By April Simun
Bird watchers hope beachgoers
don’t disrupt the nesting of black skimmers, birds whose declining numbers are
cause for alarm.
The black-backed, white-bellied
birds are in the peak of their nesting season. They have been spotted
everywhere from Gulf beaches to the back yard of NASA’s launch pad.
“It’s one of the harder birds to
protect in the area because they must nest in the same type of habitats people
like,” said Ann Schnapf, assistant manager of the National Audubon Society’s
Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuary.
“For the person, it is just a day
on the beach. For the bird, it is an entire reproductive season.”
Larry Templeton has made it his
mission to guard the birds that nest in his jurisdiction. He was hired 11 years
ago to guard the
During the most recent launch of
the space shuttle Discovery, Templeton guarded more than cars.
He watched over three nests of
skimmers, which are on the state’s species of special concern list. Such a
listing means the birds aren’t as rare as endangered or threatened species, but
their numbers either are declining or at such a low level that they need
protection.
“I’m not going to let anyone
around there,” Templeton said, pointing to the coned-off areas of the parking
lot. Each had a sand-filled pothole, where birds had laid their 3-inch-long
speckled eggs.
“They look for indentations in
the parking lot, and they just lay their eggs in that,” he said.
Parent birds had abandoned two of
the three nests well before the time Discovery was launched.
In the 90 degrees-plus heat of
the
Templeton looked with pride at
the one faithful skimmer couple still guarding four eggs.
“Those eggs are going to hatch,”
he said.
Although Templeton is helping the
birds’ chances, single nesting pairs are more vulnerable to predators than
those in the usual nesting colonies, Schnapf said.
“You don’t have those other
adults to help defend their area,” she said. “If you pull your boat up on a
shore where a colony is nesting, all the birds would get up and yell at you.
They’d all bark at you together.”
She said the skimmers, which got
their name because they use their elongated bills to skim fish and small
crustaceans from water surfaces, picked the parking lot as their home because
it meets their nesting criteria: It’s flat, sandy and plantless, with lots of
gravel and water.
Even more birds nest in the
Their reproductive season runs
from late April to the end of August. During the time, females lay between one
and five eggs each and incubate them for about three weeks.
Adult birds guard the nests until
well after the young ones have learned to fly, about a month after hatching.
In recent years, bird-watchers
have identified large colonies on a 3-D Island and Sand Key, near the Sheraton
Sand Key Resort in
“Nesting colonies should all be
posted,” she said. “People should respect those colonies and keep their dogs
out of them. If we can take the human factor out, then we give the birds a
fighting chance.”
A fighting chance is what
Templeton hopes to give the NASA birds.
1. Read
these sentences from the article.
"Larry Templeton has made it his mission to
guard the birds that nest in his jurisdiction. He was hired 11 years ago to
guard the
In this context, what does jurisdiction
mean?
A.
neighborhood
B.
job
description
C.
area
of responsibility
D.
right
to apply the law
2. Which statement best summarizes the lesson of the article?
A.
Dogs
are skimmers' greatest enemies.
B.
Humans
should avoid skimmers' nesting areas.
C.
Skimmers
are likely to become extinct in the near future.
D.
More
money is needed for programs to protect skimmers.
3. What is the author's attitude toward skimmers in this
article?
A.
angry
B.
amused
C.
confused
D.
concerned
4. According to the article, which set of directions would be
most useful to humans who want to help preserve the skimmer population?
A.
Don't
park at NASA. Avoid all paved parking areas.
B.
Don't
take dogs to Sand Key. Hire guards for parking areas.
C.
Avoid
holes in beach parking lots. Keep dogs away from posted areas.
D.
Move
unhatched eggs to incubators. Keep skimmers in captivity until full-grown.
5. The name skimmers refers to which activity?
A.
building
nests
B.
gathering
food
C.
inhabiting
indentations
D.
flying
in a circular pattern
6. According to this article, why is the population of skimmers
at a low level?
A.
They
nest in high-risk areas.
B.
They
are killed by wild predators.
C.
They
do not reproduce at a predictable time of year.
D.
They
are in a particularly unsafe area of
7. Which term describes skimmers?
A.
extinct
B.
declining
C.
threatened
D.
endangered
8. Regarding the survival of babies, what is the main difference
between birds nesting in a single pair and birds nesting in a colony?
A.
Single
pair birds offer less protection because they lack group defense.
B.
Single
pair birds offer more protection because they are more independent.
C.
Colony
birds offer less protection because their members are easily startled.
D.
Colony
birds offer more protection because they are more respected by man.
9. Summarize the information the author provides about the
nesting of skimmers. Support your answer with details and information from the
article.
Skimmers are birds that lay their eggs on the
beaches and parking lots of
A.
4
B.
3
C.
2
D.
1
E.
0