Tag: Audubon

Guardians of the Night – Dark Spaces, Bright Secrets

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

Yank Moore, JIA Director of Conservation & Joseph Colbert CWB®, JIA Wildlife Biologist

Chimney swifts and bats are two amazing creatures that share a love for dark spaces. They are both nocturnal creatures, active at night feeding on all the pesky biting insects, like mosquitos and gnats, that try to spoil every tourist’s perfect vacation. During the day they prefer to hide in dark spaces like tree cavities, but significant reductions in standing dead trees have forced these swifts to search for other sources of shelter and refuge. As a result, it’s not uncommon for chimney swifts to take up residence in man-made structures that they can access readily, such as chimneys. Bats have likewise lost many of their roosting trees to residential and commercial development over time, and natural forces such as storms. Subsequently, bats have also been known to inhabit man-made structures including attics, for refuge. Since adapting to these developmental changes, chimney swifts and bats are also losing access to these sources of shelter as homeowners seal off entry points or, in the case of chimneys in the south, no longer construct them at all.

In partnership with JIAs Conservation team, the Jekyll Island Foundation is looking to help these two species and mitigate any disappearing shelter by building houses – aptly known as bat boxes and chimney swift towers – just for them. Bat boxes and chimney swift towers provide a safe place for these creatures to live, thereby reducing their need to find other refuge and directing these animals away from residential houses. Bat boxes are small, wooden, elevated boxes that provide bats with a safe place to roost. By plugging any holes or other access points in an attic after they all leave to forage at night, they are forced to find an alternative home. A nearby bat box, if set up correctly, will lure bats away from homeowner attics. Ideally, a bat box should be small, about 16ft off the ground on a pole, and in the open sun without trees surrounding to ensure that their echolocation abilities won’t be impacted. Like bat boxes, Chimney swift towers are also wooden boxes, but they are designed to resemble the structure of a chimney and offer a source of refuge, as well as a good nesting location.

Conservation team members have captured swifts and tricolored bats in Indian Mound Cottage, Sans Souci, and Moss Cottage, usually in the dining rooms where the dining China and fragile decor are on display. Swinging nets around priceless collections is risky, but protecting both the animals and the houses is a necessity. By building Chimney Swift towers and bat boxes, chimneys and attic accesses can then be closed off to provide these animals safe alternatives for refuge and nesting.

To contribute to the ecological enhancement of wildlife diversity and support the construction and installation of new chimney swifts’ towers and bats boxes on Jekyll Island, click HERE.

Horton Hears A Coo

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Joseph Colbert CWB®, JIA Wildlife Biologist & Dan Quinn, JIA Natural Resource Manager

It’s May, and the island’s peak bird activity season is here! Residents and guests happily greet these motivated and enthusiastic songbirds that are in full migration. Spring is in and migrant birds are singing their joyful melodies to the world and darting around the island in search of food and companionship. Some are even seeking a nesting site to raise chicks.

A favorite place to see and hear these feathery songbird friends is on the Tupelo Trail, which can be accessed from the Horton Pond parking area. Tupelo Trail was designed to provide a diverse range of habitats, boasting six in total: southern maritime live oak forest, Florida live oak forest, tupelo wetland, maritime pine forests, yaupon blueberry bush hardwood scrub forest, and open canopy redbay saw palmetto thicket. These diverse habitats host a wide variety of plants, seeds, and insects, which are exactly what hungry bird migrants need to recharge from their big spring journeys.

If you are motivated to see or hear some songbirds this spring, consider walking the ¾ mile Tupelo Trail. Some birds are easy to spot with the naked eye, like cardinals, brown thrashers, and Carolina wrens. Get help identifying bird species by using identification applications like Merlin, that can identify birds by sight or song! Then, step up your own bird identification abilities with a pair of binoculars. Binoculars are a critical bird identification tool that allow for a better look at species that like to keep a distance, such as black-throated blue warblers, painted buntings, common yellow throats, orchard orioles, black and white warblers, American redstarts, tufted titmice, and Eastern phoebes. Don’t forget to use your ears too. Some common birds are easier to hear than see, including yellow throated warblers, Northern parulas, Eastern towhees, pine warblers, palm warblers, carolina chickadees, and brown headed nuthatches. It’s the perfect time of year for bird activity. Come for a visit, bring your gear, and view the sights!

