Florida's coast is a key component to the future survival of all North America's shorebirds. Florida once supported vast populations of shorebirds on its 1350 miles of coastline. As virgin coastlines disappear, so do the birds that depend on unspoiled beaches and tidal habitats. Rising sea level adds additional pressure by further reducing the usable coastline that does remain.

This image displays the courtship behavior of Least Terns which are a threatened species. During the course of taking this photo, this colony was harassed multiple times by loose dogs and nearly run over by a car driving on the beach.

Wilson's Plovers have started to use scarafied vacant lots for nesting areas as natural breeding grounds have become harder to find due to development and sea level rise.

Piping Plovers depend on mudflats, like the ones pictured here, for foraging. They search through these "mini tide pools" for small marine worms and crustaceans. Their survival depends on undisturbed sea-wall and turf grass-free stretches of beach along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Piping Plovers, once common, nearly became extinct in the 19th century. Populations have recovered relatively well in some areas, and there are estimated to be about 16, 000 nesting pairs along the Atlantic Seaboard. They escape the cold and harsh conditions of the New England winter by leaving once fall sets in and their young have fledged to spend the rest of the year in the tropics (mainly the Bahamas and the West Indies). Like most populous coastal counties in Florida, over ninety-eight percent of coastal Pinellas is no longer suitable for a host of other rare species. Losing critical resting and refueling areas in Florida have made the trip much longer for many types of migrating shorebirds and songbirds bound for the tropics—thus the necessity for concrete-free stretches of the beach.

The endangered Red Knot also depends on Florida's coastline as a winter refuge. The bird pictured here has been banded so that its sightings can be tracked by researchers. If you do see a banded bird you can report your sighting here: http://bandedbirds.org/index.html

A prehistoric sight and a conservation success, the American Woodstork was near extinction in Florida when only one breeding colony remained at Audubon's Corkscrew sanctuary. But now thanks to the efforts of biologists and law-makers populations have undertaken a dramatic rebound.

American Oystercatchers on the nest at Ft. Desoto park in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, this pair was never able to successfully fledge chicks in this location due to the heavy beach traffic that this popular recreation spot receives.

Article resources:
1 http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/wildlife.html