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Regional shorebird biologist urges drivers to slow and avoid wrack as nesting season begins
Summary
Nick Vitale, a regional shorebird biologist, told the Walton County advisory board that snowy plovers, least terns and black skimmers nest on local beaches between Feb. 15 and Sept. 1; he urged slow, low beach driving, leaving seaweed wrack and watching for chicks to reduce vehicle and human impacts.
Nick Vitale, identified in the meeting as a regional shorebird biologist, gave Walton County's Coastal Dune Lake Advisory Board a detailed overview of imperiled beach‑nesting birds and practical steps residents and visitors can take to reduce harm.
Vitale listed the state's beach‑nesting species that matter locally: snowy plovers (about 412 breeding adults statewide, with roughly 80% of that population in the Panhandle), Wilson's plover (recently advanced as a candidate species), colonial nesters such as least tern (approximately 13,000 across Florida) and black skimmer (about 7,000 statewide). "If you're not familiar, [snowy plovers] dig a little shallow…
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