We have more chicks!!

Lindsay did a nest check last night and saw our first newly hatched Common Tern….isn’t it adorable!!

Here is an adult Common Tern (perhaps the proud parent).

NESTING ACTIVITY
The Black Skimmers have over 40 nests now, and are scraping and laying more eggs and incubating. They are nesting both in the front dunes, the west, the highway, and the side dunes, so if you are on the ocean front, you will be able to see skimmers there too.   We should begin seeing some chicks in the next 2 weeks.

We now have 12 Common Tern nests.

We have a new Least Tern nest…we wish this little pair the best of luck!  It is very difficult for a lone nest but they keep trying!

The first oystercatcher pair has one remaining chick which can be seen sound side being fed regularly by the parents.  The second pair seems to have lost their remaining chick.  The other two pairs are still in the dunes and incubating their eggs.

This Sandwich Tern (notice the yellow tipped bill) stopped by for a visit this morning. 

When You See a Skimmer

If you click on the link above you will find an insightful article on seeing skimmers on the beach. It was written by UNCW Professor David Gessner whose words far exceed my ability to describe these beautiful birds. 

In his words ....
"Skimmers are not the only miraculous animals after all, and human beings excel, beyond all else, at becoming absorbed in their own self stories. But if you actually turn away from those stories and look at these birds for a moment, really look, you’ll need to pause and briefly rearrange the way you think about the world. 

Here’s what you’ll see:

A line of birds flying along the shore, the size of small gulls but unmistakably not gulls. Maybe they’re terns, you think for a second, but like no terns you’ve ever seen. An electric red-orange shines from the bills before abruptly turning black halfway toward the tip. It’s a candy-corn color, a color from the pages of a comic book, certainly not something you’d expect to find on real birds. But they are real, and the only birds that have a lower mandible longer than the upper, the better for scooping. They patrol the shore, jaws dropped (like yours maybe), grazing the water and hoping for accidental contact with a fish. At the merest touch, a built-in tactile trigger in their jaw sends a signal to their upper bill, the maxilla, which instantaneously snaps shut."