Yesterday was a cool day on the beach, and Lindsay Addison, Audubon NC Coastal Biologist, thought it was a perfect day for her to go into the nesting colony to do her first nest check of the season.
Cool and cloudy days are perfect for this important work because as she enters the colony the parent birds take flight because of the disturbance. Cool and cloudy days reduce the likelihood that heat stress would be a factor in viability of eggs.
Shorebird Lesson of the Day....
Beach nesting birds make scrapes in the sand as part of the courtship "routine" in addition to the fish presentations to the females. These "scrapes" become "nests" only when we see an egg in the scrape.
We are excited to announce that during Lindsay's nest check on Tuesday, May 8th, she discovered and confirmed that we have two American Oystercatcher nests and a Common Tern nest.
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| American Oystercatcher eggs in nests (photo by Lindsay Addison) |
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| Common Tern eggs in nest (photo by Lindsay Addison) |
Notice how the eggs are camouflaged to blend with their surroundings. These photos are a great opportunity to see the difference in American Oystercatcher and Common Tern nests. The Common Tern nest is often lined or edged with whatever debris (or tide wrack) is available while the American Oystercatcher nest is a shallow scrape in sand, sometimes lined with pebbles, shells.
We have been watching (and you can too with just your binoculars!) what appeared to be nesting behavior and it has been confirmed! Keep scanning those dunes!
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| Photo by Lindsay Addison |
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