Shorebird Stewards Report on the Season,
Cathy Folio
As the full moon of May approaches the Delaware Bayshore each year, a herculean mass of species is on the move. Waves of Horseshoe Crabs enter the bay currents heading for ancient breeding grounds. A veritable typhoon of migrating shorebirds – red knots, ruddy turnstones, dunlins, sanderlings, and semipalmated sandpipers – is surging up the Atlantic coastline en route to a crucial meeting with the crabs. And an army of humans is converging on the bay to roll out the red carpet for these weary, breeding travelers from another time and place
We are the Delaware Bay Project Shorebird Stewards, the “welcoming committee” for this great mass of biodiversity headed for the bay. We are coordinated by Conserve Wildlife Foundation biologist Larissa Smith. We come from all parts of the state with one mission: to oversee beach closures that safeguard breeding crabs and feeding birds from human interference. It is humans after all that have put this spectacular ancient meeting of sea and sky species in the gravest peril. Past over-harvesting of big female crabs for conch and eel bait has devastated the populations of both crabs and birds. There just aren’t enough crab eggs on the beaches now to satisfy both populations, never mind the constant intrusion of raucous laughing gulls from the Stone Harbor colony. And it certainly doesn’t help when people and pets roam the beaches spooking the migrants from their food, fuel they so desperately need to reach their Arctic breeding grounds. Humans put the crabs and birds into this mess, and it is up to another group of humans, the shorebird stewards, to help set things right again.
Early each May, shorebird stewards are recruited. We attend a training session and situation update with Larissa, Dr. Mandy Dey of the state’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program, Dr. Larry Niles who leads the International Shorebird Project, and Sgt. Mark Canale, coordinator for the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officers who work with us. We are provided with schedules of beach assignments, tide charts, recording sheets, Delaware Bay Shorebird Project tee shirts from Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, NJ Fish and Wildlife baseball caps, official ID’s, brochures, and critical phone numbers. We fan out to all bay access points from Fortescue to Higbees Beach for the 3-6 weeks that the beaches are closed to the public. (The length of time depends on the moons of May and June, the temperature of the bay, storms, winds, and the arrival and departure of the birds.) Some stewards stay for a day or two, a week, or the entire closure period. We staff each access point every day for 8-10 hours, watching the crabs and the birds, educating visitors on the critical need for the closure, and deterring all from going beyond the roped access areas. We are joined daily by birders, photographers, fishermen, sunbathers, dog-walkers and bay-watchers all wanting to know what is going on and why. We staff our posts through driving winds, sudden squalls, the beating sun and the biting bugs. And we do it just for the crabs and the birds.
Every beach has its own personality of terrain, residents, wildlife conditions and visitors. Fortescue is always full of fishermen, Reeds Beach is a magnet for bird enthusiasts, local residents prefer Cooks and Kimbles Beach Roads, and dog-walkers, kids and jet skiers test the stewards at Villas and Norbury’s. My personal favorites are Reeds Beach for the camaraderie of the birders, Kimbles for the antics of the resident guinea hen flock, and Cooks for its incredible sweep of beach, and salt marsh wildlife of marsh wrens, clapper rails, rat snakes, glossy ibis and red-winged blackbirds.
So, what does it really take, besides time, to be a shorebird steward in spring on the Delaware Bayshore? Patience, perseverance, a good book to read and a sense of humor certainly help. But even more important than these are interest and passion. Interest in how the natural order of the planet brings birds thousands of miles in precise timing to the breeding beaches of a living marine fossil and passion to keep this finely-tuned natural mechanism going. Passion to correct humanity’s past bad habits and irresponsible behavior and to halt the predicted extinction of the unique red knot. Extinction is forever, and the loss of even a single species removes another irreplaceable piece of the planetary puzzle, leaving us all a little more poor for eternity.
Staff
Margaret O'Gorman
Executive Director
Michael Davenport
GIS Specialist
Maria Grace
Education and Outreach Manager
MacKenzie Hall
Private Lands Biologist
Brian Henderson
GIS Specialist
Debbi Nichols
Executive Assistant
Todd Pover
Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager
Patricia Shapella
Director of Development
Larissa Smith
Assistant Biologist
Ben Wurst
Habitat Program Manager
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