Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries

Why Bird Conservation?

“We’re a little bitty group on little bitty island—but even as a small group, we can make an impact,” says Jennie Stowers, secretary of Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries, an all-volunteer land trust in Alabama.

A barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, Dauphin Island certainly is small; it’s only 14 to 16 miles long, depending on how much sand has recently been washed off each end. It averages about a quarter mile across, which means that if you’ve got a car, you’re never further than a two-minute drive from a beautiful white beach on the Gulf, notes Andrew Haffenden, Vice President of Acquisitions for DIBS.

As a result, Dauphin Island is a popular place for vacation homes. In the 1960s, the island was divided into one-third to one-fifth acre lots, which now sell for $70,000 and more. However, because it is one of the few barrier islands with maritime forest, Dauphin Island is also a critical stopover habitat for neotropical migratory birds. Positioned directly north of Merida, which is on the Yucatan Peninsula, Dauphin Island is the first place many birds stop to rest and refuel on their annual flights north.

With a mission “to preserve ecologically valuable stopover habitat on Dauphin Island for neotropical migrant birds,” DIBS was established in 1992. It’s been a challenge, but little by little, DIBS has acquired and protected 87 parcels of bird habitat on the island over the past 30 years. As Stowers says, “We’re really all about the birds.”

Guided by this clear focus on the birds of Dauphin Island, DIBS used funds from a small grant in 2021 to manage 15 acres of important habitats on the barrier island. Through invasive species removal in tupelo gum swamps and dune wetlands, DIBS worked to provide more food sources and opportunities for refuge for birds stopping by the island during their yearly migrations.

Spotlight Resources: eBird, Bird-focused Habitat Management, Demonstration Sites

Haffenden moved to Dauphin Island from Australia in 2012 after a career in wildlife research. He started getting involved in conservation on the island through monitoring breeding beach birds, providing data that was essential in the process of getting the island named a Global Important Bird Area, an Audubon designation. The eBird data he and others collect on Dauphin Island also helps tell the story of how birds are utilizing the habitat and migrating across the Gulf from year to year, says Haffenden.

This is one of the reasons he takes the long view on data collection. Before the habitat management work took place, Haffenden monitored the tupelo gum swamp and dune wetland sites for birds, logging observations in eBird. He monitored again the spring after a Student Conservation Association (SCA) crew helped DIBS remove invasive plants, and will continue to monitor the sites annually, recognizing that habitat improvement doesn’t happen overnight, in six months, or even a year.

“This is biology,” he says, so he expects to monitor the sites for at least four or five years before pulling the data from eBird to analyze it. “There are many ways that you can question the data,” he notes, adding that data collected on Dauphin Island continues to help scientists at the Cornell Lab and other researchers understand trends in bird populations and fluctuations in migration paths.

To encourage others to submit eBird data on the island, Haffenden gives an introduction to the app before all of the bird walks he leads on DIBS properties. During migration season, he and other DIBS board members lead bird walks twice a day on weekends. Also, signs at the tupelo gum swamp and dune wetland demonstration sites created as part of this grant project help explain the importance of the rare habitats being protected and managed by DIBS, all part of the organization’s efforts to educate visitors about birds and conservation on Dauphin Island.

As a result of the visibility DIBS gained through this outreach, an ornithologist with the Banding Coalition of the Americas reached out to ask if the organization would host a banding station on Dauphin Island in 2022. Board members agreed and helped run a very successful two-day event, with over 300 people visiting a DIBS preserve to see birds being measured and banded by federally permitted bird banding professionals.

This past April, DIBS hosted a five-day banding event, with over 900 people from all over the Southeast learning about the birds of Dauphin Island. It was a wonderful way to showcase the work DIBS has been doing and the diversity of birds on the island, notes Stowers, who adds that DIBS has committed to a five-year partnership with the Banding Coalition of the Americas.

Making the Connection

Not everyone on the island is a conservationist, notes Haffenden. But with over half of the barrier island conserved by different organizations, conservation is happening all over the island. At just three and a half feet above sea level, Dauphin Island is increasingly threatened by rising sea levels, so efforts are constantly underway to replant and restore dunes and marshes.

Although the town of Dauphin Island holds many acres under conservation easement, and over half the island is unpopulated, there is no biologist or botanist on staff. Often, when the media reaches out to town leaders about a conservation story, the mayor refers reporters to DIBS board members, because they have the expertise to answer the questions.

After 30 years of work on the island, DIBS is starting to tip the balance of land use toward conservation, says Stowers. Community members are beginning to recognize the importance of protecting wetlands and other undeveloped lands, and DIBS is moving to the forefront of the conversation about conservation, gaining support and respect for the work they’ve been doing since 1992.

Advice to Other Land Trusts

“When you’re an all-volunteer organization, you don’t need to build your board around donors. You need to build your board around dedicated doers,” advises Stowers. With a 15-member board, DIBS is propelled forward by many dedicated doers who bring diverse talents and interests to the organization.

Among them is Meg Goecker, an expert in marine coastal ecology and a skilled grant writer. Goecker helped write the application that funded DIBS’s first small grant project in 2021—and wins like successful grant applications are important for keeping up enthusiasm in all-volunteer groups, notes Haffenden. Earning recognition and funding from organizations like the Cornell Lab and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation helps fuel volunteers and also helps build faith and enthusiasm among donors. Success builds upon success, as proven by a second small grant awarded from the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative to DIBS in 2024.

Next Steps

“Our first grant led to the second grant, creating a continuum of connection,” says Haffenden. With increased visibility and impact, DIBS has built relationships with many other conservation organizations on and off the island. The first small grant gave DIBS confidence and helped board members understand the power of partnerships.

Now that DIBS has a seat at the table in the town, conversations are underway to coordinate management of conserved properties across the island. DIBS will use funds from its 2024 small grant to create a management plan for its 87 properties, communicating with the town of Dauphin Island—which maintains the 164-acre Dauphin Island Audubon Bird Sanctuary—to share resources like equipment and manpower to implement the comprehensive plan. 

Haffenden sums it up with this statement: “On the island, we all know each other and symbiotically help each other.” As an example, he points to Stowers, whose house overlooks a marsh restoration project. The scientists working on the project store their kayaks at Stowers’s property; in exchange, Stowers is rewarded each day with pictures of American Oystercatchers being banded and chicks in nests—inspiring her to keep working to ensure a balance of land uses on Dauphin Island.