All,
Pat Campbell and Cherrie Sneed helped me today with the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey. We had a great day to be on the island (I wouldn't recognize a bad day to be on Bulls if it introduced itself to me) and enjoyed saluting the spring equinox today at 12:57 PM. The Coastal Expeditions folks, Chris Crolley, Gates Roll, new naturalist Olivia, and new captain whose name I can't recall (apologies!), treated us very well. They had large numbers of customers plus a charter group today, so they were busy.
Waterfowl remain in good numbers across the island, though there were a few misses compared to recent outings, including American Wigeon, Hooded Mergansers, Redhead, and Canvasback. We were challenged to tally shorebirds today as a team of S.C. DNR biologists had set up a cannon net on the low dune line at the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek in an attempt to net, band, and release shorebirds. Fortunately for our count many of the shorebirds appeared to be pushed up and down the beach where we were able see many of them. There were a few Piping Plovers remaining; of the many Dunlin seen, a very few were beginning to show the first signs of body molt into breeding plumage. We also tallied the FOS Wilson's Plover (North Beach) and Black-necked Stilts (in Upper Summerhouse Pond). Best sighting of the day may have been a tight raft of 57 Red-breasted Mergansers (including only about 5 males with the rest females) on Jack's Creek. My eBird check list for the outing is appended below, FYI.
Non avian sightings on the day included several bottle-nosed dolphin in Bulls Bay, two fox squirrels (one on Sheepshead Ridge Road going to the observation platform plus one on Mill Road behind the Lower Summerhouse Pond), and numerous canine tracks in the dunes along the North Beach (just tracks, no actual canines sighted). Back on Tuesday 4 Mar 2014 it was too cold for the alligators to be out but they were out in high numbers today. After all..it was the spring equinox.
Dan, the water level gauge data on Jack's Creek (4.34) and Upper Summerhouse Pond (3.68) are up just a bit from two weeks ago (4.18 and 3.36, respectively). USHP didn't look as dour as you suggested it might; most of the discoloration, to my eye, was in the southwestern-most corner where the dike meets the tree line going towards Mill Road.
Looking at the tide calendar suggests the following dates to consider for the next survey:
Tu 1 Apr 2014 high tide 5.4 ft at 9:45 AM
W 2 Apr 2014 high tide 5.2 ft at 10:30 AM
Th 3 Apr 2014 high tide 4.9 ft at 11:15 AM
Stay tuned for further plans.
Regards
David
Cape Romain NWR--Bulls Island, Charleston, US-SC
Mar 20, 2014 8:40 AM - 4:40 PM
Protocol: Traveling
17.6 mile(s)
Comments: Conducting the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey. Effort: 4.15 mi and 1 hr by ferry plus 11.4 mi and 2 hr by vehicle plus 2.1 mi and 5 hr by foot. Weather: sunny and cool; temps 48 F to 68 F: AM winds W to NW at 5 mph with gusts to 10 mph, PM winds SE at 5 mph with gusts to 10 mph. <br />Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.6.3
74 species
Gadwall 5
American Black Duck 4
Mottled Duck 11
Blue-winged Teal 52
Northern Shoveler 130 All over the island.
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 55 Mostly in Upper Summerhouse Pond.
Lesser Scaup 9
Black Scoter 25 A fly-by line plus several floating beyond the breakers.
Bufflehead 47 Few than expected.
Hooded Merganser 6
Red-breasted Merganser 61 Mainly in one tight raft of 57 on Jack's Pond; seen in good light, counted this raft twice to assure accuracy. .
Ruddy Duck 68 Fewer than expected.
Red-throated Loon 2
Common Loon 4
Pied-billed Grebe 52 Many seen all over the island.
Horned Grebe 9 1 on Jack's Creek, the rest in Bulls Bay.
Wood Stork 1
Double-crested Cormorant 119
American White Pelican 26
Brown Pelican 52
Great Blue Heron 17
Great Egret 28
Snowy Egret 41
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 5
Black-crowned Night-Heron 16
White Ibis 82
Glossy Ibis 14
Turkey Vulture 10
Northern Harrier 2
Bald Eagle 1
Clapper Rail 1
Common Gallinule 16
American Coot 210 A fairly reasonable count estimate.
Black-necked Stilt 2
American Oystercatcher 29
Grey Plover 7
Wilson's Plover 2
Semipalmated Plover 55
Piping Plover 3 None appeared to have leg bands.
Killdeer 12
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Willet 10
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Marbled Godwit 1
Ruddy Turnstone 8
Red Knot 2
Sanderling 90 Mostly in a mixed flock with Dunlin.
Dunlin 1000 Seen in two separate, large flights.
Western Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 101 1 on the North Beach, the rest estimated from 1 large bind that flushed from the edge if the ICWW and that flew to a nearby dock for high tide roosting.
Bonaparte's Gull 2
Laughing Gull 14
Ring-billed Gull 20
Herring Gull 15
Forster's Tern 55
Mourning Dove 3
Belted Kingfisher 3
Blue Jay 2
Tree Swallow 40
Barn Swallow 7
Carolina Wren 1
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher 3
American Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 4
Northern Parula 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 24
Eastern Towhee 1
Savannah Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 2
Red-winged Blackbird 80
Boat-tailed Grackle 5
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17528861
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
