Shelby Casas braves sun, bugs, and storms to protect endangered birds.
The job of protecting vulnerable beach birds starts early. By 7 A.M. one morning in late April, Shelby Casas is almost out the door. The shorebird biologist with Audubon New York checks the weather to confirm no dangerous storms are forecast; she also looked at it before bed last night. “I check the weather a lot,” she says, laughing. Her bag is packed with the essentials—bug spray, sunscreen, and a field notebook—and she tosses in fresh fruit and water bottles. After feeding her pets, Casas grabs her favorite car breakfast (granola bar and thermos of coffee) and climbs into her Subaru Outback. She may spend hours driving between sites all day. On long trips, she often listens to audiobooks—next on her list is Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. This morning she’s heading to a private beach close to her apartment, so music will do.
At around 8:30 A.M. Casas parks near Long Island’s Half Moon Beach, one of eight beachfront nesting sites she and two technicians have monitored since March. From the front seat she taps on her smartphone to open NestStory, an app for biologists tracking bird nests, and revisits notes from the last visit here three days ago (“four unleashed dogs”). Then she checks—yep, you guessed it—the weather, again; it’s clear. Grabbing her backpack, she loops binoculars around her neck, tips a spotting scope over her shoulder, and walks down the narrow trail to the beach.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/su...m_medium=social&utm_campaign=20230700_nas_eng
The job of protecting vulnerable beach birds starts early. By 7 A.M. one morning in late April, Shelby Casas is almost out the door. The shorebird biologist with Audubon New York checks the weather to confirm no dangerous storms are forecast; she also looked at it before bed last night. “I check the weather a lot,” she says, laughing. Her bag is packed with the essentials—bug spray, sunscreen, and a field notebook—and she tosses in fresh fruit and water bottles. After feeding her pets, Casas grabs her favorite car breakfast (granola bar and thermos of coffee) and climbs into her Subaru Outback. She may spend hours driving between sites all day. On long trips, she often listens to audiobooks—next on her list is Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. This morning she’s heading to a private beach close to her apartment, so music will do.
At around 8:30 A.M. Casas parks near Long Island’s Half Moon Beach, one of eight beachfront nesting sites she and two technicians have monitored since March. From the front seat she taps on her smartphone to open NestStory, an app for biologists tracking bird nests, and revisits notes from the last visit here three days ago (“four unleashed dogs”). Then she checks—yep, you guessed it—the weather, again; it’s clear. Grabbing her backpack, she loops binoculars around her neck, tips a spotting scope over her shoulder, and walks down the narrow trail to the beach.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/su...m_medium=social&utm_campaign=20230700_nas_eng