New wading bird study

Seabird Study: Utilization of Estuarine and intertidal habitats at the John D. MacArthur State Park

Principal investigator: Diane Arrieta, MSc. 

Research Assistant: Leah Plocharczyk, MA

State permit #11171515

Internships available for Wilkes Honors students (approved by the honors college)

Spring semester internship is already full

This long term study plans to investigate the use of Estuarine and Intertidal Habitats by wading birds at low tide within park boundaries of the John D. MacArthur State Park, located in Riviera Beach, FL [Palm Beach County, FL]. The scheme aims to monitor, assess and regularly update information on the relative importance of inter-tidal feeding areas within park boundaries to document abundance and distribution patterns for the following species.

Species:

Table 1. Birds of the order Ciconiiformes in Florida (Sizemore, et. al., 2012)

Common Name	Species Name	Family	Status
Great Egret	Ardea alba	Ardeidae	Native
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula	Ardeidae	Native
Reddish Egret	Egretta rufescens	Ardeidae	Native
Cattle Egret	Bubulcus ibis	Ardeidae	Native*
Great Blue Heron	Ardea herodias	Ardeidae	Native
Tricolored Heron	Egretta tricolor	Ardeidae	Native
Little Blue Heron	Egretta caerulea	Ardeidae	Native
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Nycticorax nycticorax	Ardeidae	Native
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Nyctanassa violacea	Ardeidae	Native
Green Heron	Butorides virescens	Ardeidae	Native
American Bittern	Botaurus lentiginosus	Ardeidae	Native
Least Bittern	Ixobrychus exilis	Ardeidae	Native
Wood Stork	Mycteria americana	Ciconiidae	Native
Roseate Spoonbill	Platalea ajaja	Threskiornithidae	Native
White Ibis	Eudocimus albus	Threskiornithidae	Native
Glossy Ibis	Plegadis falcinellus	Threskiornithidae	Native
Sacred Ibis	Threskiornis aethiopicus	Threskiornithidae	Non-native
Scarlet Ibis	Eudocimus ruber	Threskiornithidae	Non-native
*Arrived in Florida VIA natural range expansion.

The objectives of our monitoring include:

1. Assess baseline seabird foraging rates at our four sites

2. Assess seabird roost utilization at sites

3. Assess distribution fluctuations between seasons and environmental conditions

4. Assess baseline levels of human-caused disturbance; especially in Lake Worth Cove 

Reference: 

Grant C. Sizemore, Martin B. Main, and Elise V. Pearlstine, 2015. Florida's Wading Birds: IFAS Extention. PUblication #WEC267 Available: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw309