All,
Rich McCracken and I had a great day conducting today's waterfowl/shorebird survey. Coastal Expedition's Captain Wil Christenson and First Mate Lonnie Ferguson hauled us over to the island along with several volunteer (Americorps?) workers (who spent the day clearing trails and roadways on the island). [Check out CEX's upcoming outings Sun 24 Nov 2013 10:00 AM and Sun 8 Dec 2013 10:30 AM leaving McClellanville to look for Long-billed Curlews. I've been on several of their curlew trips and all have been great--not to be missed!http://www.bullsislandferry.
Today day started with a light rain on the ferry ride over. That rain ended shortly after our first survey stop at Jack's Creek. The rest of the day was overcast to partly cloudy.
Birding was good today. We tallied 48 target species for the survey, 74 species on the day. Our eBird report is appended below. Species of the day include first-of-survey observations (for me, at least) of American Avocet and Northern Pintail plus a late Black-necked Stilt still hanging around. There were good numbers of shorebirds, especially in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek, and fairly good numbers of waterfowl. We were enjoying the target species so much that we left little other time for woodland birding; I feel that we could have easily had 80 species if we'd spent 30 min birding around the house and picnic grounds.
Looking ahead at the tide calendar suggests that favorable tides for the next survey will be on Friday 6 Dec 2013 (6.2 ft high tide at 10:11 AM). Stay tuned for final details.
Regards,
David
Cape Romain NWR--Bulls Island, Charleston, US-SC
Nov 22, 2013 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
17.15 mile(s)
Comments: Conducting the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey with Richard McCracken. Effort: 11.0 mi and 2 hr by vehicle on the island plus 2.0 mi and 5 hr 10 min by foot plus 4.15 mi (one way) and 50 min by ferry. Weather: temps 60 °F to 68 °F; AM overcast and early light rain; AM winds calm to vary light; PM was bright overcast to partly cloudy to mostly cloudy as the afternoon progressed; PM winds were E 5 mph with gusts to 10 mph.
74 species
American Black Duck 28 Very dark body, silvery underwings, no white margins along secondaries.
Mallard 2
Blue-winged Teal 14
Northern Pintail 1
Redhead 3
Lesser Scaup 78
Black Scoter 1000 Est. from several distant flybys over the ocean.
Bufflehead 56 Beautiful scope views of most.
Hooded Merganser 44 In two main different groups.
Ruddy Duck 105 Several clusters, mostly on Jack's Creek.
Common Loon 3
Pied-billed Grebe 15
Horned Grebe 2
Wood Stork 18
Double-crested Cormorant 73
Anhinga 1
American White Pelican 33
Brown Pelican 17
Great Blue Heron 18
Great Egret 18
Snowy Egret 12
Little Blue Heron 9
Tricolored Heron 18
Black-crowned Night-Heron 12
White Ibis 251 Scattered all over the island. Many mature and many immature.
Glossy Ibis 1
Turkey Vulture 7
Osprey 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Clapper Rail 6
Sora 1
Common Gallinule 6
American Coot 7
American Avocet 1
American Oystercatcher 150 Est. from one main group along an oyster shell bank along ICWW.
Grey Plover 18
Semipalmated Plover 52
Piping Plover 2
Killdeer 3
Greater Yellowlegs 33
Willet 56 In the marshes of Bulls Bay plus in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek.
Lesser Yellowlegs 4
Whimbrel 1
Marbled Godwit 3
Ruddy Turnstone 53 Scope views along the North Beach and oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek.
Sanderling 40 Mostly along North Beach.
Dunlin 1025 Mostly in oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek.
Semipalmated Sandpiper 30 Scope views with comparisons to Western Sandpipers
Western Sandpiper 30
Short-billed Dowitcher 257 Mostly in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek.
Wilson's Snipe 4
Bonaparte's Gull 12
Laughing Gull 7
Ring-billed Gull 9
Herring Gull 17
Forster's Tern 19
Belted Kingfisher 9
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Tree Swallow 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Grey Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Pine Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 6
Eastern Towhee 1
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 70
Boat-tailed Grackle 2
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15737519
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