We’re grateful for the support of the Jekyll Island Foundation, who provided investor funding to build the Horton Pond viewing platform and Tupelo Trail. To contribute to similar projects that support public access to nature-based recreation and other conservation efforts on Jekyll Island, click HERE.

Connecting Wildlife & Opportunity

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

by Yank Moore, Director of Conservation, and Joseph Colbert CWB®, Wildlife Biologist

Conservation on Jekyll Island is reaching new heights as the focus shifts from primarily monitoring and collecting data, towards restoration and informed land management and ecological enhancement practices. This approach will create and improve conditions for wildlife and habitat diversity on the island, while still providing nature-based education and recreational opportunities for the public.

Recently the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) adopted the Golf Improvement Plan, with input from all major departments within JIA. As a part of this plan, a wildlife habitat corridor will be established from retired holes on Oleander Golf Course. Creating this wildlife corridor represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the Jekyll Island Authority to restore 52 acres of land into a thriving ecosystem that supports a multitude of wildlife, while also offering public access to walkways in an alluring natural setting. The corridor would be an early step to connect the northern and southern parts of the island, allowing animals that are vulnerable to human activities or sensitive to road crossings to have easy and safe movement island wide.

The corridor will include a mixture of maritime grassland and longleaf pine savanna trees. Both habitats are currently among the most limited habitats on the island but were once a dominant landscape feature along the coast. Both habitats are characterized by few trees and shrubs but are dominated by a mixture of grasses that many regionally rare wildlife rely on. The nesting, feeding, and roosting features that so many priority bird species need to survive will be created by this restoration project. It will provide public access to a sanctuary for wildlife where birdwatchers and photographers will be granted extensive views deep into the landscape and a sense of what coastal Georgia looked like many centuries ago.

A view of a grass-dominated ecosystem is nothing short of breathtaking, especially on a day with a gentle breeze that sets the low-growing plants into motion. As stewards of Jekyll Island with a mission to support nature-based recreation, this project provides visitors and residents an unforgettable experience outdoors, while also improving conditions for resident wildlife. Learn how you can support ongoing conservation projects like this one by becoming a member of the Jekyll Island Foundation today.

Shorebirds

Posted on | by Matthew Humphrey

By Ben Carswell, JIA Director of Conservation and Sustainability

The partnership between the Jekyll Island Authority, Georgia Audubon, Georgia Sea Grant, and Jekyll Island Foundation to support a State Sea Grant Fellowship based on Jekyll Island in 2020 and 2021 has ended following a productive and enriching year for Sergio Sabat-Bonilla. While Sergio has moved on to Ph.D. studies at Virginia Tech, thanks to his efforts, we now have a more complete understanding than ever before of how, when, and where shorebirds are using Jekyll Island’s beaches.

During his fellowship, Sergio logged countless hours surveying all of Jekyll’s beaches by bike and on foot, counting and identifying over 18-thousand individual birds representing 16 different species. Sergio found that the best time and place to see the greatest abundance of shorebirds while on island, is in the morning on the south end as the tide is rising but not yet high.

Another aspect of Sergio’s fellowship was to analyze four priority species – Wilson’s plover, piping plover, red knot, and American oystercatcher. Areas of research focused on where these species were most likely to be seen, at what stage of the tide, and at what time of day.

Piping plovers, a species that winters on Jekyll Island and is federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, were notably wider ranging along the beaches than had previously been assumed. Pipers, as they are affectionately called, and their cousins, the Wilson’s plover, utilize both Jekyll’s remote and less traveled beaches on the far south end of the island as well as the busier beaches fronting the island’s bustling Beach Village and Great Dunes Beach Park.

While it’s encouraging that these species are still finding space and food to support their needs even on Jekyll’s busiest beaches, it’s also cause for caution and awareness. As Jekyll Island has experienced increased visitation due to changing patterns of tourism during the pandemic, it is all the more essential for Jekyll Island conservation staff to continue to protect the wildlife habitat value of both Jekyll’s most pristine beaches as well as its most visited ones.

How can you participate?

  1. Be mindful and respectful of birds when visiting or walking pets on the beach.
  2. Educate – read articles on Wildlife Research, become an Environmental Steward, or sign up to take a seasonal Ranger Walk or Gatorology adventure.
  3. Help with bird conservation efforts by donating HERE.