F R I E N D S O F T H E T A M P A B A Y N A T I O N A L W I L D L I F E R E F U G E S

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.

A Quarterly Newsletter Summer 2016

Friends MatterFire on Egmont Key National Wildlife RefugeGood news

page 1

Introducing Joyce Palmer, Project Leader and Mgr for Crystal River Complex and TS Colin Impact on Egmont

page 2

Frigatebird: NPR All Things Considered

page 3

Plan Your EventsThe calendar covers upcoming events and contact information for those wishing to volunteer and help to make them successful.

page 4

Early in the morning of Tuesday, July 26, a bolt of lightning ignited a wildfire in Egmont Key’s central east section. By Thursday night, when it was finally extinguished, the fire had burned 80 acres (roughly 1/3 of the island).Luckily, the bird sanctuary, sea turtle nests, lighthouse complex, and the pilot compound were not impacted.The island’s numerous gopher tortoises did fine: staying in their burrows and hosting numerous other critters until the fire burned out. Sadly, some of the box turtles weren’t so fortunate. Fire is no stranger to Florida landscapes. In fact, many require fire to remain healthy. July’s fire eliminated thick underbrush that had built up over the years,

allowing the landscape to return to a much healthier state for critters. New grasses are already sprouting in the burn areas—great news for the gopher tortoise habitat. Surprisingly, with the underbrush gone, several new Fort

Dade structures are now visible. Visitors can see a huge safe that was housed in the Administration building as well as the Fort’s “dead” house, aka morgue.Take some time off to visit Egmont Key NWR this fall and then in spring. You’ll see nature repairing itself in the most wonderful way, as well as some real historical treasures.

Fire on Egmont Key

" Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.2

A warm welcome to Joyce Palmer, the new project leader and manager for the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge Complex (Egmont Key, Pinellas, Passage Key, Crystal River, and Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuges).A 17 year veteran of Fish & Wildlife Service, Joyce most recently served as the deputy project leader of the J.N. ”Ding” Darling NWR Complex where she oversaw daily operations and managed a multi-disciplinary staff. Her experience and success at that heavily visited complex, with its high-profile public use programs and volunteer corps, led to her promotion as project leader and manager at our Complex.Joyce built a career on cooperative working relationships at city and local levels, with state and federal agencies, and with academia. Her FWS service prior to “Ding” Darling included stints in coastal Louisiana and Everglades restoration and roles as a refuge biologist, refuge manager, and deputy project leader. Congratulations, Joyce. We’re excited to have you with us.

Moving On Up: A WIN For the Crystal River NWR Complex

Refuges Withstand TS Colin

Although TS Colin didn’t give Tampa Bay a direct hit, as it moved up the coast it caused numerous issues on our Refuges. Most of Passage Key, was washed over by the high tides Miraculously, the skilled American Oystercatcher parents found a bit of high ground for their chicks and they survived! On a visit shortly after the storm, volunteers saw the family—certainly not a sight we expected! In May, prior to the storm, Ann Paul from Florida Audubon completed a peak nesting count on Egmont Key NWR and found 3 American Oystercatcher nests, 3 Black-crowned Night-Heron nests, 160 Black Skimmer nests, 282 Brown Pelican nests, , 300 White Ibis nests, 650 Sandwich Tern nests, 6375 Royal Tern nests, and 30,750 Laughing Gull nests.Then TS Colin literally blew in…The Black Skimmer colony on the north end of the island totally washed out. Fortunately, the parents are

trying again on a little higher ground closer to Battery Howard. The Royal and Sandwich Tern chicks were able to get to higher ground so avoided the water and survived. We saw many of them congregating on the beach on our recent Egmont Key Bird Sanctuary Tour. Brown Pelican, White Ibis, and Night-Heron nests are off the ground and did great. Sadly, the Laughing gulls didn’t seem to fare as well. There aren’t as many chicks as we usually see, so the thought is that many of the eggs were washed over during the storm. According to Refuge Sea Turtle Interns, Jo and Kaitlyn, Egmont has 38 new Loggerhead sea turtle nests since TS Colin. Prior to TS Colin we had 17 additional nests of which 12 were washed out completely and 5 were questionable. Of those 5 there may be 3 that have a chance of surviving. Moving forward there is much better news. About 50 nests ended up on the island and about half of them have hatched out as of this writing.

