Endangered coastal birds released at Coal Oil Point Reserve in Goleta
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Snowy Plovers are tiny shorebirds that live in the sands of southern California’s coast.
And they like eating bugs along the shoreline.
But Snowy Plover conservationists are seeing the birds’ numbers threatened by human activity as well as rising tides.
“At our beach site since these birds nest right on the beach, a big concern is disturbance from humans and dogs so we try to account for that and reduce that disturbance by having a fenced in area that only the clovers can use only the clovers and other wildlife … and then we ask people to stay in this area between the fence and ocean to give them space," said conservation specialist Jessica Gray of Caol Oil Point Reserve.
The Santa Barbara Zoo, in collaboration with UCSB and US Fish & Wildlife, just released 11 snowy plover chicks at this plover rehabilitation habitat, in Goleta.
“There’s a lot of issues that these plovers are facing that are human caused so to be able to provide a human base solution is just a really good feeling," said conservation and science associate Nadya Seal Faith of the Santa Barbara Zoo.
"It’s really rewarding to see you know all of the effort in the monitoring that we do to protect these birds that it’s going towards giving these bird a second chance," said conservation specialist Jessica Gray of Coal Oil Point Reserve.
“there’s so much involved in being able to do this the right way and we just feel grateful to be a part of the bigger picture," said Faith.
"My hope is that the program that they’ve got going on just keeps increasing until adulthood so we can have plenty more to see," said wildlife supporter Alicia Ray.
The Zoo works closely with UCSB biologists, local conservation experts, and docents.
Together, they monitor the snowy plovers and their nests at Coal Oil Point Reserve.
Conservation leaders say when a nest is found, it is GPS marked and the team counts the number of eggs in the nest and monitors any nests that appear to be abandoned, looking for predator tracks.
If a nest seems to be abandoned and there are still viable eggs, the team has special federal permits to gather the eggs and deliver them to the Santa Barbara Zoo to be incubated, reared, and eventually released back into the wild.
