Viewing Guide for Our Beach Guests

There is a lot of "bird action" to see out at the south end of Wrightsville Beach right now.  Here are some pictures of what is waiting for you and a guide to help you find the American Oystercatcher and Common Tern nests in the dunes. 

Hope to see you out on the beach soon.

About halfway around the beach you will find these cones and posts that will help you locate a Common Tern and an American Oystercatcher nest.  Both are easily visible with binoculars!
Notice the Black Skimmers in the center.  We have scrapes and are eagerly waiting for nests.

American Oystercatcher Nest

Common Tern Nest

Black Skimmer Action

Black Skimmer courting behavior is encouraging!
(photo by Renee Tevelow)

Beachside Views

American Oystercatcher hanging out on the beachside with the Black Skimmers

Common Tern on guard duty 

Other Guests Include...

Least Terns

Least Terns were seen courting in the area.
(photo by Renee Tevelow)

 Willets

(photo by Renee Tevelow)

..... and Ruddy Turnstones

THE GOOD NEWS -- We have eggs!!

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. 

American Oystercatcher eggs in nests
 (photo by Lindsay Addison)

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!

Photo by Lindsay Addison

Common Terns and American Oystercatchers Appear to Be Nesting

American Oystercatchers

Five oystercatchers were seen during our bird walk Monday, May 8, including one banded with CT4.  On Saturday (5/5) an oystercatcher was seen on a nest using binoculars -- didn’t even need to use a scope!  The oystercatcher was there again Monday morning!  Stand outside the posting at access 43 about half way to the water and scan the highest dunes towards the inlet with your binoculars…going towards the coast guard station. 

photo by Jacquelyn Lindner

photo by Jacquelyn Lindner

Common Terns

Two pairs of Common Terns are in the area and one pair appears to have a nest on one of the back dunes which is visible with binoculars from the access 43 area. Keep scanning those dunes!!

Black Skimmers 

The skimmers are “courting” and roosting by the inlet and across the inlet from the South End.  They appear to like an area of open sand between the dunes which makes them difficult to see from outside the posting unless you are by the inlet and watching them fly into the posted area.  Approximately 300 Black Skimmers were counted on Friday hanging out by the inlet.  Over 100 mobbed four Fish Crows on Saturday.

Least Terns 

We have not seen Least Terns courting or nesting on the South End.  We believe they are leaving the South End to go elsewhere where there is sand that has better camouflage, i.e., more shells!  Lea-Hutaff Island has Least Terns incubating eggs!

Weekly Monday Bird Walks

Hope you can join us on one of our Bird Walks.  

The 2018 Shore Bird Nesting Season BEGINS

The postings are up at the south end of Wrightsville Beach and the FREE weekly Audubon Bird Walks started on Monday, April 30! We had a great group of new volunteers as well as interested guests join us to kick off our season.

The first thing people notice as they walk in access 43 by the gazebo are the Wrightsville Beach 5th grade student's signs and then the decoys (they think they are live birds).  

Least Tern and Black Skimmer decoys are already attracting birds to the area.

The birds are just arriving -- flying up the Atlantic coast and stopping at inlets along the way as a rest stop and for fast food (lots of bait fish in the inlet!).  Masonboro Inlet (SWB) is a favorite place as well as Mason Inlet (NWB) in our area.  We anticipated their arrival to our area by placing the posting so that when they are in our area, they will have a place to feed and then rest without disturbance.  If they are not disturbed, the birds will decide this is a good place to nest.

Signs, scopes, and books of pictures help share the activity in the posting area.
(photos by Garold Carlisle)

 In the past after a dredging project, we had over 200 Least Terns and Black Skimmers nesting in the large sandy space by the gazebo and along the "highway".  There may be less successful nesting on the inlet side because of the high tides...but birds will hang out there and cool off and meet up.  We saw some courtship activity this week by the inlet.

Nesting is just a little delayed because of the project and tides, but the birds will be roosting by the inlet and cooling by the water.  There were 220 Black Skimmers in the inlet last Sunday.

The advantage of the potential nesting by the gazebo is that people who are unable to walk a mile on sand will be able to do some bird watching in the gazebo....and enjoy the breezes and shade.

Several beach "treasures" were found by our group this week .....

 

..........as well as some other surprises!

It also is a narrower walk way to the beach which gives us all an opportunity to stop and look! 

NC Audubon Highlights Beach Bird Stewards

NC Audubon Highlights WB Bird Stewards
(Click link above for article)

Click here to view video

Almost Time to Say Goodbye

We have had two weeks now of extremely few sightings of our nesting birds at the south end of Wrightsville Beach.  The birds are moving all the time and if you happen to arrive when they decided to fly across the inlet and roost on the other side it seems like the season is over ... but it is not.  Black Skimmers and Common Terns will randomly fly over the posted area, and even a solitary Least Tern on occasion.  But, they are few and far between.

These amazing photos of Black Skimmers bringing food to their fledglings were recently taken...

photo by Tom Hanna

photo by Tom Hanna

photo by Tom Hanna

photo by Tom Hanna

Willets continue to hang around and this one was seen snacking on a sand flea.

photo by Macky Miller

photo by Macky Miller

photo by Macky Miller

photo by Macky Miller

Large, impressive looking Black Backed Gulls are still hanging around the colony.

photo by Macky Miller

photo by Macky Miller

Ruddy Turnstones are also being seen in the colony.
















In addition two children from Winston-Salem who love shorebirds asked their parents to go on the bird walk this week!

photo by Macky Miller

photo by Macky Miller

Fledglings Continue to Strike Out on Their Own

 Our chicks have all began to FLEDGE (to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity; also :  to leave the nest after acquiring such feathers)

The Black Skimmers and Common Terns have been very successful teaching their fledglings how to fly and find their own food.  In addition Royal Terns, Sandwich Terns, Great Black Backed Gulls and Willets continue to visit the colony.  These photos help share recent activity in the nesting colony...

Common Tern fledgling trying its wings over a resting Black Skimmer fledgling.
photo by Bill Segur

Proud Common Tern parents cheer on a fledgling.
photo by Bill Segur

Common Tern fledgling entertaining a resting Black Skimmer
photo by Bill Segur

A Common Tern fledgling grabbing a bite from a parent.
photo by Bill Segur

Common Tern parent feeding a fledgling.
photo by Bill Segur

Royal Tern fledglings visit the colony.
photo by Bill Segur

Black Skimmers in the colony
photo by Bill Segur

Click on the link to enjoy Bill Segur's video as a very vocal Willet entertains the colony.

Willet on the beach
photo by Maxine Miller

Royal Tern fledglings visit the colony.
photo by Maxine Miller

Royal Tern fledglings visit the colony.
photo by Maxine Miller

Here are some amazing pictures of the Great Black Backed Gull hunting a Ghost Crab! Two predators of our birds going after each other. This is a very different picture from we usually see.

photo by Shelia White

photo by Shelia White

photo by Shelia White

Black Skimmers and Sandwich Tern fledglings
photo by Jackie Lindner