for millions of people across the world there's nothing better than a good pair of binoculars and a vast array of wings in the sky of course i'm talking about birds and bird watchers here in the virgin islands is no different with the many types of birds that live here or visit to nest or rest it's truly a bird watchers paradise on today's show we're going to visit a few bird sanctuaries and go bird watching ourselves we'll hear from officials on the importance of these sanctuaries and the effort it takes to maintain them but most importantly we'll see some magnificent birds and even a few endangered ones so get out your bird book and find a favorite cheer because today it's all about the oh yeah you don't need your binoculars traditional the south gate salt pond located on the eastern part of St. Croix this place is a true paradise for bird watchers the wetland area is about 37 acres and one can find a large variety of birds using the area for numerous purposes today we're meeting with carol burke of the St. Croix environmental association better known as c she'll be taking us on a tour of the salt pond this should be fun good morning Tanisha how are you i'm fine how are you Miss Burke very well thank you okay well i'm very excited to be here tell us a little bit about what we will be expecting to see today well the pond level is pretty low today so we would be expecting to see a lot of wading birds in there i imagine there'll be great egrets and snowy egrets little blue herons and a lot of other birds so let's go all right great now to get to the pond you do have to take a short walk along this beaten path surrounded by brush but not to worry it's not a long hike a few steps and you enter the wetland area immediately you see exactly what carol mentioned about the pond's low water level where we're standing here we're surrounded by mangroves this is white mangrove behind you and the pointed leaf is the black mangrove and when the pond is full we would be standing in water here up over our knees so because it's the end of the dry season right now the pond is very dry the water has all receded to the west end where it is deeper and so we're not going to see much in the way of birds right here although i can hear a yellow warbler singing and i can hear as a native dub calling so birds are all around us all the time not just in wetlands but in the forest in the hills but what we're going to look for today is those wetland birds and to do that we're going to need to move on down to the other end of the pond great we're still a couple hundred yards away from where the water has receded to but already we've come across a popular bird to wetland areas like this one the small wilson's clover their strategy is to blend in to camouflage with the surrounding and you can see that you know it's really hard to see them until they move yeah it's so tiny it's blending into the ground definitely exactly so they they make their little nest just a small depression on the mud flat or they'll also nest on the sand on beaches and they put their eggs usually three eggs in that little nest and the eggs are also camouflaged and then you know that's that's their method of dealing with the fact that they're on the ground there's a lot of predators that could be getting them like you know cats and dogs and rats and mongoose and all kinds of things could be you know really wanting their eggs and they're young but um they blend in so well you could practically walk right on the nest and never see it if you're not watching where you go so that you know endangered eggs in any way well for sure yeah when you know okay well here's another example of how wetlands are misused is that sometimes when these are dry then people who have the all-terrain vehicles or four-wheel drive jeeps and vehicles this is a great place to come and do wheelies and things like that of course that's deadly for ground nesting birds and it can just wipe out you know the the whole colony of their colonial nesting species so you know wetlands they look like they're not being used but they are they're being used by wildlife another threat to the wildlife littering well you see over here this is one of the challenges of managing wetlands you were talking earlier about bird sanctuaries and how it's a challenge to take proper care of them this is one of the things that we find in wetlands worldwide is that they're often regarded as being sort of waste places and it's a great place to dump me trash so we find couches and washing machines and just bags of household garbage garbage from time to time so keeping that clean is part of the challenge of working here and we'd really like people to know that wetlands are not dumping grounds and they're places that we really need to take care of because the wildlife that lives here is part of what enriches our lives so but thanks to carol and the members of c this salt pond for the most part is litter free it's time now to head to the water's edge and see what wildlife there is their nests are starting to hatch now as well and they come here to catch fish they did not nest here at southgate this year you know that's one of the kind of interesting things about the various wetlands and bird sanctuaries bird refuges on sanctuary um each of them has a slightly different function or a slightly different makeup of the habitat so different birds use different wetland areas in different ways you know some whereas these birds may have nested at coakley salt pond they're coming here to to feed and you know the salinity in each pond is a little different great pond is open to the sea so it has that exchange with the ocean this pond is closed to the sea so its salinity can get very very high ocean water is about 32 parts per thousand here right now it's over 40 parts per thousand probably about 45 per thousand and so all these things the what is growing there and the salinity of the water and the abundance of water that affects what birds are using that pond at that time we'll talk about these birds a little bit later what has captured my attention are these beautiful birds off in a distance the large white birds that are you know scattered across there are the large ones are great egrets yes and they have a yellow bill you see yeah i do and they have black legs and there's quite a number of them out there but mixed in with them are the black and white birds those are black necked stilts they have red legs and those legs get really bright red when they're breeding which they are now then there are these birds the laughing gull these girls normally breed and nest on the keys just off the island of saint thomas after the young have fledged the adult gulls fly to saint croix to rest feed and relax and you're probably