Sea-level rise and severe storms threaten coastal communities and shorelines around the world. Protecting wetlands and maintaining healthy beaches can help mitigate these threats. That’s why Audubon is investing in coastal resilience as part of its hemispheric conservation strategy with a goal of helping both birds and people be more resilient to climate change. From wetlands in Chile to the Mississippi Delta to the New England coast to the shores of Canada’s Arctic, we are working to restore and protect vital ecosystems that not only provide defenses against storm surges and rising seas but also provide essential breeding, nonbreeding, and stopover habitat for migratory birds like Piping Plovers, American Oystercatcher, and so many more.
The following article is by Tomas Koeck, a filmmaker who highlights the marvel of bird migration and the importance of New England’s coastal stopover environments in his latest film, Sky, Sea & Shore, episode three of Ocean State: Rhode Island’s Wild Coast. He interviewed Audubon’s Jeff Wells as part of this recent project. I hope you enjoy it!
—Bethany Kraft, Senior Director, Coastal and Marine Resilience
Birds got me started in natural history film production, and now I once again return to cover another story about our feathered friends, this time examining shorebirds along the southern New England coastline, featured in my latest film Sky, Sea & Shore, episode three of my latest project, a New England EMMY-Nominated production titled Ocean State: Rhode Island’s Wild Coast, now streaming on PBS Passport.
The series examines the remarkable southern New England coastline surrounding its beating heart, Rhode Island, which regularly sees ocean wildlife arriving from both the northern and southern regions of the North Atlantic. Many species of marine life, from whales to sharks to eelgrass and everything in between, are featured throughout the series. But like most environments, the land bordering these marine ecosystems is deeply interconnected with the birds that inhabit it.
My good friend and vice president of Audubon’s Canada program, Dr. Jeff Wells, was featured in the latest episode, and we had an insightful conversation examining our own backyards and beyond when it comes to our ocean- and shore-faring birds.
New England remains an integral hotspot along the Atlantic Flyway. In case you didn’t know, the Atlantic Flyway is the easternmost major bird migration route in the Americas, and billions of birds utilize it every year. “There are billions of birds that migrate from South and Central America north to the Arctic and the Boreal Forest. They utilize New England as an important stopover point,” Jeff told me during his interview. He continued, explaining that birds remind us of just how interconnected all of these environments are, a subject that would become a common theme throughout our conversation.
Along the coastline, the diversity of birds ranges far and wide. Many folks are familiar with a common sight among these habitats: the Osprey, aka the “fish hawk,” whose call and charismatic appearance remind many people of the beach, even though Ospreys are also found well inland. These birds are known for their ability to catch fish using their incredible eyesight, targeting prey beneath the waves before diving, talons first, into the water to catch their quarry.
Another familiar sight along the shore is the aptly named shorebird. The Piping Plover, for one, is a tiny puffball with legs, their chicks are even tinier puffballs, while the American Oystercatcher is a medium-sized, somewhat comical-looking bird with a bright orange bill and dark head.
What do these two species have in common? Not only do they migrate along the Atlantic Flyway, but they also remain here during the summer to nest along the shoreline, making them a familiar sight for many beachgoers throughout New England. Piping Plovers are always a joy to watch from a respectful distance. If you look closely enough, you may see what appear to be tiny cotton balls running across the sand. Those are Piping Plover chicks.
While in their early stages of walking about the wrack line, Piping Plover chicks remain vulnerable. Despite being mobile, they are still small and flightless, and predators such as Fish Crows and gulls, including the Great Black-backed Gull, pose a constant threat to these little birds. To find safety on the open beach, the chicks will sometimes run beneath the parent’s body and wings, where they can be shielded from predators and harsh weather.
Some shorebirds migrate extraordinary distances. Ruddy Turnstones, for example, can travel thousands of miles between their breeding and wintering grounds, with some populations migrating from the high Arctic all the way to South America. These birds rely heavily on coastal stopover points where they refuel on crustaceans, mollusks, and other small prey, making New England’s coastal environments integral to their migration.
Another bird that makes a remarkable journey is the Greater Yellowlegs. These birds breed in the boreal forests and wetlands of Canada and Alaska, and they too can be seen throughout New England, where they utilize salt marshes and mudflats to feed.
When asked about some of these species, Jeff noted that, “These birds nest in the remote rugged landscapes of the Canadian Arctic, but they connect New England to these places… these birds will spend time in the bogs of the boreal and will come down and probe the shallow pools of the salt marshes and mudflats of New England.”
Not all birds travel these impressive distances, though. Another species that inhabits the salt marshes is the Saltmarsh Sparrow, a species we focused heavily on in the documentary. Saltmarsh Sparrows overwinter in coastal marshes farther south in the United States and return to New England to breed.
These birds face significant conservation challenges, with climate-driven sea-level rise and increasing tidal flooding contributing to nest failure. They nest on the ground, timing their breeding closely with the tides. As water levels rise and flooding becomes more frequent and intense, nests can be inundated before the young have a chance to hatch or fledge.
Fortunately, organizations ranging from national conservation groups and state agencies to local nonprofits are working tirelessly to test different restoration methods, monitor populations, band birds, and assess their progress. We covered a number of these organizations in the film, including local conservation and advocacy groups such as Save The Bay.
Many of these organizations work to protect and conserve what is happening in their own backyards, but for these efforts to have a meaningful impact, conservation must extend far beyond individual marshes, beaches, or communities. Migratory birds connect these places together, meaning their conservation requires cooperation across enormous distances.
This is where National Audubon’s boreal conservation work becomes especially significant. Jeff works with numerous Indigenous-led conservation initiatives throughout the boreal forest in Canada and the Arctic, helping protect not only birds and their habitats but also vital public and community access to these integral lands.
Jeff proudly told me that “Audubon is engaging with Indigenous and Inuit conservation initiatives across the entire country of Canada.” He explained that many of these conservation areas are enormous in scale, with some spanning areas comparable to the size of entire countries.
Many of these initiatives overlap or border one another, presenting an important showcase of how individual conservation efforts can collectively create wildlife corridors and protect critical migration routes.
And perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons birds can teach us: the boundaries we draw on maps mean very little to them. A Piping Plover nesting on a Rhode Island beach, a Ruddy Turnstone feeding along the coast, or a Greater Yellowlegs probing a New England salt marsh may have traveled thousands of miles to get there. Their lives connect the Arctic, the Boreal Forest, New England, and the tropics into one enormous ecological network.
Learn more about the important New England stopover environments in my latest film, Sky, Sea & Shore, episode three of Ocean State: Rhode Island’s Wild Coast. You can stream anywhere, anytime on PBS Passport. And last but not least, don’t forget to get outside and catch some of the fall migration, you never know who you might run into.
