PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Bird enthusiasts and park rangers at Fort De Soto have a reason to celebrate this summer. They say a threatened species has accomplished something that hasn’t been done at the park in over 20 years.
The threatened species is the American Oystercatcher, a bird native to Florida. However, it's a rare occurrence when it comes to successfully nesting at Fort De Soto.
“We are losing a lot of habitat for these birds. It’s a huge effort from a lot of different groups to try and make sure they do well,” said Abby McKay with Audubon South Pinellas County.
McKay was one of the first to discover the eggs back in April.
“I’m like, ‘she’s got eggs, we have eggs,’ it was just exciting to finally see it happen, finally see them be able to settle down,” said McKay.
However, laying the eggs is only half the battle.
“The concern was it was right in the midst of North Beach, which is a very busy beach, so we knew we would have some concerns about public intrusion, but we quickly got it posted,” said Park Manager David Harshbarger.
McKay and fellow Audubon members and park rangers have been trekking half a mile across the beach in 90-degree heat daily to ensure the birds are undisturbed.
What happened next was decades in the making. The chicks not only hatched, but they also thrived.
“All three chicks are alive and well and learning to fly, and they can feed themselves,” said McKay.
“This was the first time in about 20 years that Oystercatchers have successfully fledged their eggs on Fort De Soto Beach, so really a wonderful combined effort between Audubon and their stewards and park rangers,” said Harshbarger.
These stewards of nature say they can’t take all the credit. There was also a lot of good parenting.
“If you saw them nesting, she was beating anyone off. She was an incredible defender, so they put in so much effort to make sure their eggs were protected when we weren’t here,” said McKay.
It didn’t take long for word to spread across the birding community about Fort De Soto’s newest family.
“I think the furthest I’ve heard anyone travel is from Utah, so they sort of made kind of a birding trip out of it,” said McKay.
Thanks to tiny tracking devices, they can monitor mama and the chicks as they embark on their next adventure.
“Hopefully, they come back to Ft. De Soto. I think they are pretty partial to it,” said McKay.
