Saturday, November 14, 2026
For the first couple of days of life, tiny chicks are only about 2½-inches and not easy to spot. It is suggested that you walk closer to the surf in posted areas. Photos by Jean Hall
Crows eat eggs and chicks! Pack out all trash so crows don’t come looking for their next meal on the beach.
Watch Your Step: Eggs are not easy to spot and can easily be stepped on. This Wilson’s plover nest and eggs were too close to beach foot traffic. Ideally, the scrap/nest should be in a thicker vegetation area.
Audubon of Western Everglades’ Brad Cornell tells new shorebird stewards, “Yes, we can share the beach with nesting shorebirds, sea turtles, their eggs and babies.”
A new group of shorebird stewards received their training Saturday, April 22 at Tigertail Beach. They heard from Audubon biologists Adam DiNuovo and Alli Smith on the importance of protecting the nesting colonies and how to share
basic beach biology with beachgoers during the summer nesting season.
Adam DiNuovo, program manager of Audubon Florida’s Collier Stewardship Program, is anxiously anticipating the arrival of thousands of imperiled coastal birds to start their annual breeding cycle on
Marco’s beaches. According to Brad Cornell of Audubon of Western Everglades, the Big Marco Pass Critical Wildlife Area, aka Sand Dollar Island, and the Second Chance Sandbar Critical Wildlife Area hosted the most productive colonies in the entire state last year.
They had over 1,000 fledged chicks of threatened black skimmers and least terns. And they would have failed without the constant presence of the shorebird stewards on Marco’s beaches, along with the help of a very informed beachgoing public.
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