USING CAMERA TRAPS TO RECORD SEABIRD DISTURBANCES AT NIGHT 

Diona R. Hardge, Eckerd College, Environmental Studies and Biology Disciplines

Elizabeth A. Forys, Eckerd College, Environmental Studies and Biology Disciplines

Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) are colonial waterbirds that nest on open beaches on both coasts of the United States. Due to a significant decline in their numbers, the species is listed as threatened by the State of Florida. Many of our Black Skimmer colonies in Southwest Florida nest on busy public beaches. While bird stewards can protect the skimmers during the day and record data on disturbance and predation, little is known about what happens in the night. The purpose of our project was to use  camera-traps to record disturbances and predation attempts during the evening. We installed two Campark T180 game cameras at the St. Pete Beach and Redington Shore skimmer colonies. St. Pete Beach is located on a beach lined primarily by hotels with some condos. Redington Shores is more residential and is lined by a combination of condominiums and houses. Photos and videos were downloaded twice each week and analyzed for 75 days. During the night-time we observed no acts of predation, but recorded 75 disturbances at Redington Shore and 65 at St. Petersburg. Overall, the disturbance rate was low and not significantly different between the two colonies. The most common source of disturbances was unknown, and the second was fireworks. The low level of disturbance  potentially could be attributed to the daily volunteer work done by Audubon Florida volunteers educating the public about the importance of not disturbing the nesting colonies.