February 7, 2023

February Movie – Register Here

Scott Weidensaul, A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Location: Zoom Only

Watch the replay of the Zoom event featuring Scott Weidensaul, a renowned bird migration expert, and author of more than two dozen books on natural history. These include New York Times bestseller “A World on the Wing,” and Pulitzer Prize finalist “Living on the Wind.” He’s a contributing editor for Audubon and is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society. An active field researcher, his studies of migration have taken him all around the world.

Even as scientists make astounding discoveries about the navigational and physiological feats that enable migratory birds to cross immense oceans or fly above the highest mountains, go weeks without sleep or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch, humans have brought many migrants to the brink. Based on his newest book “A World on the Wing,” author and researcher Scott Weidensaul takes you around the globe — with researchers in the lab probing the limits of what migrating birds can do, to the shores of the Yellow Sea in China, the remote mountains of northeastern India where tribal villages saved the greatest gathering of falcons on the planet, and the Mediterranean, where activists and police are battling bird poachers — to learn how people are fighting to understand and save the world’s great bird migrations.

Movie Matinees

Seabrook Island Birders (SIB) hosts Movie Matinees each month on the second Tuesday at 4pm. The events are now often being held both in-person and virtually.

Please register for each event to let us know how you want to attend. After you register, you will receive an automatic confirmation with a link for Zoom, which will be resent the day of the event. If you requested to attend in person, you will receive a email reminder the day prior the event. Please let us know if you need to cancel. Water and snacks will be provided at in-person events. Feel free to bring your own beverage.

Since the program began two years ago, the Seabrook Island Shorebird Steward Program has shared its shorebird conservation message with over 1500 beachgoers. Now with the third season set to start in March, the program needs volunteers. Shorebird stewards focus on educating residents and visitors about birds like Red Knots and the remarkable habitat of Seabrook Island as a resting and nesting location for several shorebird species.

Seabrook and Kiawah Islands provide a critical stopover on a shorebird’s journey of survival. Recent studies show shocking declines in all shorebird species especially Red Knots. With a few exceptions, shorebirds travel some of the longest migrations of any birds to get to their nesting grounds in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic. Long migrations mean increased vulnerability at each stopover site. The weight that birds gain here is essential to provide energy for the long trip north and to cover any lag in the food supply in the harsh conditions they might face once they arrive at their nesting grounds.

“Why do we need stewards?” Every year new people come to the beach to see dolphins or turtles but don’t know the shorebird story. In 2022, 66% of the people who stopped by the Shorebird Steward Station were visitors to Seabrook Island. Stewards ask beachgoers to respect the shorebirds as they are feeding in the surf or resting at the inlet by not approaching the birds too closely and by walking around them. The message- “Share the Beach-Give The Birds Space”

Shorebird stewards are your neighbors, people like you, who love nature. All a volunteer needs is a willingness to share some time on the beach chatting with people who stop by the station. Please don’t let any concern about learning a bit about shorebird identification stop you from applying – Stewards educate people about ways to reduce human impact on birds, not bird identification!

We schedule stewards in two hour time slots usually from 10am -12 and 12 -2pm each day from March 1 thru the end of May or until the nesting season finishes. Our website allows you to self-schedule your shifts and makes it very easy to complete a report of your experience after each shift. Being a steward also offers opportunities to participate in shorebird conservation and research activities when we support SCDNR & USFWS in their work.

Oyster Catcher U5 and mate – Mark Andrews

If you are interested in becoming a Shorebird Steward, please register for a training program to be held on February 24 from 10am to 12noon at the Oyster Catcher Community Center. The training, provided by Allyssa Zebrowski, SC Audubon and local Seabrook Island resident Bob Mercer, focuses on the essentials for becoming a Shorebird Steward from learning about shorebird identification, behavior and conservation, to the special habitat our beach provides, and on to understanding how to best teach others. We will have other times available if you cannot make the February 24 program. After the classroom training, we provide field training opportunities to familiarize stewards with our equipment and educational materials. To help get you started, your first steward sessions on the beach will be with an experienced mentor.