2007 Mid-winter Waterbird Survey

Jim Wilson, Former President of Atlanta Audubon Society and IBA Coordinator
 
Obtaining data on numbers, species, and locations of birds (particularly shorebirds) is a difficult but very important task for conservation efforts.  So imagine how nice it would be if there was a method by which you could have all the number and species of birds in multiple areas within a region determined in one day.  It would be somewhat like a combination of the Cornell Great Backyard Bird Watch and Christmas Bird Count, only better.  Well, as have guessed from this lead-in, that is exactly what happens on the Georgia Coast once a year.  In January, nearly all waterbirds such as shorebirds, waterfowl, and waders are counted along the Georgia coast and barrier islands by expert birders in a single day!  More than 50 of these experts go out to their designated stretch of beach during high tide and spend a few hours counting the birds they observe.  This Mid-winter Waterbird Survey was originally designed to determine how many Piping Plovers there were along the coast.  It expanded in 1996 to include all of Georgia's shorebirds--why not count them all while you are there--and now it includes all waterbirds for the same reason.  Fabulous data from a conservation point of view!

On January 22, 2007, as many of the waterbirds along Georgia's coast as possible were counted, totaling of 63,115 individual birds.  As examples of the three largest count areas: 14,970 waterbirds were counted on Cumberland Island; 14,058 waterbirds were counted on Little Tybee Island; and 7,137 waterbirds were counted on St. Catherines Island.  The most numerous birds were Dunlins (>23,000 birds) with Semipalmated Plovers (~6,400) and Gulls (~10,000) also being plentiful.  Hundreds of Piping Plovers (200) and American Oystercatchers (505) were seen, many with leg bands that gave invaluable migration data of these birds.

It was a great day for birding and everyone enjoyed themselves, particularly in comparison to last year's wet and cold weather conditions that made counting miserable.   The bird of the day was a California Gull seen by Jim Flynn.

Download the PDF version of The Citizen Scientist Newsletter - Spring 2007 (Requires Adobe Acrobrat Reader).