News and Links (April 2012)

EPIC's Seabird Breeding Atlas of the Lesser Antilles
This publication describes two years of exploration by David and Katharine Lowrie with funding and expertise from Natalia Collier and Environmental Protection in the Caribbean. Order your copy of thishistoric contribution to seabird conservation in the Caribbean.

Caribbean Seabird Initiative: Invasives Newsletter
This occasional newsletter describes work to restore seabird breeding sites in the Caribbean by removing invasive species.

Gulf of Mexico Seabird Profiles
Document prepared by David Lee for NOAA with descriptions of all the seabirds likely to be found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Data Entry Form now available
There is now a data entry form in Excel 2003 posted on this Contribute page. Please try the form out. It should be straightforward. You can include any comments about the process in your submission email.

Sea level rise and seabirds: a case study of the potential impacts in Bermuda

David Wingate presented 50 years of observations on how rising sea levels could impact breeding seabirds in Bermuda. The threats there are similar to those in around the region. Check out this informative paper. This link leads to the entire proceedings of the 2003 conference entitled "A Sense of Direction: a conference on conservation in the UK Overseas Territories and other small island communities."

Revisions to the maps for An Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbean

In 2009, Bradley and Norton's An Inventory of Breeding Seabirds of the Caribbean was published. Wicbirds.net, with a great deal of help from The Nature Conservancy (John Knowles and Mike Palmer), made the maps for the book, and I am updating them as better information comes in and mistakes are corrected. There is now a more detailed map of St. Bartholomew with specific colonies pinpointed. I have also updated the maps of St. Thomas, St. John, and Tortola, and Virgin Gorda, thanks to corrections provided by Judy Pierce of the US Virgin Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife. If you have corrections or additions about breeding seabirds, contact me.

Wicbirds.blogspot.com

Follow the Wicbirds.net creator's latest thoughts on seabirds of the Caribbean by clicking the link above and going to our blog at wicbirds.blogspot.com. Please use the comment section on the blog if you can.

Purpose of the West Indian Breeding Seabird Atlas

The atlas tracks reports of breeding by seabirds in the West Indies and Caribbean region. Most seabird populations throughout this region are declining. The information presented here was in part generated by the Seabird Working Group of the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds.

More than 85 naturalists and professional scientists have contributed to date. If you have observed breeding by seabirds in the region, please contribute your records to the atlas. In the future, this site will have more features for sharing information for conservation.

Creators of WICBirds

Will Mackin: Co-chair of the Seabird Working Group for SCSCB. He has studied seabirds in the Bahamas and West Indies since 1998.

David Lee: Co-founder of the Seabird Working Group of SCSCB. Currently the Executive Director of the Tortoise Reserve and former curator of Birds at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Last updated: April 25, 2012