Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/136775
Sarasota News Leader June 14, 2013 "We are doing our best to clean up debris and some of the stakes are being stacked for replacement buffers," she wrote in an email to Osborne and Gerkin. Work already had begun on reconstructing the buffer zones, she added. However, she told the News Leader, because of the March vandalism and the most recent incidents, "We're kind of running low on signs," which had come from FWC. It was difficult to say whether more than one person was involved, Osborne noted, because of the number of footprints left by people walking back and forth to the shoreline. Three pathways to the shore are in that general vicinity, Luckner said. Page 24 on its own, Luckner pointed out. When the buffer area suffered the first round of vandalism in late March, she added, three eggs were lost. Another active nest was destroyed as a proximate result of the flooding on the beach produced by Tropical Storm Andrea, she said; displaced fire ants attacked that nest. Volunteers have reported one other nest appears to have the potential of producing chicks, Luckner said. A Sarasota Audubon member who walks the beach early in the mornings also had told her this week that further nesting activity seems imminent in the foundation's conservation area. Eight pairs of the birds have been seen reBecause of the growing number of fire ant cently, she noted, though as many as 22 of the nests discovered over the past year in that birds were observed in March. buffer area, she added, the average person "They will keep trying," she said of the plowould want to stay well clear of it. vers' nesting attempts. Luckner explained that the property, which Still, one concern has been an increase in the has proven popular with the plovers over the number of single-parent nests discovered this past several years, is privately owned by the season, Luckner continued. "It's kind of unConservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast. usual." Sarasota Audubon representatives planned to notify the foundation of the incidents, she In those cases, the adult plover is loath to go wrote in her June 12 email to Osborne and out to forage for food. "They just wither" as Gerkin. they wait for the eggs to hatch, she explained. 'CHICK PATROL' The plovers, which are an endangered species, return to Sarasota County each year to nest, generally between March and early September. Last year, only one of the chicks hatched on Siesta "fledged," or reached the point of flying Sarasota Audubon welcomes more volunteers to help keep a watch over the birds until the end of nesting season, Luckner added. Helpers often are referred to affectionately as members of the "Chick Patrol." Anyone interested in helping out may visit the Sarasota Audubon website, where email addresses are available, or call the chapter at 364-9212. People also are