Wandering the sandy scrub habitat of Deltona’s Lyonia Preserve, traversing rolling dunes filled with short oaks and prickly pear cactus, Stephen Kintner greets resident Florida scrub-jays as if old friends.
While not a single jay showed its face one recent morning (attributed perhaps to the hot Florida summer sun or nearby predators), the longtime volunteer and former Volusia County environmental management director knows the preserve’s population well.
“They have facial recognition and they will not forgive you for six months if you do something bad to them,” Kintner said. Luckily, he’s been on their good side for quite some time.
The 360-acre Lyonia Preserve is part of a tract of land that was set aside for education in the mid-1800s. In 1990, Kintner was part of the Volusia County team that warded off a shopping-center development and ensured the long-term preservation of this land, which he said Deltona has adopted as its “Central Park.”
It’s an important part of the conservation picture for the Florida scrub-jay, a species that numbers about 60 individuals in 20 families within the preserve. Over a period of two weeks, Kintner joined fellow volunteers in contributing to a statewide Jay Watch through Audubon Florida, which rallies volunteers on about 46 sites through mid-July to take a population snapshot of the state’s only endemic bird.
“The population was once estimated to be about 40,000. Today the estimate is about 8,000,” said Jacqui Sulek, Audubon Florida’s Jay Watch coordinator and chapter conservation manager. “There’s only about 5% of the original scrub habitat left.”
The purpose of Jay Watch, which spans from Jonathan Dickinson State Park near Jupiter to Ocala National Forest, is not to get a comprehensive population count but to understand how land management can help scrub-jays and how genetics factor into increasingly isolated populations.
Despite their federal protection as a threatened species, Florida scrub-jays face ongoing habitat loss and development encroaching on areas that were previously managed with prescribed burns, which are harder to use amid urban sprawl.
For 74-year-old Kintner, who has dedicated most of his life to environmental protection, education is key to getting more people engaged.
“The problem with anything you do is getting it to be multi-generational. It can’t just be me,” he said. “People only protect what they understand. You have to get people out here, walking the trails, seeing a scrub-jay and learning about the plants.”
Florida scrub-jays are smart and social birds that bury 6,000-8,000 acorns per year (and remember where they put them), participate in cooperative breeding and have complex social systems.
“The scrub-jay is very charismatic, which makes it easy to fall in love with the bird,” Sulek said.
While this year’s Jay Watch is well underway across Central Florida, Sulek encouraged the public to stay involved through Audubon Florida communications and sign up to volunteer in the future. Lyonia Environmental Center has ongoing educational programming as well.
“Jay Watch is a way to engage people in a very unique environment, to take time to slow down and experience some of the most beautiful landscapes in Florida,” Sulek said. “The more people understand the concerns and threats to our habitat, the more we stand a chance of keeping it in the future. The scrub-jay is a great ambassador for that landscape.”
Visit volusia.org, fl.audubon.org or myfwc.com to learn more.
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