WILDLIFE ON KIAWAH ISLAND

From 1998-2009, the Town contracted with Professor Dennis Forsythe of The Citadel to conduct the annual US Geological Survey (USGS) Breeding Bird Survey each June.  The Town took over responsibility of conducting the survey in 2010.  The survey route covers all of Kiawah and includes 50 stops.  At each stop, the number and species of each bird seen or heard during a 3-minute period is recorded.  This survey provides valuable data concerning regional and large-scale population trends for a variety of songbirds. The figure below provides details on the total number of birds and the number of species recorded for each survey.

RESULTS

The blue line indicates the total number of birds observed and the red line indicates the number of unique species counted during each survey year.