Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Black Skimmers Everywhere

When Tropical Storm Debby paid us a visit we were concerned about our Black Skimmers. We were pleasantly surprised to see the posting and birds withstood the strong winds and rain. The posts and strings were in surprisingly good shape with just a few needing repair.

The birds were in the posting in the dunes as expected which is the normal behavior during extreme weather and hurricanes. As you know, we still have young fluffy chicks. Fortunately, by the time this storm came into our area, the chicks were able to move with their parents behind the dunes and into the vegetation.

The Skimmers with the juveniles have now spread out on the beach outside the posting and they are a huge group! No wonder they were so stressed under the crowded conditions of the posting! Juveniles are improving their flight skills and we saw several working on “skimming” skills too as the water was nice and calm.

Some chicks are still small and growing their flight feathers. Other fledglings are becoming stronger fliers and watching the adult birds skimming…the behaviors are adorable!! Since the birds have spread out onto the beach, Beachgoers are very curious about the birds they are seeing and what happened with nesting this year.

Photo by Kris Chadwick

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Busy Times at South End of Wrightsville Beach

A Tender Moment
A minnow offering is being checked out by the Common Tern on the posting.
Photo by Stan Washlesky

Today’s blog and all photos below are composed by one of the Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards who is also a phenomenal photographer. Camille Daniels loves being a bird steward. As you enjoy her photos please remember all pictures were taken with telephoto lens and cropped. It is important to stay back from the postings. Be careful where you step. The chicks and the eggs blend in with the sand as you will see in her pictures.

Black skimmer chicks - ALL ages

Changing up sitting on the next

Good parents

Feed me!

Black Skimmers chick

Can you find the 5 Black Skimmer chicks?

Black Skimmer skimming. You can see the trail behind him from the skim

Observation from WBBS Camille Daniels…
“I usually see them dipping, but this guy kept skipping. See the trail.”

Other terns.

Common Tern

Two Royal Tern parents and fledglings with a Sandwich tern and fledgling

Look to the right…

Common Tern

We thank everyone who visits and helps us keep the sanctuary safe by keeping your respectable distance from the birds as they struggle to keep their eggs and chicks safe.

We hope to see you at one of our weekly FREE bird walks every Monday from 9 to 11 AM. Meet at the gazebo at Access 43 on Wrightsville Beach.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Chicks continue hatching, growing, fledging and entertaining us on the beach!

photo by Hongjin Bian

The Black Skimmers have spread out in the posting on the east side (facing the jetty) and there are now three separate areas of Skimmers along the beach as you walk towards the point (sound side). We have two beautiful and young Least Tern fledglings on the beach and lots of Black Skimmer chicks.

On the beach the morning of July 15th we counted 17 Black Skimmer chicks and one Common Tern chick on the east side (ocean/jetty side) and six nesting Skimmers (incubating eggs). Around the point sound side we counted 18 Black Skimmer chicks and one Common Tern chick. We estimate that there are more but because of the extreme heat, the birds were hunkering down in the grass, sand and under wing.

We have a rare Common Tern in the colony that has a metal band and wearing an orange flag on its left leg… identifying it as a Common Tern from Argentina!! We know it is a male as we saw it courting and mating on 6/30…and now nesting in front of the Skimmers and incubating eggs with its mate!! We were able to read the numbers on the metal band and report it! We will share whatever additional details we learn about this special Common Tern with you!

Photo by Hongjin Bian

You will notice unattended Skimmer eggs on the beach.

If significant storms occur during nesting/incubation of eggs, it is common for several eggs to become non-viable. The parent bird’s efforts to protect all of the eggs in its nest from the wind, rain and colder temperatures are not always successful. Those eggs are removed from the nests by the birds and generally the ghost crabs are the clean-up crew!

Photo by Stan Washlesky

REMINDER: There are chicks on the beach!

The chicks on the beach gives us a great opportunity to stop and take a look at the cuteness! But remember.....

Birds have been nesting and incubating their eggs in the sand for 3 weeks
Chicks can die from overheating (thermal regulation is critical). The sand is HOT!
Parent birds will take the risk of people and gull/crab predators to get their hot chicks to cool on wet sand and drink at the water.
Parent birds get very protective and dive and poop on people when the person is close to their chicks. This behavior alerts the Gulls that chicks are out.
Black Skimmers may also use a “broken wing display” to draw people away from the chick.
Laughing Gulls and the Great Black-Backed Gulls stalk and eat chicks.
Protecting and feeding chicks is extremely energy intensive for the parent birds

All photos below by Camille Daniels…

We thank everyone who visits and helps us keep the sanctuary safe by keeping your respectable distance from the birds as they struggle to keep their eggs and chicks safe.

We hope to see you at one of our weekly FREE bird walks every Monday from 9 to 11 AM. Meet at the gazebo at Access 43 on Wrightsville Beach.