NAVY TO RESTORE DUNE HABITAT FOR RARE BIRDS

By U-T San Diego 12:01 A.M.MARCH 5, 2013Updated9:42 P.M.MARCH 4, 2013

CORONADO — The Navy aims to restore nine acres of dune habitat along Silver Strand Highway during the next three years to improve habitat for two species of sensitive shorebirds.

The areas targeted for replanting supported 669 nests of federally endangered California Least Terns and 53 nests of federally threatened Western Snowy Plover in 2012, said Tiffany Shepherd, wildlife biologist for the Coronado Naval Base.

The dune restoration will include removing invasive ice plant and planting native dune flora, including sand verbena, beach bur, beach evening primrose and beach morning glory, Shepherd said.

Removing ice plant and restoring native flowers will open up space where terns and plovers can place their camouflaged eggs in small nest scrapes in the sand. Those actions are also expected to stabilize the dunes.

The entire Coronado Naval Base supported 1,078 tern nests and 146 plover nests last year, making it one of the last remaining dune ecosystems in the region.

Throughout Southern California coastal dunes have been lost to urbanization, leaving sensitive animal and plant species dependent on vanishing habitat, she said.

“Removing invasive species from the site and planting native species will protect and enhance the biodiversity of an ecosystem that already supports many native species, including several threatened and endangered species,” Shepherd said.

The work is being done under a cooperative agreement between the Navy and San Diego State University’s Soil Ecology and Restoration Group.

The dune restoration will include installation of drip-irrigation systems, protective cones and wire cages for 12 to 18 months to prevent animals from eating the new plants.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/05/tp-navy-to-restore-dune-habitat-for-rare-birds/

The Puffin Charmer

By thinking like a social bird, Stephen Kress brought puffins back to the United States.

First things first: Puffins are adorable. You don’t have to be an animal lover to be charmed by their clownish faces, their waddling walk, and their chubby-dumpling bodies. Their fluffy chicks make even hardened cynics coo. (Really. They’re irresistible.)  

Every summer on the Maine coast, tourists pile into ferry boats to tour the small, rocky islands where Atlantic puffins nest. As they ogle the birds through binoculars, they hear that puffins are not only cute but also tough: Though wobbly on land, puffins can dive down 200 feet underwater, and they swim so expertly that people once believed them to be a cross between a bird and a fish. Adult puffins return to their home islands every summer to breed and carefully tend a single chick, often pairing with the same mate year after year. Never underestimate a puffin.

But Atlantic puffins were once driven to near-extinction in the United States by hunting and egg collecting. The busy colonies off the Maine coast today are the result of a long-running restoration project. It took a tremendous amount of time and effort to turn a heretical idea into the noisy, messy, thriving reality of the Maine puffin colonies—and it takes even more work to keep that reality in place.

In 1969, a young biologist and birding enthusiast named Stephen Kress moved to Maine to teach at the Hog Island Audubon Camp on the coast. He learned that puffins had once been common on the coastal islands but had been hunted relentlessly. By 1901, a single pair was left in the state, and only a few pairs had been seen since. Unlike many people in Maine at the time, Kress had a visceral sense of what had been lost: He had recently worked in eastern Canada, which has some of the largest puffin colonies in the world. He started to wonder if Atlantic puffin chicks could be transplanted from Canada to Maine and used to re-establish the population south of the border.

Continued:  http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/doers/2012/11/stephen_kress_puffin_project_decoys_and_music_lure_birds_back_to_maine.html