The Massachusetts Audubon Society Coastal Waterbird Program provides direct protection of beach-nesting birds on the South Shore, Cape Cod and the Islands of Massachusetts. According to the program's director, Scott Hecker, the program protects 90% of the terns and 75% of the Piping Plovers in Massachusetts. Other species of concern are herons, egrets, oystercatchers, and willets, as well as migratory shorebirds. Interns for the program are encouraged to work full time during the breeding, nesting, and fledgling seasons in exchange for housing. Most interns are assigned beaches on Cape Cod and the Islands, with only a few on the South Shore.

Responsibilities range from the laborious task of fencing the larger tern colonies and assembling exclosures for Piping Plover nests, to spending time educating the public and patrolling the nesting areas. Weekly meetings with area coordinators are held in order to report on the status of each beach's waterbird populations. Piping Plovers tend to be of greatest concern, since their nests are isolated and easy to miss, and they are not as actively aggressive against intruders. The various tern species, on the other hand, nest in colonies and flock against threats to their nests, making the public less likely to intrude accidentally or deliberately. As a result, Piping Plover nests are fully exclosed with wire fencing topped with netting, and tern colonies are either surrounded by "symbolic fencing," set up simply to alert the public and deter them from trespassing or, in the case of larger colonies, by wire fencing. Nevertheless, the busy summer season on the beaches of the South Shore and the Cape make the intern's job of patrolling the beaches of vital importance in protecting these threatened birds.

I found the program very well organized and an excellent way to spend the summer, if you were able to invest all of your summer. I was frustrated because I could only stay until the end of June, and it took me about that long to really feel as though I was educated enough to fulfill all the responsibilities of the job. Relating to the public turned out to be the easiest part of the job, with the most difficult being the actual collection of data concerning the different populations. It took a certain amount of experience to recognize the different species and their eggs, understand the behaviors of the birds, and even know where to look.

My other difficulty was that I was hoping to collect data on the smaller Least Tern colonies of the South Shore. I was assigned two beaches in Scituate, which turned out to contain the smaller colonies I was interested in. When I started working at the end of May, both beaches had small colonies where the birds were beginning to lay eggs. In addition there were three known Piping Plover nests scheduled to hatch near the beginning of June. With the help of some other volunteers, all of the Piping Plover nests were exclosed and symbolic fencing (ropes) was set up so the public would give the nests a wide berth. Then, on June 6th, a Noreaster swept up the East Coast and pelted the South Shore for about a day and a half, the storm wash wiping out nearly all of the unhatched Least Tern and Piping Plover nests in Scituate. (It turns out that one Piping Plover nest, which had started hatching a couple days before, did pull through and yielded three chicks.) The destruction of the storm, however, eliminated any chances of collecting long-term data on the Least Tern colonies since they all had to re-nest and would not hatch until after I had left.

The other complication was that nearly all of the terns moved to one beach, creating one colony of 174 nesting pairs at last count. Keeping track of all of the nests proved quite a challenge, and it took about two hours each visit to go through and count them all. The terns were also predictably upset, and their dive-bombing added to the chaos. Since the colony had become bigger, it was deemed necessary to fully fence the area against predators, as well as replace the Piping Plover exclosures that were wiped out in the storm. Fortunately, no major predators threatened the colony, and the beaches were neither open to cars nor excessively busy. I was able to collect data on the survival of the eggs, and witness the hatching of some of the chicks whose nests had survived the storm.

In retrospect, I would have liked to start the internship sooner in the season, as well as continue it through the rest of the summer. For most interns this will not be an issue, but if provided with the option, I would recommend devoting the entire summer. I also think that doing some basic independent research about the different species beforehand would have helped in the long run. I also recommend taking advantage of the free housing the program offers. My home was nearby, so I stayed there, but I think that staying in the provided housing would be less distracting and make it easier to devote more time to the program. Although the experience was somewhat frustrating (due to time constraints and storms), I learned a lot about my own possible career interests, especially about doing field work, educating the public, and working within a large organization. As a result, I feel that my experience was a successful one, first as a learning experience, and second as a career-enhancing one.