Sand Dollar Island Once a Host to Florida’s Largest Black Skimmer Colonies

Sand Dollar Island, also known as the Big Marco Pass Critical Wildlife Area, has hosted one of Florida’s largest Black Skimmer colonies for over a decade. Birders have also reveled in the large numbers of nesting Least Terns, Wilson’s Plovers and flocks of wintering imperiled species that can be seen there. Up to 600 pairs of skimmers have nested on Sand Dollar, producing hundreds of chicks each year. 

Unfortunately, for the first time since 2015, Black Skimmers completely abandoned their Sand Dollar Beach nesting site in the summer of 2023 not producing any chicks. Many factors could have influenced this from the ongoing dredge project altering their habitat, increased human disturbance and predators, and erosion/over wash to their nesting sites.  

Protecting the limited suitable habitat left and reducing disturbance is vital for the skimmers and other populations to return and succeed. Recent strong storms, including Hurricane Idalia and several strong fronts, have further eroded their most suitable nesting location on the north tip. This spot already lost six-acres during the dredge project with the dredged sand or “spoil” used to build up a berm mid-spit.  Storms have also been eroding these berm sands into Tigertail lagoon.  Tigertail lagoon was once an ecosystem booming with seagrasses and many invertebrates vital for shorebirds and other wildlife and is now covered with piles of sand and little to no seagrasses. In estuaries throughout Florida, seagrasses have been declining due to degraded water quality and habitat loss, which impacts many wildlife species including manatees which have suffered mass starvation in recent years.  Scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society have reported that over a quarter of global seagrass have been lost in the past century. These grasses are essential for productivity and shelter, stabilizing sediment, removing dissolved nutrients from the water, and providing food sources. Our winter shorebird and wading bird surveys have seen a decline in numbers as birds search for mudflats, grass beds, and tidal pools to feed in.

Audubon Western Everglades and our partners at Audubon Florida, Rookery Bay, Marco Island and FWC, encourage the public to help reduce these threats through respecting nesting and resting flocks of coastal birds by walking around them, not feeding any wildlife which attracts predators, and please consider volunteering to work with Audubon biologists on shorebird stewardship. Contact us by email at CollierShorebirdStewards@gmail.com.