curious as to how the birds got their name well when they are calling they sound like a person laughing and right near the laughing galls are those cute little clovers again these two young clovers are stretching their legs across the salt pond they are this year's hatchlings as fast as they are they better stay close to their parents young clovers are known to be abducted regularly they're very interesting they actually there's cases where they've observed them uh like sharing child care not just the parents but another bird may get involved in the care of the young or may actually steal young from other pairs it's kidnapping and bird napping bird napping right exactly so it's it's really um you know it's very interesting to study the biology of birds it's amazing how many different kinds of birds actually use this salt pond one of the more interesting birds is the ready duck now because of the low water levels ruddy ducks were not around to be seen on this tour but we did come up on something that one left behind so this is the old egg of a ruddy duck this is the only site on saint croix southgate pond is the only place on saint croix that we know ruddy ducks have nested since the 1950s and they have bred here the last three years you see how large the egg is that's as large as a large sized chicken egg right yeah the duck is small that is only about this big and they lay a lot of eggs they lay six to ten eggs and sometimes two females will actually lay in the same nest wow they put these eggs right in the crotch of the white mangrove tree where the branches come together in the center it's it forms a sort of a cup and they really don't put any lining or anything in there they just put in the eggs and the duck is so small and you just can't believe when you get a nest with you know eight or ten eggs in it there's no way you think that bird could possibly cover those eggs right so but we've had we've had young here every year not all the eggs hatch and this is one that didn't it may have been in the bottom of a nest and couldn't get turned by the parent because you know the eggs need to be turned periodically or maybe it just was not getting the warmth of of her body or whatever at any rate this this egg didn't hatch and it's you know been washed out and it's just laying here in the mud now so a potential little ducky that didn't quite make it i'm sure it would have been cute yeah it would have been cute they're really adorable well better luck next time because of the variety of birds that visit the southgate salt pond the area has recently been designated as an important bird area by bird life international a global partnership of conservation organizations that strive to conserve birds and their habitats they have a program that evaluates the birds that breed there the birds that feed there the birds that migrate through that particular area and if the place provides a resource for rare endangered or threatened birds or is particularly important to migrating birds they give it this designation important bird area and southgate earned that designation last year grape pond which is located directly south of southgate pond was also designated as an important bird area we're just about finished with our tour of the southgate southbound but there are still a few more things to see like this baby green parody the adult has a much redder neck and this bird still has kind of a spotty appearance on its flanks on its wings and that's that's the immature plumage there they're the our smallest heron um and a little green here and they're called there's another one that nest in the mangroves here they build their nests uh you know up higher they're not they don't nest right low at the water line they nest up higher in the trees and they build a beautiful nest it's so beautifully woven and all kind of slants towards the center three usually three beautiful sky blue eggs and the the young ones are just these fuzzy hideous looking creatures but they're so ugly they're cute you know could you tell us a little bit about the history of south gate and you know it's so peaceful and calming around here you know tell us a little bit about what you like about the area and some of the history okay well i'm really glad you find it peaceful and relaxing because i do too and i think people who come here to watch birds and and to relax can really find that whether it's in the wetland or on the beach but the the total area it was a gift to see from a philanthropist who is a bird watcher and this woman was very interested in seeing that the area be used for conservation and education um so she first gave a gift of 60 acres and then a couple years later another 40 acres so the total property now is just over 100 acres and completely surrounds this salt pond which is about 37 acres of wetland here and it's you know mangrove and the open pond so yeah it's um it's a lot of fun i've been working here since 2003 and i've learned a lot about wetlands and i've learned a lot about birds but i still have a bunch more to learn forward to continuing my work here sharing that with young people is one of the wonderful things about this place i want to thank you miss burke i had a great time today i learned so many interesting things about birds and i'm sure now i'll be able to identify them on my own great it was wonderful to have you at our gathering and i hope you'll come back again and enjoy the birds enjoy the beach yes i love it great thank you so long carol in the south castle pond next we go to the other end of the island to sandy point national wildlife refuge where birds of all kinds come to nest feed and loaf sandy point is a national wildlife refuge throughout the united states there's over 500 540 national wildlife refuges that consist of 94 million acres of land national wildlife refuges are managed by the u.s fish and wildlife service primarily to protect wildlife and to protect habitat here on saint croix we have two national wildlife refuges one is this where we are today sandy point national wildlife refuge the second is green key which is a 14 acre offshore key and the third is actually in st thomas which is a buck island national wildlife fresh beach throughout the caribbean there's nine different national wildlife refuges and three in the u.s virgin islands throughout the world there's over 9 000 species of birds here at sandy point there's over 100 species we have terrestrial birds which are also called land birds which are also called songbirds those are some of our smaller birds that usually we find in forested areas which are usually a little bit harder to see we also have seabirds and shorebirds and waders and these are the birds we're gonna take a look at first this beautiful place is the west