Nearly two years ago Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida, and that forced the City of Sanibel to do a major beach renourishment project.
Unfortunately, that beach renourishment project negatively affected our nesting sea turtles and now we are learning it negatively affected our nesting shore birds as well.
“This year is actually our first year on record since we started our shore bird monitoring program in 2002,” said Audrey Albrecht, a shorebird biologist with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation. “It’s our first year on record with no shorebirds fledging off of Sanibel or Captiva.”
Albrecht says the beach renourishment changed the natural habitat for birds like our Snowy Plovers.
“Normally, they need a lot of camouflage,” said Albrecht. “So, shells, grass, debris, and plants for their chicks to hide under. They need to camouflage their nests for their chicks and themselves from predators.”
And while the beach was being covered by trucked in sand, that camouflage was lost was also home to food for the plovers.