DWH NRDA Breeding Shorebirds 2010

Deepwater Horizon beach-nesting breeding shorebird surveys and habitat assessments were completed in 2010 and 2011 by Coastal Bird Conservation/Conservian, under contract to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, across the Gulf of Mexico coast. Two sets of Coastal Bird Conservation/Conservian efforts were conducted in 2010: (i) a statewide survey sponsored before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred by entities not involved in the NRDA, and (ii) NRDA-sponsored surveys in many of the same areas surveyed by the earlier effort. Thus, in 2010, surveys were completed both before and after oil from the Deepwater Horizon event reached the coast. Surveyors documented the estimated number of solitary beach-nesting, active breeding adults, focusing on American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliates), Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), and Wilson’s Plover (Charadrius wilsonia), documented oil spill-related impacts to shorebirds and habitats, and collected GPS coordinates and photographs. Additionally, any bird color band combinations observed on banded focal species were to be recorded. This dataset contains the 2010 data that CBC collected while under contract to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional details on the 2010 surveys and results are provided in the End of Study Report (2010 Solitary Beach-nesting Bird Populations of the Northern Gulf and Data Analysis for Estimating Oiling Rates: Pre and Post Oil Landfall Breeding Surveys and Initial Recorded Impacts of the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon (MCS 252) Oil Spill (Bird Study #8)).