end salt park the largest salt pod in the virgin islands three quarters of the pond is situated on the wildlife refuge and 22 species of birds use the area at their nesting grounds during the summer months u.s fish and wildlife officials put in place restrictions limiting access to the area the reason lease turns and blackneck still two birds that use the edge of the pond to nest you can hear the one noise in the background not sure if that's what we have on camera right now but the loud squeaking noise is a black neck stilt and it's the black and white bird with stilt-like legs they have reddish legs what it's doing right now you can see it has a long bill or beak and that long bill and beak is used for probing in wetland areas like this or salt ponds or mud flats so right now it's making a lot of noise because it detects us in in its habitat and it's a means of warning other birds that that there's something here that's something not natural for example would be used to warn for predators in an area black neck stilts this is their nesting season and they'll usually nest along the edge of wetland areas and they build a nest up if you if you've seen a flamingo nest on tv but they actually take bits of mud or leaves or stones and sort of build a small volcano like nest and they'll usually lay four eggs on top of that nest just meters away from the stilts you'll find the nesting grounds for the least turns the easterns are seabirds that migrate to saint croix in the summertime from what is thought to be south america they migrate to st croix to breed and to nest their nest on a number of places throughout the island each year probably 13 or 14 different locations all of them coastal either beaches or salt ponds and they even nest at hovensa oil refinery unlike the stilts that elevate their nets somewhat fleece turns lay their eggs right on the dry salt beds no cozy nests no trees no mouth their eggs are very much exposed to all kinds of dangers in fact one of the egg's main defenses at times actually does more harm than good as you can see the eggs blend in very well with their surroundings if you didn't know any better you probably would have taken it for just another pebble or stone and it's this ability to camouflage well that causes many people walking thoughtless or beaches to miss them and step on the egg for this reason and others such as coastal development and ocean these turns are listed as endangered or threatened species in many states now what you're looking at a second ago is an artificial platform that the fish and wildlife service built to help protect least turned nests what happens every year the summer rains that we've been getting the past two weeks really heavy downpours caused the level of the salt pond to rise and lace turns will nest on the edge of salt pines and almost every year that i've been here the nests have flooded out so they lay their eggs right on the edge the rains come they flood the nest and the nests are destroyed what we did is build sort of a fake island in this platform that's uh you can see it's surrounded by water right now these turns are very attracted to it it's very similar to an island and islands are optimal breeding habitat for a lot of birds so right now we have probably about 40 nests on that platform so it's very successful you can see that any nest that would be laid in that area would have been flooded and destroyed but now these nests are protected now it's not a good idea to get too close to nesting turns for one they detect you fairly quickly and will go into a defense mode this loud erratic behavior is actually the birds detecting us in the area and warning other birds they will also fly toward the danger and defecate that's right birds dropping bombs and all the while they're in the air they're not on their eggs now on rare occasions if you're far enough and not threatening the birds you may be able to witness this the least turn courting ritual uh what we're seeing here are two lease turns and this is part of their well courtship behavior usually the male will capture a fish which if you can see he has a fish in his beak he'll take that fish he'll dangle it in front of the female trying to tempt her and she can decide whether to accept that fish or not and usually a mating will pursue if if both parties agree let's leave these two lovebirds alone and see what else we can see in the area there are about 44 species of turns in the world at sandy point you're more than likely to see two release turns and the royal turn those are actually royal turns so it's another type of turn not our lease turns that we're seeing that are breeding but these are royal turns and they're actually year-round residents in saint croix and throughout the virgin islands and the caribbean they do nest on offshore keys but not here on saint croix they nest on some offshore keys off of saint thomas so what they're doing right here is something called loafing which is just a sort of resting taking some time off sounds like a really good idea right now but we'll continue on and leave this peaceful sanctuary behind off we go to the shore to the sandy point beach where you're sure to see the magnificent brown pelican now i'm sure you're familiar with seeing brown pelicans but do you know that these are one of just seven kinds of pelicans worldwide and like the least terns they too are protected a major impact to the pelican population with coastal development and the use of pesticides however thanks to conservation efforts they are on the comeback the brown pelican is unique among its species for starters it's the only dark pelican it's also the only pelican that plunges into the water to catch its food and here's a fun fact you may not know unlike most birds which warm their eggs with the skin of their breasts brown pelicans incubate their eggs with their web they essentially stand on their eggs how about that so today we got to take a close look at lease turns and some of their nesting habitats we even got to see some nests up close but we did only spend a short amount of time in that area so as not to disturb the birds for long periods and i would suggest to people in the public uh you know watch this video and don't try to get a close look yourself because any bit of disturbance can be very detrimental to these birds well i must say it was a great day of bird watching i hope you had fun because i certainly did but most of all i hope you realize the importance of protecting these nesting sites because sooner or later if we're not careful we won't have anything to look at through these lenses so until next time always remember to cherish your home this beautiful island but most of all cherish each other i think i'm gonna get back to bird watching you