react to hawks with absolute focus. A single peregrine can
keep a flock of birds in the air for hours. Why? Because
they are trying to get fat and the more weight they carry,
the greater their vulnerability. People also pose a threat to
shorebirds, keeping them from eating or roosting as they jog,
walk their dogs, take photographs, or simply stroll. They can
keep shorebirds moving for hours. The damage is decisive
because the birds cannot eat, must expend valuable fat, and
often expose themselves to predators that have little fear
of people. Usually the beleaguered birds will just leave and
use areas with less food or far greater threat from predators.
People can do great harm to a stopover.
But food and access to food can be managed. At first, it
seems an impossible job, how can we find more protection
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for shorebirds when it seems everyone clamors for smaller
government. For me, in decades of work throughout the
flyway from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego in Chile, the
answer has always been the same: Ecological health depends
on the community, and there is no better example than on
Kiawah Island.
Of course, communities must find support from the
responsible agencies, and in this, the people of Kiawah benefit
from the work of the Town of Kiawah’s wildlife biologists,
Jim Jordan and Aaron Given. Add to that the work of South
Naturally Kiawah