Coastal Stewardship Takes Flight as Shorebird Nesting Season Ramps Up

The top of South Litchfield Seashore is a sprawling spit of sand, the place tides and waves mix to create a large seashore that’s widespread with individuals and nesting birds. So Robert Purkerson wasn’t fully shocked when he discovered a bustling colony of Least Terns there on a seashore stroll final spring.  

However not like many different tern nesting websites on the South Carolina coast, this colony hadn’t been fenced off but. The tiny terns numbered within the tons of and have been nesting instantly on the seashore, not removed from individuals strolling the shoreline and canines chasing balls by way of the surf. 

Purkerson and others who had found the colony reported it to Audubon and the South Carolina Division of Pure Assets (SCDNR). Shortly after, SCDNR put in protecting fencing across the colony.  

Purkerson then labored with Audubon to rally volunteers who spent the summer season monitoring the colony and educating individuals in regards to the significance of sharing the shore with the birds. 

“Robert is a superb instance of all of the ways in which our stewards are on the frontlines of shorebird conservation,” mentioned Abby Burke, senior coastal coordinator at Audubon South Carolina. “They’re on the market all spring and summer season, strolling the seashore and interesting the general public.”

South Litchfield was the most recent South Carolina shorebird stewardship web site added in 2025 by Audubon, working in live performance with many conservation companions. Heading into the 2026 summer season, the stewardship program is extra lively than ever earlier than. Final yr, we tallied 150 volunteers at 13 beaches spanning nearly the entire coast, from Huntington Seashore State Park to Looking Island close to Beaufort. 

The expansion comes at an necessary time for shorebirds, which have declined by 33 p.c within the final half-century, because of habitat loss, local weather change, and human disturbance. 

Species like Least Terns and Wilson’s Plovers nest instantly on the sand, leaving eggs and chicks uncovered. When individuals or pets get too shut, adults flush, and even transient publicity will be deadly for eggs and hatchlings.  

Nests are additionally camouflaged and simple to overlook. Stewards and fencing will be the distinction between life and loss of life. 

Shorebird Stewards in Motion

Audubon joined city of Kiawah Island biologists to place field-readable flags on six Wilson’s Plovers at Folly Seashore Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Protect. These large-billed plovers are adept at looking fiddler crabs however are in any other case understudied. The bands will assist researchers monitor their actions throughout seasons. 

Audubon restarted a stewardship program at a distant however closely used boating space, the place volunteer Scott Glass used his boat to recurrently journey to the island. He recruited different volunteers to affix him, and so they helped educate boaters in regards to the significance of sharing the area with nesting birds. 

Audubon employees piloted a shorebird nest monitoring mission at Folly Seashore Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Protect, the place Audubon carefully adopted each nest. Employees tracked 14 Wilson’s Plover pairs and one American Oystercatcher pair and located that 8 plover chicks efficiently fledged.  

Of the nests that failed, the causes have been flooding and predators, and never human disturbance, suggesting  that stewardship efforts and protecting fencing collectively are working at this web site to forestall direct nest loss to human disturbance. Audubon plans to proceed this nest monitoring mission to see if this sample is constant throughout years and use information to repeatedly enhance stewardship and outreach efforts on the web site. 

As coastal pressures proceed to develop, Audubon’s rising volunteer stewardship community gives a mannequin for a way conservation can scale: regionally pushed, science-informed, and rooted within the easy act of exhibiting up. Become involved by contacting Abby at abigail.burke@audubon.org.  

If you wish to make a distinction however can’t volunteer, you may assist by leashing your dog on the beach, strolling round flocks of birds, obeying closed space indicators, and never getting too near nesting birds.