2025-26 Shorebird Stewarding Report

The Season at a Glance

Just a year ago, Hurricanes Milton and Helene rocked our familiar shores, interfering with the Fall 2024 season of shorebird stewardship at large- closing down public beaches and shifting coastlines. Following that disturbance, the latter half of that same season, Spring 2025, saw heightened levels of Karenia brevis (red tide) in the Gulf, only

furthering our low attendance and morale. Coming off of that intense hurricane and red tide season, these past 6 months have been overwhelmingly stable and positive by comparison. Between October of 2025 and March of 2026, shorebird stewards Ani and Yohn had no difficulties navigating the stewarding season and were able to breeze

by free of disturbance. The two were instead able to focus their efforts on the community engagement and bird conservation at hand.

Formally entering the birding stratosphere under Audubon of Southwest Florida this year is Ani Dues who served as the Lead Steward for this past season of 2025-2026 and will continue to lead into the coming 2026-2027 season. Ani is continuing the FGCU student to Shorebird Steward pipeline as a junior pursuing a double major in Marine Science and Philosophy. He has extensive birding experience, having been a previous seasonal Wildlife Ecologist working with Florida Scrub Jays and currently serving as the Vice President of the FGCU Ornithology Club.

Former Lead Steward and FGCU Alum, Yohn Villalta, returned for another season of shorebird stewarding, this time as Assistant Steward. Having led the very sessions Ani participated in during last season’s stewarding sessions, Yohn watched as Ani breezed through shorebird identification and worked on his engagement skills to eventually take on a season of shorebird stewardship himself. Both stewards are recreational birders as well and often spend time outside of stewarding participating in community birding events.

Data Collection

Data collection was streamlined using an avian biodiversity monitoring platform called eBird, where members of the community worldwide can submit their own bird observations. Stewards have commonly used the platform to record birds observed on their own recreational walks, thus it was already in use in the field. Stewarding leaders were able to easily record birds seen, allowing volunteers to spend more time observing, counting, and photographing birds. This also allowed non-shorebirds to be easily recorded and implemented into the dataset. Finally, data reported from stewarding walks is now permanently available to scientists and community members worldwide.

This season, we decided to make an eBird profile for our local Audubon chapter to better organize and visualize birding observations from Audubon of Southwest Florida field trips and shorebird stewarding sessions. This was made possible due to eBird being the standardized recording method for birding outings as of last year. Thus, we

were able to compile our data from previous seasons of shorebird stewardship and field trips that were logged onto eBird from October 2024 to the present day. This gives us a snapshot of total species, number of checklists, and individual bird counts across chapter outings since then.

Stewards made 24 official stewarding trips this season across three beaches, including 13 to Bunche Beach, 6 to Lovers Key SP, and 5 to Bowditch Point Park. Gulfside City Park Beach in Sanibel was not amongst this season’s stewarding locations, as this location was reserved as a backup in the midst of last Fall’s hurricane recovery efforts, which closed down popularly visited stewarding locations. While Gulfside City Park Beach was known for its frequent Snowy Plover sightings, a bird not often reported at our other

locations, our stewards decided to take this tradeoff and instead focus on the locations that could provide more shorebird variety and abundance for education and data purposes.

Data collected from eBird in the field was then transcribed into Audubon’s dataset, which added onto decades of shorebird data collected by stewards. It is important to note that this is a joint effort between ourselves and all the volunteers who helped count, identify, and photograph birds.

Impact on People

Volunteers logged 101 volunteer shifts, equivalent to approximately 202 volunteer hours. Together, we educated 16 people on the beach, a staggering difference from last season’s numbers, which totaled nearly 70 people. The driver behind those numbers can only be attributed to our beloved board member, Jim Rodenfels, who passed away a

year ago this past month. Jim’s absence and impact are still felt during every shorebird stewarding session. While juggling shorebird identification with a crowd of stewards and logging birds on the beach, we have found it difficult to engage with beachgoers in the same way that Jim did during his time with the chapter. Outside of a handful of

beachgoers who would occasionally approach the group, we have been largely unable to fill Jim’s vacancy ourselves or even with the help of willing volunteers. A testament to Jim’s ability to engage with the public.

Yohn’s Hispanic background has inspired him to make chapter events more inclusive by encouraging Spanish- speaking members of the community to participate in field

trips and shorebird stewarding sessions. He has made sure to include Spanish translations for the monthly chapter newsletters and social media captions, hoping to expand the chapter’s member base. We plan on continuing to use social media as an engagement tool to reach new and returning stewards. New attendees often reported having discovered shorebird stewarding sessions through the chapter’s Facebook and Instagram. Volunteers were encouraged to share their photos with us, which we would then use for our weekly recaps following shorebird stewarding sessions and field trips.

Impact on Birds

In the absence of hurricanes during the Fall season and of the seasonal resurgence of Red Tide (Karenia brevis) in the Winter/Spring, many of the disturbances that directly and indirectly affected shorebirds last season were mitigated. As a result, the health impacts that have affected our attendees in the past were avoided. This season, we reported one band resight, a Piping Plover (KPN), at Bunche Beach. This individual was spotted over multiple sessions.

