Th 22 Jan 2015 survey

Th 22 Jan 2015

All,

   Wil Christenson and Rachel Jones joined me today for the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey. With thanks to Coastal Expeditions for their generous and ongoing support, we were able to get out to the island and back on our own schedule. Good thing, too, as we needed more time than usual to count all the waterfowl hanging out on Jack's Creek.

   We tallied 50 species on the survey proper, 80 species on the day's outing; our two eBird checklists are combined and presented below, FYI. Waterfowl were very plentiful, especially on Jack's Creek. We tallied many Bufflehead, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck, Hooded Merganser, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, and Red-breasted Mergansers and added small numbers of Northern Pintail, Canvasback, and Ring-necked Duck. 

   Unfortunately shorebirds numbers were way down with very few seen on either the North Beach or the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek. Even the dropping water levels in Jack's failed to attract shorebirds there. A nice shorebird find was a Wilson's Plover. Since we moved the survey up by a day to avoid getting drenched in Friday's predicted rain, the high tide was earlier than we typically  plan for the surveys; perhaps we missed our usual target high tide plus-or-minus 2 hours and thus missed many of the shorebirds that had gone off foraging.

   There were a few other nice finds on the day including Green Heron, Glossy Ibis, Great Black-backed Gulls, all three marsh sparrows, and a Roseate Spoonbill. 

   Non-avian sightings included white-tailed deer, eastern fox squirrel, numerous bobcat tracks, bottle-nosed dolphin, and American alligators.

   Looking ahead at the tide calendar suggests the following dates to consider for our next survey:

Fri 6 Feb 2015 high tide 5.0 ft at 8:59 AM

Sat 7 Feb 2015 high tide 4.8 ft at 9:32 AM

Mon 9 Feb 2015 high tide 4.5 ft at 10:41 AM

Tues 10 Feb 2015 high tide 4.3 ft at 11:22 AM

Wed 11 Feb 20115 high tide 4.2 ft at 12:10 PM

Stay tuned for further plans.

Regards,

David

dcmclean

BirdLog Checklist Summary for: Thursday, Jan 22 2015

Number of Checklists: 2

Number of Species: 80

Checklists included in this summary:

(1): Bull's Island Ferry

Date: Jan 22, 2015, 8:14

(2): Cape Romain NWR--Bull Island

Date: Jan 22, 2015, 9:35

626 Gadwall -- (2)

338 American Wigeon -- (2)

2 American Black Duck -- (2)

2 Mallard -- (2)

13 Mottled Duck -- (2)

582 Northern Shoveler -- (2)

3 Northern Pintail -- (2)

108 Green-winged Teal -- (2)

1 Canvasback -- (2)

30 Redhead -- (2)

1 Ring-necked Duck -- (2)

134 Lesser Scaup -- (2)

107 Bufflehead -- (1),(2)

154 Hooded Merganser -- (2)

31 Red-breasted Merganser -- (2)

627 Ruddy Duck -- (2)

1 Common Loon -- (1)

78 Pied-billed Grebe -- (2)

16 Horned Grebe -- (1),(2)

83 Double-crested Cormorant -- (1),(2)

4 Anhinga -- (2)

42 American White Pelican -- (2)

25 Brown Pelican -- (1),(2)

6 Great Blue Heron -- (1),(2)

11 Great Egret -- (2)

30 Snowy Egret -- (2)

5 Little Blue Heron -- (2)

8 Tricolored Heron -- (1),(2)

1 Green Heron -- (2)

39 Black-crowned Night-Heron -- (2)

65 White Ibis -- (2)

1 Glossy Ibis -- (2)

1 Roseate Spoonbill -- (2)

4 Black Vulture -- (2)

5 Turkey Vulture -- (2)

2 Osprey -- (1),(2)

1 Northern Harrier -- (2)

2 Bald Eagle -- (2)

2 Clapper Rail -- (2)

1 Sora -- (2)

34 Common Gallinule -- (2)

337 American Coot -- (2)

32 Black-bellied Plover -- (1),(2)

1 Wilson's Plover -- (2)

12 Semipalmated Plover -- (2)

1 Spotted Sandpiper -- (2)

1 Greater Yellowlegs -- (2)

5 Willet -- (2)

1 Marbled Godwit -- (1)

12 Ruddy Turnstone -- (2)

23 Sanderling -- (2)

137 Dunlin -- (1),(2)

1 Western Sandpiper -- (2)

400 Short-billed Dowitcher -- (1)

87 Ring-billed Gull -- (1),(2)

9 Herring Gull -- (1),(2)

5 Great Black-backed Gull -- (2)

25 Forster's Tern -- (2)

2 Mourning Dove -- (2)

7 Belted Kingfisher -- (1),(2)

1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) -- (2)

1 Peregrine Falcon -- (1)

2 Eastern Phoebe -- (1),(2)

2 Blue Jay -- (2)

200 Tree Swallow -- (2)

1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- (2)

1 Brown Thrasher -- (2)

4 Northern Mockingbird -- (2)

3 European Starling -- (2)

1 Common Yellowthroat -- (2)

30 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- (1),(2)

3 Eastern Towhee -- (2)

1 Savannah Sparrow -- (2)

5 Nelson's Sparrow -- (2)

1 Saltmarsh Sparrow -- (2)

24 Seaside Sparrow -- (2)

2 Swamp Sparrow -- (2)

2 Northern Cardinal -- (2)

21 Red-winged Blackbird -- (1),(2)

25 Boat-tailed Grackle -- (2)

This trip summary was created using the BirdLog app for iPhone and iPad.

See BirdLog for more information.

--

David C. McLean, Jr.

Sent from my iPod