S E Q U O I A C L U B

Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc. "3

Frigatebirds, seagoing fliers with a 6-foot wingspan, can stay aloft for weeks at a time, a new study has found. The results paint an astonishing picture of the bird's life, much of which is spent soaring inside the clouds.Frigatebirds are unique among aquatic birds. Their feathers are not waterproof, so they can't rest on the waves. Males sport a vivid red pouch along their throats that they inflate when trying to attract females. They're known for stealing food from other seabirds.Since the frigatebird spends most of its life at sea, its habits outside of when it breeds on land aren't well-known — until researchers started tracking them around the Indian Ocean. What the researchers discovered is that the birds' flying ability almost defies belief.Ornithologist Henri Weimerskirch put satellite tags on a couple of dozen frigate birds, as well as instruments that measured body functions such as heart rate. When the data started to come in, he could hardly believe how high the birds flew."First, we found, 'Whoa, 1,500 meters. Wow. Excellent, fantastique,' " says Weimerskirch, who is with the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. "And after 2,000, after 3,000, after 4,000 meters — OK, at this altitude they are in freezing conditions, especially surprising for a tropical bird."Four thousand meters is more than 12,000 feet, or as high as parts of the Rocky Mountains. "There is no other bird flying so high relative to the sea surface," he says.One of the frigatebirds that researchers tagged soared 40 miles

over the Indian Ocean without a wing-flap. Weimerskirch says that kind of flying should take a huge amount of energy. But the instruments monitoring the birds' heartbeats showed that the birds weren't even working up a sweat. (They wouldn't, actually, since birds don't sweat, but their heart rate wasn't going up.)How did they do it? By flying into a cloud."It's the only bird that is known to intentionally enter into a cloud," Weimerskirch says. And not just any cloud — a fluffy, white cumulus cloud. Over the ocean, these clouds tend to form in places where warm air rises from the sea surface. The birds hitch a ride on the updraft, all the way up to the top of the cloud.Frigatebirds have to find ways to stay aloft because they can't land on the water. Since their feathers aren't waterproof, the birds would drown in short order. They feed by harassing other birds in flight until they regurgitate whatever fish they've eaten and the frigatebird takes it. Or they fly over a fish-feeding frenzy on

the ocean surface and scoop up small fish that leap out of the water to escape larger fish.So in between meals, apparently, frigatebirds soar ... and soar ... and soar. In one case, for two months — continuously aloft."Absolutely incredible," says Curtis Deutsch, an oceanographer at the University of Washington. "They're doing it right through these cumulus clouds. You know, if you've ever been on an airplane, flying through turbulence, you know it can be a little bit nerve-wracking."Several frigatebirds covered more than 300 miles a day on average, and flew continuously for weeks. They are blessed with an unusual body. No bird has a higher ratio of wing surface area compared with body weight — something called "wing loading."Writing in the journal Science, the researchers discovered that frigatebirds have also capitalized on a lucky coincidence. Winds that form these updrafts in the atmosphere also disrupt waves at the sea surface."We found that there's a remarkably good correspondence between those two things," Deutsch says. And when the regularity of waves is disrupted, deeper water rises to the surface, carrying with it things such as phytoplankton that attract small fish. The small fish attract bigger fish, which creates the feeding frenzy that frigatebirds need to dine.So it seems the life of a frigatebird is simply hopping off at the bottom of this atmospheric roller coaster, eating and getting back on again to search for the next meal.

Nonstop Flight: How The Frigatebird Can Soar For Weeks Without Stopping

From National Public Radio: All Things Considered June 30, 2016

S E Q U O I A C L U B

" Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc.4

Board of DirectorsBarb Howard — President/TreasurerJoyce Galiardo — Vice PresidentSid Crawford — Vice PresidentDebi Lanning — SecretaryDirectors: Dave Howard, Janica Johnson, Emma Mason, and Dave Kandz

Contact InformationBarb Howard at 727.343.1272 or 727.512.4914

Friends@TampaBayRefuges.orgFriends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges, Inc., PO Box 40782, St. Petersburg, FL 33743-0782 or visit us on the web:www.TampaBayRefuges.org

Calendar of EventsSeptember and October

•Pinellas NWR Clean-Ups—Watch for email broadcasts with specifics

Saturday and Sunday, October 1-2•Fall Field Trip: Chinsegut/Brooksville area. RSVP required

Wildlife SURVEYS• Sunday, September 18• Wednesday, October 12• Monday, November 14• Sunday, December 11

FESTIVALS: Volunteers Needed at ALLFriday And Saturday October 14-15

•Florida Birding and Nature FestivalSaturday, October 22

• Marine QuestNovember 12 and 13

• Discover the Island—Egmont KeyDecember 10

• Gulport Holiday Hoopla

Keep Up to Date! LIKE us on

FACEBOOK

FTBNWR Board Meetings2nd Monday of each month—

everyone welcome to join us and participate6:30 PM

Panera BreadBryan Dairy and Seminole

Barb Howard and Barb Homan exhibiting at SharkCon

Shark Con 2016Friends exhibited at SharkCon July 9-10.. The event brought almost 6,000 conservation minded folks together to learn more about sharks. We were amazed at what children knew about marine life as they looked at our exhibits. Exhibitors included Florida Aquarium, Mote, OCEARCH, FL Fish & Wildlife, mermaids, a scuba diving tank, and many nature oriented vendors. The speakers throughout the day were great, including FWRI’s Brent Winner. You may recall Brent from the shark talks he gave FTBNWR events. It’s a terrific event. Plan to attend next year! Thanks to the Howards, Bells, Jane and Isabel McKinney, Barbara Homan, Emma Mason, and Debi Lanning for volunteering over the two day event.