It's a Busy Time at the South End of Wrightsville Beach

I spent 7 hours observing the activity at the South End of Wrightsville Beach yesterday (5/8/17).

There was never a moment of boredom as I witnessed ...

• courting behavior as a hopeful male offered a fish to a potential mate
• scrapes being created for future nests 
• pairs already incubating eggs 
• endless flying back and forth from the channel bringing in fish 
• skimmers resting in their comical prone positions
• common terns chasing least terns to get them to drop their fish and then swoop down for an easy lunch
• the blue sky suddenly filled with hundreds of black and white birds
• the sudden appearance of a quartet of oystercatchers and a solitary oystercatcher in the surf with several dozen sanderlings

For this blog I'm going to let the pictures do the talking....

Black Skimmer (< click to view video)

A Busy Beach (< click to view video)

Least Tern 

Top to Bottom: the more you look the more nesting terns you can see,
Least Tern with marker (LT 20 = Least Tern, 20th nest marked),
a trio of Least Terns nesting in typical colony formation

L to R clockwise: an egg can be seen abandoned, a very LARGE fish snack,
a nesting Least Tern with marker

Least Terns sharing a fish
photo by Jackie Lindner

Common Tern

photos by Bill Segur

photo by Jackie Lindner

American Oystercatcher

Black Skimmers

Black Skimmer creating a scrape for a future nest
photo by Jackie Lindner

Time for a rest!
photo by Jackie Lindner

Remember to Look UP!

photo by Bill Segur

Lindsay (NC Audubon Biologist) will be updating the number and types of nests soon. But don't wait to come out to the colony to enjoy one of the best shows around!