Kathy Doddridge is doing double duty.
She is on call to stake turtle nests and monitor shorebirds for a mile stretch of beach on Anna Maria Island and, every other day since June 19, she’s been watching least terns — a threatened species — nesting at a proposed development site along the El Conquistador Parkway on the mainland.
The FWC has advised the developer’s environmental consultant the nesting terns cannot be disturbed without a permit, according to FWC communications representative Carli Segelson.
FWC staff have observed 34 terns, one confirmed nest and multiple scrapes at the site, Segelson wrote in a July 13 email.
Doddridge is pleased that the FWC took the necessary steps to ensure the bird nesting area is respected and left alone.
She is an advocate for the Manatee County Audubon Society and an AMITW volunteer coordinator for the shoreline that lies between 26th Street and Cortez Road West in Bradenton Beach.
“We’re watching to see the flight activity. We know that there’s at least one nest I can see through the scope. Once I know she’s there, then I feel good — the property is protected enough that she feels comfortable,” Doddridge said July 11, adding construction activity on the property has slowed.
AMITW coordinator Suzi Fox and Doddridge called the state’s and county’s attention to the nesting site in June.
The developer, Cargor Partners VIII and Long Bar Pointe LLLP, led by Carlos Beruff, has excavated and cleared several areas for ponds under state permits, but has yet to obtain Manatee County approvals.
The development, Aqua By The Bay, is proposed for 523 acres, including 260 acres of submerged lands in Sarasota Bay, a few miles east of Cortez and Anna Maria Island.
“Least terns have taken up residence at Aqua By The Bay and they prefer sand scrapes to skyscrapers,” Doddridge said, referring to the shallow scrape of sand or dirt, where the terns tend to build nests.
The developer’s current plans call for 12 proposed 95-foot high-rise condo buildings and four proposed 145-foot-high buildings, eventually eradicating the nesting area.
“It is a fragile ecosystem. You’ve got one of the pristine sections of the bay that’s not been developed. It’s an area of fish and fish hatchery,” Doddridge said.
It creates perfect conditions for the least terns which have colonized in recent years at Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach, she added.
The egg incubation is 21 days and young least terns leave the nest three to four days after hatching, according to Doddridge.
“I’m going to keep watching to make sure she’s still there,” Doddridge said, and once eggs hatch, as the mates go back forth from the nest to the bay to feed the young birds until they fledge away.
According to experts, she said “they usually move on by August.”