Th 11 Dec 2014
All,
I was joined today by Wil Christenson and Steve Moore for the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey. We joined the USF&WS maintenance crew, Greg and Alex, for a quick ride over to the island. There was ice on the deck of the boat as we climbed aboard for a bracing ride through the marshes. Once on the island we quickly warmed up and enjoyed beautiful, cool, sunny weather with light winds. The fall archery hunts for deer have concluded and the Coastal Expeditions Ferry is running regular service on Saturdays only, so Bulls Island in full refuge mode now. It was a pleasure being there knowing that so few other people were about.
We tallied 47 species on the survey proper and 80 species on the day's outing. Our eBird checklist is appended, below, FYI. Upper Summerhouse Pond (USP) continues to impress. We estimated about 1300 waterfowl there with Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, and Ruddy Ducks making up the bulk. Across the island White Ibis, Ruddy Duck, and Hooded Merganser species were in high counts. One large flight of Dunlin in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek was estimated to be 1370 individuals. We also saw a pair of putative Norther Pintails, but never got an absolutely confirmatory look. Other avian sightings that we enjoyed included American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, a Worthington's form (subspecies, type, race?) Marsh Wren, and first-of-season (for me) Cedar Waxwings (sorry you missed those, Wil, they flew over Garris just after you drove off).
While we were scoping the waterfowl on USP a Cooper's Hawk flew over at the same time that many of the ducks flushed. That left us wondering if a Cooper's Hawk would ever attempt to take waterfowl, i.e., did the waterfowl have reason to be wary of a Cooper's Hawk? Sprunt and Chamberlain (South Carolina Bird Life) relate incidents of Cooper's Hawks going after a Green Heron, a Ring-necked Duck on the wing (i.e., the duck on the wing), and a Clapper Rail…all incidents reported from Bulls Island. So I suppose those ducks were well justified to be wary.
Notable misses included Laughing Gull (really!) and Bald Eagle. Other species in low numbers included Western Sandpipers and Lesser Scaup. The North Beach was very quiet, bird wise, today; there have been few shorebirds there this entire calendar year in strong contrast to the previous two years when the shorebirds, gulls, and terns would gather there by the thousands. At least the shelling was pretty good on the North Beach.
Non avian sightings include a few alligators (including "Gatorzilla"), a few bobcat tracks in the sand dunes, and two Fox Squirrels. After last week's deer hunt, we were pleased merely to see a few deer tracks.
Looking ahead at the tide calendar suggests the following date for our next survey:
Sat 27 Dec 2014 high tide 5.4 ft at 11:53 AM
Stay tuned for final plans.
Regards,
David
Cape Romain NWR--Bulls Island, Charleston, US-SC
Dec 11, 2014 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
14.5 mile(s)
Comments: Conducting the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey with Wil Christenson and Steve Moore. Effort: 4.15 mi and 15 min by boat plus 9.1 mi and 2 hr by truck plus 1.25 mi and 4 hr 45 min by foot. Weather: very early high thin clouds (a 'mackerel sky') quickly clearing to fully sunny and cool; temps 28 F to 51 F; early winds NE shifting about 10 AM to NW then shifting about 12:30 to E, all <= 5 mph; barometer steady at 30.05 in Hg. Tide was forecast 5.1 ft high at 10:37 AM. <br />Submitted from BirdLog NA for iOS, version 1.6.3
80 species
Gadwall 518 Most on Upper Summerhouse Pond. Estimate. Excellent scope views of most in ideal light.
American Wigeon 400
American Black Duck 7
Mottled Duck 4
Northern Shoveler 158 Most on Upper Summerhouse Pond. Excellent scope views in ideal light.
Green-winged Teal 35
Redhead 6
Lesser Scaup 20
Bufflehead 56 Widely scattered across the island.
Hooded Merganser 277 Mostly in several tight braces numbering 40 to 50.
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Ruddy Duck 299 A fairly accurate count.
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 82 Widely scattered all over the island.
Horned Grebe 6
Wood Stork 7
Northern Gannet 2
Double-crested Cormorant 112
Anhinga 5
American White Pelican 37
Brown Pelican 18
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 13
Great Egret 32
Snowy Egret 70 Most grouped in congregations along with Great Egrets, White Ibis, and other wading birds.
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 7
Black-crowned Night-Heron 25
White Ibis 178 One large congregation plus many widely dispersed individuals.
Glossy Ibis 2
Turkey Vulture 4
Osprey 3
Northern Harrier 2
Cooper's Hawk 2 One of these may have flushed many waterfowl under scope view.
Clapper Rail 5
Common Gallinule 23
American Coot 182
American Oystercatcher 1
Grey Plover 33
Semipalmated Plover 220
Piping Plover 1 No apparent leg bands or flags.
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 14
Willet 29
Marbled Godwit 1
Ruddy Turnstone 70 A fairly accurate count.
Sanderling 64 A fairly accurate estimate.
Dunlin 1373 All but 3 individuals in one resting flight. I counted individuals in one scope view then multiplied by the number of scope fields that the flight filled.
Western Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 13
Wilson's Snipe 1
Bonaparte's Gull 3
Ring-billed Gull 14
Herring Gull 10
Forster's Tern 29
Mourning Dove 25
Belted Kingfisher 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2
American Kestrel 1 1 male.
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Phoebe 3
Tufted Titmouse 1
Marsh Wren 1 1 Worthington's.
Carolina Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 6
Grey Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
Cedar Waxwing 15
Palm Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 20
Swamp Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Common Grackle 8
Boat-tailed Grackle 10
American Goldfinch 4
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20864852
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
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