Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards: It's Official.... We Have Chicks!

Thursday, May 19
The first clue that it was chick time came on Thursday morning when a visitor from Maine took some great photos of new Least Tern chicks. He got some great pictures just the way we like to see them...chicks with a parent. When chicks are photographed alone, many times they are stressed.

photo by William Roberts

Friday, May 20
Early Friday morning four of our Audubon Staff/Bird Stewards conducted an official nest census inside our postings. Conducting a nest census involves stewards and biologists systematically and very carefully walking through the entire colony with a dowel rod scraping the sand beside them….walking from the posting to the dune and counting nests between their mark in the sand and the person’s mark next to them. Once they get to the dune, the the number of nests they counted in that section is called out and tallied. The stewards then move down to the next area and repeat the process covering the entire colony. Obviously this is stressful for the birds, so the census is conducted at dawn and only very experienced stewards are able to do this so we can complete this effort as quickly as possible.

Friday's nest check brought some welcome news. Below are two pictures of brand new least tern chicks taken inside the postings during the nest check. In addition to finding our first chicks, 349 least tern nests were counted! This means it is only a matter of days (hours?) before least tern chicks will be seen running all over the beach. The Common Tern (14 nests counted) and Black Skimmer chicks won't be far behind.

photo by Lindsay Addison

photo by Michelle Frazier

Saturday, May 21

A call was received on Saturday telling us that chicks were seen outside the posting. When I went to investigate, it turned out that several Willet chicks had somehow gotten separated from their parents. This Willet chick was "rescued" by a parent who then dropped it several times before the chick was finally seen running back into the dunes.

parent picking up a Willet chick

Willet chick (only dazed) on the beach after being dropped by parent

parent and chick together again

chick running back to safety

Two other Willet chicks were not as lucky. One was founded washed up on the beach and another wandered into Least Tern territory and was attacked as a predator. Tough time on the beach for me. But I don't think we could have done anything more.

Meanwhile, on a much happier note, Least Tern chicks are visible on the beach being fed, hiding under a parent and sometimes just hanging out on the beach.