Wed 22 Apr 2015, Earth Day
Wil Christenson and Nick Johnson, both of Coastal Expeditions, joined me today for the ongoing Bulls island waterfowl/shorebird survey. Coastal Expeditions (CEX) once again graciously provided our boating out to Bulls and back--many thanks, CEX!
What a great day we had on the island! The weather was beautiful: sunny and warm with usually enough wind to keep the mosquitos down. Both waterfowl and shorebird species were present in unexpectedly good numbers. We tallied 86 species on the day's outing including 52 species on the survey proper. Our eBird checklists, combined from the ferry ride and the island, is appended below, FYI.
The new dike construction across Jack's Creek has begun from the ocean side very close to the trunk separating Jack's from New Pond. There are three excavators plus support vehicles working on this long-anticipated construction project that is predicted to take several months to complete. The water level in Jack's is, I believe, just about as low as it could possibly get given the single trunk outlet used to drain Jack's out into Bulls Bay at the Old Fort. Most of Jack's is now either grass or mudflat; only a few marginal channels appear to have any appreciable water depth. Nonetheless, waterfowl surprises included high numbers of Mottled Duck plus slightly unexpected species including Gadwall, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Loon, and Horned Grebe (the last three in Bulls Bay).
And boy are the shorebirds by the thousands loving the mudflats in Jack's. There were MANY Semipalmated Plover, Spotted Sandpiper (mostly in Upper Summerhouse Pond, actually), Lesser Yellowlegs, Red Knot (actually on the muddy exposed bottom of Jack's rather that the expected sandy-bottomed marsh or beach front), Short-billed Dowitcher, and Least Sandpipers. Bulls Bay (i.e., the ferry ride) produced many Whimbrel and Willet.
Other avian species of note, primarily FOS sightings for me, included Least Bittern, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Kingbird, Bobolink, and Ipswich Sparrow (a.k.a. Savannah Sparrow [Ipswich]).
Avian misses today included Piping Plover, Western Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Clapper Rail, Sanderling, Indigo Bunting, and Orchard Oriole (Wil saw these last two very recently on the island, so they're around now).
Non-avian sightings included Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin, fox squirrel (8!), bobcat scat, American alligators (very big, very small, and many in-between), and a tiger swallowtail butterfly.
Looking ahead at the tide calendar suggests the following dates for our next survey:
Th 7 May 2015 high tide forecast 4.7 ft at 10:31 AM
Fri 8 May 2015 high tide forecast 4.7 ft at 11:17 AM
Sat 9 May 2015 high tide forecast 4.7 ft at 12:10 PM
Regards,
David
dcmclean
BirdLog Checklist Summary for: Wednesday, Apr 22 2015
Number of Checklists: 2
Number of Species: 87
Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Bull's Island Ferry
Date: Apr 22, 2015, 8:30
(2): Cape Romain NWR--Bull Island
Date: Apr 22, 2015, 9:28
6 Gadwall -- (2)
6 American Wigeon -- (2)
4 Mallard -- (2)
88 Mottled Duck -- (2)
82 Blue-winged Teal -- (2)
4 Northern Shoveler -- (2)
4 Green-winged Teal -- (2)
16 Lesser Scaup -- (2)
100 Black Scoter -- (2)
2 Bufflehead -- (2)
5 Red-breasted Merganser -- (1)
1 Common Loon -- (1)
13 Pied-billed Grebe -- (2)
2 Horned Grebe -- (1)
1 Wood Stork -- (2)
27 Double-crested Cormorant -- (1),(2)
2 Anhinga -- (2)
7 Brown Pelican -- (1),(2)
2 Least Bittern -- (2)
3 Great Blue Heron -- (2)
25 Great Egret -- (1),(2)
39 Snowy Egret -- (2)
2 Little Blue Heron -- (2)
15 Tricolored Heron -- (1),(2)
12 Green Heron -- (2)
42 White Ibis -- (2)
7 Glossy Ibis -- (2)
6 Turkey Vulture -- (2)
1 Northern Harrier -- (2)
4 Bald Eagle -- (2)
1 Red-tailed Hawk -- (2)
21 Common Gallinule -- (2)
6 American Coot -- (2)
149 Black-necked Stilt -- (2)
8 American Oystercatcher -- (1),(2)
46 Black-bellied Plover -- (1),(2)
6 Wilson's Plover -- (2)
1057 Semipalmated Plover -- (1),(2)
2 Killdeer -- (2)
20 Spotted Sandpiper -- (1),(2)
2 Solitary Sandpiper -- (2)
19 Greater Yellowlegs -- (1),(2)
138 Willet -- (1),(2)
1247 Lesser Yellowlegs -- (2)
36 Whimbrel -- (1)
3 Marbled Godwit -- (2)
8 Ruddy Turnstone -- (1),(2)
105 Red Knot -- (2)
712 Dunlin -- (1),(2)
91 Least Sandpiper -- (1),(2)
214 Short-billed Dowitcher -- (1),(2)
2630 Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher -- (2)
8 Bonaparte's Gull -- (2)
49 Laughing Gull -- (1),(2)
5 Ring-billed Gull -- (2)
4 Least Tern -- (2)
17 Gull-billed Tern -- (2)
39 Forster's Tern -- (1),(2)
8 Royal Tern -- (1),(2)
8 Black Skimmer -- (1),(2)
7 Mourning Dove -- (2)
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo -- (2)
3 Belted Kingfisher -- (1),(2)
1 Red-headed Woodpecker -- (2)
1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) -- (2)
3 Eastern Phoebe -- (2)
5 Great Crested Flycatcher -- (2)
1 Eastern Kingbird -- (2)
1 White-eyed Vireo -- (2)
6 Blue Jay -- (2)
254 Tree Swallow -- (1),(2)
14 Barn Swallow -- (1),(2)
4 Marsh Wren -- (2)
2 Carolina Wren -- (2)
2 Northern Mockingbird -- (2)
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) -- (2)
2 Eastern Towhee -- (2)
9 Savannah Sparrow -- (1),(2)
3 Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich) -- (2)
2 Summer Tanager -- (1)
6 Northern Cardinal -- (2)
6 Painted Bunting -- (2)
1 Bobolink -- (2)
20 Red-winged Blackbird -- (2)
2 Eastern Meadowlark -- (2)
14 Boat-tailed Grackle -- (2)
1 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (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