In all, we recorded 94 species across this season’s 6 months. This was 8 more species than the previous year’s counts (86), despite the fact that we added 10 new species

to our all-time list this season. That discrepancy can be explained by two species of birds that we reported seeing last season but did not document this season--Bufflehead and Northern Gannet. Both of which are rare observations. The overall productivity of species abundance from this season however is likely due to our frequent attendance to Lover’s Key SP which doubled from last season (from 3 to 6 visits). According to our eBird profile, 6/10 new additions to our species life list were seen at Lover’s Key, this

included Chuck-will’s-widow, Yellow-throated Warbler, and a few others shown above. Lover’s Key is clearly a productive hotspot for species diversity, thanks to its habitat variety and well-managed property.

Our individual counts for this season were 10,946 birds, an increase of 2,398 birds or 28% greater than last season’s counts of 8,548 birds. This can be attributed to how often we visited the site that produced the greatest bird abundance. This location for us was Bunche Beach, where 4/5 surveys with the highest individual counts were conducted, giving us the best counts across the season. We visited Bunche Beach 4 more times this season than last season, which can easily explain the discrepancy in

bird abundance across the two seasons. Enjoy the above photo taken by Jessica P. at Bunch Bunche of a flock of Black Skimmers.

Some rare highlights included Black Scoter, Hudsonian Whimbrel (pictured at right), Red-breasted Merganser, American Avocet, and Common Loon. We also enjoyed seeing snowy plovers at Lover’s Key State Park and the usual spotted sandpiper that foraged under the mangroves at Bunche Beach.

Our most notable find of the season was the female Common Eider we first spotted on January 25 at Lover’s Key State Park! Common eiders are large sea ducks considered to be vagrants for our locality, as we are significantly south of their usual range. Their breeding and wintering range overlaps heavily and is almost one and the same. These ducks prefer the arctic and subarctic coastlines of North America, Europe, and Siberia. In the winter, they can come as far south as New England but are only found off the coast of Florida after a severe weather event that blew them off course or errors in

their biology responsible for navigation. This individual seems to be here for good, seeing as it hasn’t left Lover’s Key SP for the last few months. She’s even caught the attention of the media and has become a local celebrity being shared by the Florida Shorebird Alliance, Friends of Collier Seminole State Park, and others.

The top three most common birds this year were Black Skimmer (2,985), Sanderlings (810), and Short-billed Dowitcher (607), a divergence from the 2024 Fall counts where the top birds were American White Pelican (428), Short-billed Dowitcher (417), and Laughing Gull (409). This season’s abundance of Black Skimmers relative to last

season could be explained by our more frequent visits to beaches that tend to host mixed flocks of seabirds on sandbars, like that of Lover’s Key SP and Bunche Beach. The same could be said for these beaches and the abundance of shorebirds they host on their mudflats. We stewards surveyed both of these beaches more times this

season than last and therefore documented more of these birds over the past 6 months.

Volunteer Appreciation

After another impactful season of shorebird stewarding, we would like to introduce a new segment to our end-of- season report to explicitly thank our volunteers for their contributions. We stewards have been able to rely on your consistent attendance, attention to shorebird identification, and advocacy for shorebird conservation to maximize our impact on and off the beach. Each season, we are met with a task force of stewards, some returning to the program after past participation, and others who are unfamiliar with our mission yet seeking how to get involved and learn how they can make a difference. We are grateful to all of you, both near and far, who dedicate your time and efforts to keeping this program alive.

Thank you!

With that being said, we would also like to highlight a special someone who has exceeded our expectations and received the designation of Steward of the Season. Amanda Lychee Adams has demonstrated a commitment to learning shorebird identification, even going as far as bringing her own guide to use as a reference in the field. Amanda has consistently attended stewarding sessions over the course of the Fall and Winter seasons, has never been afraid to ask questions, and is always craving new ID tips to become a more well-rounded birder. Her horticulture background and particular interest in edible and medicinal plants have laid the groundwork for lifelong learning. If you knew Amanda personally, her pursuit of knowledge would not come as a surprise to you. You can support her by attending her educational talks and guided hikes, where she comes to share all she knows about her niche in the natural

world. Thank you, Amanda, for participating in our exchange of knowledge and for all you do!

Instagram: @amandalychee

Another outstanding volunteer we’d like to honor is Jessica Piland, who we’ve designated as our Photographer of the Season. Similar to Amanda, Jessica has consistently participated in shorebird stewarding sessions, expanding both her birding repertoire and skillset as a wildlife photographer. Her eye for beautiful compositions and amazing timing has allowed her to capture some of the best birding moments from our walks. She has worked for Florida Gulf Coast University’s media team to capture movement through sport, while also offering her clients intimate sessions through portrait photography. After learning about shorebird stewarding, she was able to continue to cultivate and apply her skills through wildlife photography- capturing both the stillness and motion of birding. Some of the photos featured in this report are hers! You can support her directly by following her Instagram page, where she posts photos from her sessions @jessicapilandphoto. Thank you, Jessica, for your attention to detail and commitment to memorializing our sessions through your craft.

With the 2026 Shorebird Stewarding Season under wraps, we would like to thank everyone for showing up and showing out! We can’t do what we do without you all. Looking ahead to next season, you can expect our lead steward, Ani Dues, to be your guide on the beach. His assistant, Yohn Villalta, will be moving forward with his career out-of-state. Follow us on our socials to find out what’s in store for next season!

Ani and Yohn

*Photo 1,2,3,5,8,11,13 by Yohn Villata. 4 by Rick Weber. 6,7,9,12 by Jessica

Piland