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Least Tern sitting on eggs
photo by John Sutton |
June 5/ Chick Party
Bird Stewards and members of St.Therese Church got together last Friday night for our first Chick Party of the season. Time was spent enjoying delicious food, sharing stories and pictures, and car pooling to the nesting sight to see our birds.
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| photo by Lindsay Addison |
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| photo by Angela Daughtry |
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| photo by Lindsay Addison |
A great variety of shorebirds have been seen hanging out at the nesting colony...
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| Semipalmated Sandpipers (photo by Laura Scullin) |
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| Banded Royal Terns (photo by Don Ellson) |
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| Ruddy Turnstone (photo by Mary-Ann Walton) |
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| Willet (photo by Laura Scullin) |
June 9/ NESTING UPDATE….
The American Oystercatchers have four nests on the south end. Lindsay did her nest check Tuesday morning (6/9) and discovered that all four of those nests have hatched. Many stewards have been watching the pair on the SE corner of the posting shading their one chick.
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| photo by Mary-Ann Walton |
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| photo by Kathy Hannah |
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| photo by Kathy Hannah |
Another Oystercatcher pair has been shading and feeding three chicks and taking them to the water on the sound side.
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| photo by Kathy Hannah |
Look for the chicks shading themselves under plants growing
on the front large dune on the sound side of the posting.
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| photo by Laura Scullin |
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| photo by Laura Scullin |
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| photo by Michele Frazier |
There are over 200 Black Skimmers busy with nesting and incubating eggs. One skimmer nest has hatched. NC Audubon staff will be conducting a nest census of the Black Skimmers soon. Beach goers love watching the Skimmers "skimming" along the water, assuming "zombie-like" positions at the water's edge, and bringing fish in to nesting mates.
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| photo by Kathy Hannah |
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Notice the egg in the background. Eggs are abandoned if they become unviable.
photo by Kathy Hannah
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| photo by Jen Johnson |
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| photo by John Sutton |
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| photo by John Sutton |
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| photo by John Sutton |
The Common Terns have 12 nests and have been continuing courtship activities this week. The Common Terns are incubating eggs and a couple of nests have hatched. We are still awaiting the appearance of Common Tern chicks in the front of the dunes within the posting as they wait for a parent to return with a fish to feed them!
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Common Tern on top of a dune.
photo by Kathy Hannah
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Common Tern cooling off in the surf.
photo by Kathy Hannah
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The Least Terns are busy with incubating eggs and several nests were hatching yesterday morning as the NC Audubon staff completed the first nest census for this nesting season. Lindsay Addison, Jill Peleuses, Mary Smith and Marlene completed the census at dawn on Tuesday, June 9, and counted 232 Least Tern nests and a few of the nests had newly hatched chicks in them.
And just THIS MORNING (6/11) one of our stewards reported....
"...holy WOW, do we have a LOT of Least Tern chicks out there! Many using the decoys for shade!"
And with that announcement I'm heading out to the colony myself to try and get some Least Tern chick pictures this afternoon. Hope to see you there.
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Newly hatched chicks. This one is still wet!
photo (from inside the posting during a nesting count) by Marlene Eader |
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