The Birds Are Back (and so are we)

The birds are back and the 2014 nesting season is officially underway!

The challenges of nature continue as stewards have seen crows trying to steal eggs and watched ghost crabs in the nesting area. With this week's full moon we have also had to repost several areas that were washed away with the high tide.

In addition to the Skimmers, there are common terns with eggs in their nests and 

lots of sightings of least terns courting in the area.

Don't forget to look for the Oystercatchers sitting on their nest at the top of the dune!

(Look closely to see her facing front and then turning her back :)

Update as of May 12

BIRD UPDATE

We have 4 pairs of Oystercatchers within the posting and 3 have nests with eggs.  The first nest that we have been watching with our scope is due to hatch any day now so we will be watching it carefully for signs of the hatching!

Courtship and scraping continues with the Black Skimmers and we expect eggs on the ground this week.

Some Least Terns have returned and began nesting this week.  We had several eggs on the ground this week, but there was no evidence of the nests on Saturday night… we believe that some were raided by some Ruddy Turnstones we observed in the posting, others abandoned by disturbances and/or covered by the blowing sands and high winds and another crushed by an individual who went into the posting one evening…

Photos/ Maps of South End.... April 2014

The South End

We lost essentially all of the area we call “the front.”

2014 Nesting as of April 25

The posting perimeter shows last year’s posting (we will send an updated map), but this is the current state of nesting at the south end. Note the four pairs of oystercatchers. The numbering of the nests is from when we were numbering scrapes; the two nests are in scrapes 1 and 5.

Dredging Before and After

With 2013’s nesting for context, this is roughly what happened to the beach. Green outline is Least Tern colony, orange outline is Black Skimmer colony, blue dots are oystercatcher nests, red dots are Common Tern nests, purple dot is Gull-billed Tern nest, and gray dot is Willet nest.

How to See Pair 5 on the Nest

Pair 5, which produced the first egg, can be seen from the sound side. If you stand next to the Be a Winner Save the Skimmers sign and look east, you’ll see a row of grassy dunes. The nest is on top of the third dune from the left. When a parent is incubating, it will be visible.

The Nesting Season Offically Ends

This is the last blog post for the season. I've really enjoyed watching the terns, skimmers, oystercatcher, etc as they courted, nested, cared for their tiny chicks, taught their young fledglings to fish and fly, andthen told us goodbye by disappearing. An added bonus was making new friends among the other stewards and sharing our excitment with those walking along the beach.We celebrated with a great "thank you" party for the Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards.

Here are the last of the skimmer chicks hanging out on the beach during the final Bird Hike on 9/13. 

A lone least tern stopped in to say goodbye.

 

 We're hoping this skimmer chick learns to do more than just stretch its wings!

The fencing came down quickly last Sunday, 9/15, with a large group of volunteers removing the posts and string and then making a last sweep of the area for litter.

And now????

Time to head to the north end of Wrighstville Beach 

where many migrating shore birds are hanging out at Mason Inlet.

and to keep patroling the beaches for fishing line that can get tangled up 

on unsuspecting birds and may cause a bird to lose a leg.

If you are interested in volunteering next year contact Marlene Eader at

marlene.eader@gmail.com. 

And you can continue tracking our oystercatcher (Radar/Oreo) at

 http://oystercatchertracking.org/.

And then there were three....

At our Bird Walk on Friday we saw what we believe are the last of the "chicks" for the season. There were three fledging skimmer chicks near the shore line and about five adults encouraging them to get ready to head south.  There are still some sightings of terns (least, common, royal, sandwich, etc.) but they seem to be isolated cases.  The oystercatchers were nowhere to be seen on Friday but you can track Oreo/Radar at  http://oystercatchertracking.org/

There is one more scheduled Bird Walk this Friday (9/13) leaving from the gazebo at the southern end of Wrightsville Beach at 9 a.m.  And rumor has it that the "fence" is coming down mid-September. After that I will round up the last of my photos for one last blog entry and say goodbye until next year.

The End of the Nesting Season = Success and Sadness

The last few weeks we have been seeing less and less of our nesting birds. Last Friday the terns were all gone. There were still some American Oystercatchers and Black Skimmers with their fledglings but soon most of them will also head south. Our bird stewards have done an incredible job keeping the nesting area secure and sharing lots of information and close-ups of the chicks with the public. I'm still not sure who had more fun.... those of us showing the fuzzy chicks or the delighted beach walkers seeing a baby tern/ oystercatcher/skimmer for the first time. I think we all have a new appreciation for the emotions behind "empty nest syndrome"!

Here are a few pictures from our last several beach walks (August 9, 16, 23).  The weekly Audubon Bird Walks will continue at the southern end of the beach Friday mornings at 9 until mid-September.

Audubon Art Works presents…. Gyotaku in the Gazebo

Gyotaku is the traditional method of Japanese fish printing, dating from the   mid-1800s that is now practiced around the world. This form of printing was   used by Japanese fishermen as a means of keeping record of their catches.

Despite the threat of rain we had a creative group of all ages join us at the gazebo Thursday morning. We learned about the special habitat and food sources of wild birds living and nesting on Wrightsville Beach. Then using pinfish,  mullet, etc.,we got messy and imaginative as we made our own Gyotaku fish     print creations. 

Many thanks to local artist and teacher, Kristen Frey for this experience!!!!

Lindsay and Marlene made some pipe cleaner bird "footprints" for us to use....

Tara brought us some fish!

and with Kristen's help we created our masterpieces!