Nesting Shorebirds & Beach Visitors
Charlotte County Report– Alexandria Grant & Zachary Zampella
2026 Report
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Preliminary Stump Pass State Park
Approximately 320 Black Skimmers had 80 nests - 180 fledged
Approximately 400 Least Terns had 156 nests 102 fledged
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Preliminary Palm Island Resort Beach
15 Wilson Plovers sighted in August
2 Nests and 4 fledglings
2025 Report
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Record nesting year
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Three AMOY fledged from Bird Island
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71 BLSK fledge at Palm Island Resort/Knight Island North
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118 fledge LETE from the county!
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Other nesting success
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3 WIPL fledged from Stump Pass
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109 LETE chicks fledged from Knight Island North
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9 LETE fledged from Gasparilla
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Click to see documents
Peace River Audubon members help monitor nesting shorebirds on the beaches of Palm Island Resort and Stump Pass State Park.
PRAS members Cathy Olson, Bren Curtis, Mike Weisensee, Brant Julius and Robert Kraft and Denise Rychlik have worked with Charlotte County and an engineering company to monitor the shorebirds. Their photos of shorebirds are below.
Perils of the LETE and BLSK colony nesters & solitary nesters like the WIPL include:
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storms and hurricanes
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tidal surges & nest over washes
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climate induced heat
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mammal predators (coyote, raccoons, armadillos, bobcats, unleashed pets)
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avian predators - Fish Crows, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Great Egrets
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human disturbances (shell collectors, beach walkers, fishermen, shoreline boaters in addition to motorized hang gliders).
Research shows that volunteer Beach Stewards assisted nesting success in 2022-23.
A Great Video on How to ID Shorebirds
by Karl Werner & Audrey Albrecht of Sanibel-Captiva Audubon
go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jWcs1_YqjdzoTeKUCIf6G-mHizSVp-mQ/view
Wilson Plover WIPL
Least Tern LETE
2024 Story of a Least Tern Chick
An egg hatched. The adult removed the egg shell after it hatched.
The chick hid in a track of a human.
It spent 16 days hiding in wrack debris with 15 adults trying to protect it.
Unfortunately it wasn't seen after an evening resort wedding event.
Video of a Great Egret chasing chicks.
Photo shows a Great Egret catching a chick
Black Skimmers BLSK
