Nesting Shorebirds Arriving at South End of Wrightsville Beach

AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS – The Oystercatcher banded EMY and “unbanded” mate who are seen consistently on the inlet side have been making scrapes, but our NC Audubon biologist has not seen any eggs.   EMY is the adult Oystercatcher that had a successful fledging in 2021.  

Oystercatcher banded CT4 and mate CF0 have been seen ocean side.  CT4 nested last year but lost the chicks within days.

Remember the birds may practice making scrapes during courtship, but scrapes are only considered “nests” once they have eggs in them.

BLACK SKIMMERS – Black Skimmers have been arriving in groups.  We counted 122 this week!

Five Black Skimmers with black leg bands were seen at the water’s edge which mean they were banded in North Carolina by our NC Audubon biologist, Lindsay, and her coast team in the last few years.  These birds were banded as chicks and have returned!  How cool is that!

COMMON TERNS – You may see the Common Terns on the signs and several pairs have begun fish presentations and courtship activity.  Three pairs were seen in the interior of the posting close to the high dunes.

LEAST TERNS – A handful of Least Terns have been seen flying over the south end with fish!  A significant group of Least Terns is present on the north end of Wrightsville Beach and New Hanover County has extended the north end posting to accommodate the bird activity.

OTHER GUESTS — Several pairs of Willets are in the dunes and we hope to see them on the shoreline with their chicks in a few weeks. 

Groups of Royal Terns and Sandwich Terns
have also visited the nesting area.

Tenth Anniversary for the Wrightsville Beach Bird Steward Program Begins

 We are very excited to begin our 10th year of posting the south end of Wrightsville Beach.  The nesting shorebirds will soon be arriving and on March 28 an ambitious group of Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards showed up to set off a protected area to welcome them. 

Lindsay Addison delivered the new signs to the shoreline and helped get us organized. 

Our team divided into several groups and quickly got started. One group carried the signs to the appropriate place.  

Another group dug the holes for the posts and then the posts needed to be secured in the sand. 

Several volunteers cleaned out litter from inside the posting.. with some interesting finds😁

And then it was time to add the string to remind our summer guests to give the birds some space to nest and raise their new chicks this summer. 

While we are waiting for the Least Terns, Common Terns, American Oystercatchers and Black Skimmers to arrive and begin courting, nesting, and raising new chicks we saw some Common Loons in the surf. 

And one of the volunteers discovered a Killdeer nest in the dunes. The parent bird does a broken wing display to draw people away from the nest. The nest is not visible from outside the posting, but you may see the adult bird on occasion as they take a break from incubating the eggs. What an exciting beginning to our 10th season! 

Coastal Nesting Recap

Coastal Nesting Recap 

A Peaceful Ending for the 2022 Nesting Season

photo by Kris Lee

We know that many of our birds stay in the Wrightsville Beach area until November.  Each year it appears that they “stage” i.e., wait for others to make it down the Atlantic coast to our area and then leave together in large flocks. The photo above was taken on September 2nd at the north end of Wrightsville Beach and shows hundreds of Black Skimmers gathered by the inlet.

The posting was removed by a group of Wrightsville Beach Stewards on September 6. Almost all of our chicks had successfully learned to fly and had left the colony.  They will continue to practice their new skills as they get ready to head south.

Throughout the summer we were able to band 110 Black Skimmer chicks. Some of our Black Skimmers have already begun the trip South.  We recently received a text from a SC Bird Steward, Alice Belanger.   Our steward, Jin Bian, met Alice this summer when she was visiting our nesting colony and photographing our birds.  

Alice sent photos (see below) taken on Sunday, 8/28 in Huntington Beach, SC of Black Skimmer fledglings that were banded. She wanted to know if they might be our Black Skimmer fledglings, C23 and C45…AND THEY ARE!!!!  The fledglings were photographed with adult Black Skimmers (parents!!) and several Royal Terns.  The news made us so happy and reinforced how much information we can receive from the process and effort of banding birds.

So with treasured memories of our successful colonies of Black Skimmers, Least Terns, and Common Terns this summer we are already eagerly waiting to do it all again in 2023!

We Still Have Stories To Share From the South End of Wrightsville Beach

We are approaching the end of the nesting season and the bird posting has been pretty quiet.  But.....

BLACK SKIMMERS

We still have young Skimmers hiding in the heavy vegetation and groups of Black Skimmers continue to roost in the posting.   The bird posting may be quiet, but important bird activity is happening in the area of the south end, Masonboro Inlet, Masonboro Island, the north end of Wrightsville and the local tidal creeks!!

We have a small group of Black Skimmers caring for chicks in the oceanfront area of the posting close to the point. These photographs and videos were taken in the last two weeks and each has it's own story to share.

This young skimmer chick was born
at the very end of July. 

another young skimmer

The adult Skimmers react when a large 
gull tries to take a fish from a fledgling. 

Parent skimmers are still feeding fledglings who
are just learning to fly. 

Look for banded fledglings!

Groups of skimmers on the oceanfront area of the colony close to the point.

Videos are a great way to not only watch but a chance to listen to the activity!

LEAST TERNS & COMMON TERNS

All of the Least Terns AND Common Terns have left the posting, but training of fledglings in fishing and strong flying skills is happening as they prepare for migration.  Feeding of fledglings by the parent birds will continue through migration as they improve their own fishing skills.

Least Terns and Common Terns continue to fly over the south end with fledglings and fishing continues in the inlet and along the Wrightsville Beach coast line.

OYSTERCATCHERS AND OTHER GUESTS

The Oystercatcher pair returns to the south end generally two hours before and after the High Tide time… and around mid-tide.

Royal and Sandwich Terns, as well as other migrating species, can also be found in the area.

Going back to see some of our earlier posts will give us a chance to check out what happened with nesting this summer!

Going, Going, Going … But Not Yet Gone!

photo by Evan Mauk

Black Skimmers can still be seen feeding the last of their chicks. But it is becoming apparent they have started leaving...fewer birds every day. Yet the colony still finds ways to entertain us.

This video was made on Sunday, 7/31.  And Thursday, 8/4, only 2-3 dozen Black Skimmers were seen in the colony. In a successful colony the birds will begin their migration once their chicks can fly.

photo by Evan Mauk

photo by Evan Mauk

photo by Evan Mauk

Notice the bands on the Black Skimmers in the next two photographs.  

photo by Evan Mauk

photo by Evan Mauk

Some of our NC Audubon staff and a few Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards got together Monday (8/1) morning to band some more Black Skimmer chicks. Data collected will give us an opportunity to learn more about these magnificent birds and to see if any of them return in years to come.

( all banding photos by Tom Hanna)