Help Us Count Shorebirds!
We’re excited to announce that the 2023 Puget Sound Shorebird Count (PSSC) will take place on Saturday, December 9th! Please fill out our Google Form indicating your availability and survey location preference if interested.
PSSC is part of the Pacific Flyway Shorebird Survey, a long-term monitoring program for wintering shorebirds led by Point Blue Conservation Science. Join a vast network of volunteers and biologists along the Pacific Flyway that captures a snapshot of wintering shorebird abundance each year.
The Puget Sound Shorebird Count, which has been conducted annually since 2012, collects information from approximately 23 sites, including Samish, Padilla, Fidalgo, and Port Susan Bays.
Got binoculars and scopes? Love birds? Want to participate in the next count? Contact Connor Tracey (ctracey@ecoinst.org) with any questions and to sign up!
We are also looking to recruit volunteers to assist with shorebird surveys at Willapa Bay and Gray’s Harbor. These will be coordinated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and will take place on Saturday, December 2nd at Willapa Bay and Saturday, December 16th at Gray’s Harbor. Those interested in participating should contact Vanessa Loverti (vanessa_loverti@fws.gov).
VOLUNTEER RESOURCES: MAPS, DIRECTIONS, AND PROTOCOLS
Background
In the winter of 2012, Ecostudies Institute, in collaboration with Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and US Forest Service International Program, began coordinating a citizen-science winter shorebird monitoring effort in Puget Sound. The goal of this effort is to provide a mechanism to monitor long-term changes in shorebird populations in Puget Sound, while simultaneously contributing to a large-scale, flyway-wide shorebird monitoring effort called the Pacific Flyway Shorebird Survey, which is coordinated by Point Blue Conservation Science.
Shorebirds using the Pacific Flyway are dependent upon a network of widely spaced estuarine sites between the Arctic and South America for wintering and migrating to and from their breeding grounds. Shorebirds also have exhibited long-term population declines. The lack of broad-scale coordinated monitoring along the Pacific Flyway limits our ability to understand the problem and design conservation strategies to benefit shorebirds.
In Washington State, Puget Sound contains 26 estuarine sites that support >1,000 shorebirds. However, the major stopover and wintering areas are located in four large estuaries in northern Puget Sound.
Key Results
The graphs below summarize this year’s shorebird count results, as well as abundance trends across our PSSC sites from 2012-2023. The above graph displays the number of dunlin observed relative to the total number of shorebirds observed. Dunlin are consistently the most abundant shorebird surveyed.
We have built a solid foundation of shorebird monitoring in Puget Sound that we plan to continue in the future. With the amount of estuary restoration taking place in Puget Sound, this data will be extremely valuable in describing some of the long term effects of those conservation actions. Read more about our work on the effects of estuary restoration on birds.
If you would like to volunteer for our Puget Sound Shorebird Count, please contact us.