stray too near the road. Several people have reported having to slow down and, in some cases, stop, thinking the birds were going to walk right onto the pavement from their home just past the swing bridge.
The black and white birds with the orange beaks were first spotted two weeks ago by Jim Cooper, the executive director of the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority, and his crew.
Cooper said when the birds were first spotted he wasn’t sure what to do. Knowing that making big signs would draw more attention to the birds, GIBA employees roped off a small section around the nest and made makeshift signs.
Missy Christie, a compliance officer and environmental specialist for coast monitoring for Charlotte County, came out last week and made the nesting bird’s area larger by expanding the tapelines, and put more prominent signs up explaining why not to disturb the birds.
Cooper said not only are the eggs susceptible to losing a parent to traffic, they are also easy food for raccoons and other creatures.
The nesting pair have often been seen hunting for food very near the road, more than likely having gotten used to the traffic whizzing by. Cooper asked all motorists to use caution in the area and slow down when the birds are close to the causeway.
Chris Burney, the Shorebird Partnership Coordinator for FWC, said that the primary danger will come to the chicks when they are hatched.
“Oystercatchers are pretty tenacious,” Burney said. “They’ll defend the nest pretty vigorously, so they might have a good shot at hatching there. When the chicks hatch, though, they hatch precocial, off and running right away and already well developed. And when you’re hatched right next to the road that’s not a good idea.”
Burney said that the FWC might have to look into providing “chick fencing” to place in a perimeter around the nest.
“There are some things we can do to manage it, and chick fencing is definitely an option,” he said. “The only problem with that is that the chicks can cover a lot of distance in a short period of time. But we can try.”
The American oystercatcher is listed as a species of concern in Florida by the United States Army Corps of Engineers Endangered and Sensitive Species Protection and Management System. They are also protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, a document created between the U.S. and Great Britain (for Canada) for the protection of migratory birds.
The population of American oystercatchers has risen and fell sporadically over decades. By the 1850s they had become scarce in mid-Atlantic states, but throughout the 1900s the birds population reached higher levels than ever, reaching their population peak in the 1970s.
Over the past 20 years, though, the coastal plains states of North Carolina and Virginia, where the birds thrive, has declined by more than 40 percent.
The current North American population is listed at only 7,500.
Burney said that the numbers of oystercatchers in the area is hard to determine because of their nesting habits.
“They get a little more scarce as you go south of Tampa Bay,” he said. “But they’re around, just tricky to survey for. They nest in hard to find places.”
The incubation time for eggs is 24 to 28 days. The bird will make a small scrape in the sand and sometimes line the nest with pebbles or rocks to make a short wall around it, where they usually lay one to four eggs.
Oystercatchers are normally found along marshy coastlines and tidal flats. Their favorite foods are oysters, obviously, as well as clams, mussels, marine worms and other intertidal foods.