Our limited Adam’s Ranch Tour was a successful event on April 17th. Our volunteer workers, especially Harriet Scott, were happy to see the people enjoy the ranch and the bus tour. We want to thank Harriet for her great organizing skills leading the event forward. Also volunteering was our Past-President, Liz Dunleavy, Henry Hilderbrand, Richard Lynch and myself. We also want to give Adams Ranch and Mike Adams a HUGE thank you for working with us every year!

This month will be our last month for a general meeting. We take the summer pause to allow our members to rest and travel (hopefully) before starting up again in October. At our general meeting on May 6th, we will hold our election of officers, so please mark your calendar to attend the zoom meeting and cast your vote!

Matthew Anderson, our Science Advisor, reports the “Terning Point” is open for business, the decoys and sound effects are on the island and he has seen a few lesser terns in the area as they begin to look for a nesting place. We sure hope they are attracted to this safe, special place just for them.

Do you know what an IBA is? An IBA is an “Important Bird Area.” These areas are designated by Audubon and there are some throughout the State of Florida, but there are none here in St. Lucie County. These areas are a global effort to identify the most important places for bird populations and to focus conservation efforts on those sites. IBA’s represent Audubon’s lead conservation initiatives because the most severe threats to bird populations are habitat-based. The program is particularly important for species of high conservation concern like those on Audubon’s Watch List for species that are on restricted ranges, for species that are restricted to one habitat type or biome, and for species that congregate in large numbers during some portion of the year. We are considering trying to designate our Scrub Jay areas and the Ocean Bay Riverside Park on South Hutchinson Island as an IBA. There is a lot of research and planning to do this, but our members are stepping forward to work on this. Let’s all try to help as we go through this process over the summer months.

One last thing for now, we have been receiving a lot of donations from Amazon due to our use of their special program Smile.Amazon. Please keep using this site when ordering your goods from Amazon. This money does add up and is a great resource for us. Go to: Smile.Amazon.com when ordering, find St. Lucie Audubon as your agency of choice, and they will send us a percentage of your sales without you paying anything more. Thank You!

See you in October (hopefully in person!) Enjoy your summer everyone!

— Ellen Lynch, President