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Protect One of Florida’s Last East Coast Beach Bird Refuges!Your voice is needed right now. | Gull-billed Terns flirted on the Point's
beach earlier this year, but have already
been “driven” away. |
Huguenot Memorial Park in Jacksonville is the most important beach-nesting bird site on Florida’s Atlantic coast. In 2011, it was the largest Royal Tern colony in the state. It provides federally designated critical wintering habitat for threatened Piping Plovers, and is a crucial stopover site for rufa Red Knots on their long migration from Tierra del Fuego to their Arctic home.
It is also an overwhelmingly popular beachgoing site where beach driving packs the beaches with cars on busy, warm weather weekends. In recent years,improvements at Huguenot have created more safe areas for birds, reducing the number of baby birds crushed by vehicles and the number of vehicles swamped by the incoming tide.
However, the improvements still fall short of protecting and restoring the park’s bird diversity. As a result, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently called on the park’s federal owner, the Army Corps of Engineers, to include better protections for migratory birds in its renewed lease to the park’s manager, the City of Jacksonville. The full text of the US Fish and Wildlife Service letter can be downloaded here (30 pages, 3MB PDF). TAKE ACTION!
Please take two minutes now to write the Army Corps of Engineers and the office of Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown in support of these important protections for wildlife, habitat and public safety. For greatest impact, tailor the message’s subject, intro and content to best reflect your perspective.  | Will inadequately protected Black Skimmers
fail again this year? |
The USFWS letter* calls for:
(1) The establishment of car-free, pedestrian-friendly bird protection areas from April 1 until about Labor Day weekend (in 2011, protected areas did not begin until late May).
(2) Pre-posting a protected area on the inlet-facing upper beach to allow species like Black Skimmers to nest successfully.
Gull-billed Terns, Least Terns, Black Skimmers, Wilson’s Plovers and American Oystercatchers have nested in the park in years past, but in recent years have been negatively impacted by beach traffic.
The additional benefit of these recommendations? More family-friendly parts of the beach—a two-year old girl was run over by a truck on the beach at Huguenot last month (she was airlifted to the hospital and fortunately survived).
Even with these recommendations, a large part of the park’s coastline would remain open to driving during the warm weather months, and all of it open during the winter. But public beach driving interests are objecting to these modest recommendations. |
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Bring the family to the beach at Huguenot Memorial Park, 10980 Heckscher Drive, May 19th, 2012, 11am-4pm and meet the park's migratory birds.
Picnic Shelter #2 will have kid's activities, migration learning station and directions to the viewing stations. Viewing Station 1 - Get a close look at long-distance migrant birds through spotting scopes.
Viewing Station 2 - Nesting birds encounter
There is a $3 per car park entrance fee. The event is free. For more information, Click here, or call 904-813-5115. |
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Audubon Florida is seeking a bird steward person to assist with the conservation of shorebirds and seabirds at Huguenot Memorial Park in Jacksonville, FL. Work period will start in April and continue until early September. Schedule will be varying according to tides, 4-5 days a week, for a total of about 20 hours a week, including week-end days. Huguenot Memorial Park is a premier site on the east coast of Florida for migrating shorebirds and for nesting seabirds and shorebirds. It is also a popular recreational site. The focus of the work will be public outreach, education and data collection with a goal of better protecting the birds from disturbance. Link to Position Announcement/Description and Online Job Application Site |
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Duval Audubon is presently seeking two candidates for our Board of Directors: Webmaster and Education Director. These are volunteer positions with a two year renewable term. The Webmaster will be responsible for maintaining our web site, including making recommendations for improvement and expansion of our online presence. Additionally, the Webmaster will compile our annual print newsletter and be responsible for sending our e-newsletters from September to May. The Education Director will be responsible for generating education programs in schools for youth and adults as well as coordinating and participating in local community events. Training will be provided for Education Director. If you have experience in the nonprofit sector or skills and a passion that would mirror our mission, download an application here. Please submit the completed application to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Applications will be sent to the Board Nominating Committee for review and follow-up. All interested applicants will be considered. For additional information or questions, contact Pete Johnson, President, at 904-536-4806. Duval Audubon Society is a 501 (c)(3) connecting people with nature through education, citizen science, advocacy and conservation. |
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Our Education Director, Carolyn Antman, was recently invited by Sheila McNair to give a presentation to the Kindergarteners and second grade girls in after school care at Reynolds Lane Elementary School. Ms. McNair is teaching the children a unit on birds and bird watching. They had a lot of fun - first learning the names and habits of a few common birds, then making practice binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. As a final treat, the children got to try out real binoculars provided by Duval Audubon Society from an Earth Day Jacksonville grant. 
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Latest News from Crosby Sanctuary
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Crosby Sanctuary by the Duval Audubon Society
8 Mar 2012 | 6:44 pm
Thanks all the volunteers who helped gather air potatoes and pick up trash. We only found about 15 potatoes! This means that we are finally on top of this tenacious exotic plant after 6 years of spring roundups and about[…]
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Crosby Sanctuary by the Duval Audubon Society
30 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm
6th Annual First Coast Air Potato Round-up on Saturday March 3rd from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.Please join us for this annual event to help control invasive air potato vines and maintain the sanctuary.Lunch and drinks will be provided for[…]
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Crosby Sanctuary by the Duval Audubon Society
1 Nov 2011 | 5:27 pm
Numerous "first of season" Yellow-rumped Warblers were observed by Pete Johnson at Crosby on October 26, 2011! We were out there for our monthly work session from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. It had been raining early in the morning,[…]
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