CWF Celebrates World Shorebirds Day with Interactive ‘Story Map’

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ today released a new online Wildlife Story Map in support of this Saturday’s first annual World Shorebird Day. This online GIS map – “American Oystercatchers Through the Seasons” – tells the story of a keystone New Jersey migratory bird species, following its journey along the Eastern Seaboard through data tracking.
A Story Map is a web-based interactive map embedded with multimedia content, such as text, photographs, and video. To view the American Oystercatcher Story Map, visit http://goo.gl/9pjsVF.
“These dynamic maps offer tremendous educational potential in engaging the public about New Jersey’s rare wildlife,” said CWF Executive Director David Wheeler. “With its long beak and impressive migration, the American Oystercatcher is a thrilling species to spotlight with our first interactive Story Map. The Garden State holds so much charismatic wildlife, and we hope to bring other wildlife species to life online through additional Story Maps.”
For CWF, this Story Map is especially exciting since it helps celebrate the first annual World Shorebirds Day, taking place worldwide this Saturday September 6. This event seeks to raise public awareness about the need to protect shorebirds and their habitats, as well as the need for increased funding for shorebird research, monitoring and conservation. As the World Shorebirds Day website notes, “About half of the world’s shorebird populations are in decline, and the rate of habitat loss is worse than ever before.”
“The migration of American Oystercatchers is an exciting journey to bring to life online,” said CWF beach nesting birds biologist Todd Pover. “Our state is the northernmost limit of the species’ winter range. While many of New Jersey’s oystercatchers migrate during the winter to the Southeast U.S. Atlantic coast and Gulf coast of Florida, some of those that breed north of our state during the summer end up spending their winter here in New Jersey.”
The Oystercatcher Story Map also provides stories about individual banded birds, which have been tracked on as far afield as Florida and Massachusetts. Like all beach nesting birds and many other coastal species, American Oystercatcher have faced the challenges of a changing shoreline in recent years, especially since Hurricane Sandy. CWF developed the American Oystercatcher Story Map in tandem with GIS software developer ESRI, thanks to financial assistance provided in part by a grant from the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF) has worked to protect at-risk wildlife species along the East Coast for two decades. CWF utilizes science, technology, habitat restoration, education, communications, and volunteer stewardship to save imperiled wildlife from our state before they disappear forever. Learn more at www.ConserveWildlifeNJ.org.
The World Shorebirds Day was created to raise global public awareness about the conservation of, and research about, shorebirds. About half of the world’s shorebird populations are in decline, and the rate of habitat loss is worse than ever before. Every year on September 6, shorebirds and the people who do the most to protect them, will be celebrated. Learn more at www.worldshorebirdsday.wordpress.com.