Mon 11 May 2015
Pam Ford was able to join me this past Saturday 9 May 2015 for the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey. Coastal Expeditions (CEX), gracious as always, got us out to Bulls and back. Given Tropical Storm Ana blowing offshore, a tropical storm watch for the S.C. coastline from Edisto Beach north, and rapidly changing forecasts, CEX made the only, and best, decision that they could to reschedule the last ferry leaving Bulls at 1:30 PM rather than the usual 4:00 PM.
New dike construction continues in Jack's Creek. We had a minor traffic jam with one of the contractor's trucks along one of the dikes. I took advantage of the encounter to have a brief discussion of the construction plans with him. He's built many of the dikes on Bulls through the years, including the dike where our traffic jam occurred. From his previous construction efforts he was expecting similar, sandy substrate to build this new dike. Unfortunately the sand that he's finding so far is much deeper than expected. The mud that he is finding is a much poorer substrate for dike construction; it drains very slowly and takes much longer to settle. They may be working on the new dike longer than originally planned.
Taking advantage of the low water levels and new construction, we were able to walk well into one margin of Jack's Creek to scope the MANY shorebirds that continue to hang out there. Thanks, Wil, for that suggestion.
Given our foreshortened survey time we focused exclusively on Jack's Creek and the oceanfront marsh at Jack's. Nonetheless we tallied 47 species on the survey proper and 68 species on the day's outing. Our eBird checklists from both the ferry and Bulls are combined and appended, below, FYI. Avian species of note include Merlin (flyover at Garris Landing), Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, Whimbrel, Red Knot, Sanderling, all three peep sandpipers (Western, Semipalmated, and Least), Long-billed Dowitcher, Bonaparte's Gull, and MANY Dunlin, Semipalmated Plover, and Black Skimmers.
Non-avian sightings of note include fox squirrel, raccoon, American alligator, and Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin. Given the windy conditions, mosquitoes were quick to take advantage of any lee side positions that we sought to reduce the wind vibrations on our scopes.
Looking ahead at the tidal calendar suggests the following dates for the next survey:
Wed 20 May 2015 tide forecast 5.0 ft high at 10:15 AM
Thurs 21 May 2015 tide forecast 4.8 ft high at 11:04 AM
Fri 22 May 2015 tide forecast 4.6 ft high at 11:53 AM
Sat 23 May 2015 tide forecast 4.5 ft high at 12:44 PM
David
dcmclean
BirdLog Checklist Summary for: Saturday, May 09 2015
Number of Checklists: 2
Number of Species: 68
Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Cape Romain NWR--Bull Island
Date: May 9, 2015, 9:40
(2): Bull's Island Ferry
Date: May 9, 2015, 8:40
37 Mottled Duck -- (1)
2 Blue-winged Teal -- (1)
6 Northern Shoveler -- (1)
4 Lesser Scaup -- (1)
4 Red-breasted Merganser -- (1)
78 Double-crested Cormorant -- (1),(2)
1 Anhinga -- (1)
27 Brown Pelican -- (1),(2)
1 Least Bittern -- (1)
5 Great Blue Heron -- (1)
18 Great Egret -- (1),(2)
12 Snowy Egret -- (1)
1 Little Blue Heron -- (2)
10 Tricolored Heron -- (1),(2)
1 Green Heron -- (1)
1 Black-crowned Night-Heron -- (1)
1 Glossy Ibis -- (1)
8 Turkey Vulture -- (1),(2)
1 Black Vulture -- (1)
2 Osprey -- (1),(2)
1 Red-tailed Hawk -- (2)
1 Clapper Rail -- (1)
7 Common Gallinule -- (1)
1 American Coot -- (1)
10 Black-necked Stilt -- (1)
4 American Oystercatcher -- (1),(2)
21 Black-bellied Plover -- (1)
1510 Semipalmated Plover -- (1),(2)
9 Spotted Sandpiper -- (1),(2)
8 Willet -- (1)
32 Lesser Yellowlegs -- (1)
4 Whimbrel -- (1),(2)
26 Ruddy Turnstone -- (1),(2)
90 Red Knot -- (1)
1 Sanderling -- (1)
1016 Dunlin -- (1),(2)
39 Least Sandpiper -- (1)
305 Semipalmated Sandpiper -- (1)
9 Western Sandpiper -- (1)
400 peep sp. -- (1)
755 Short-billed Dowitcher -- (1),(2)
1 Long-billed Dowitcher -- (1)
2 Bonaparte's Gull -- (1)
61 Laughing Gull -- (1),(2)
3 Ring-billed Gull -- (1)
35 Least Tern -- (1),(2)
4 Gull-billed Tern -- (1)
1 Caspian Tern -- (1)
32 Forster's Tern -- (1),(2)
12 Royal Tern -- (1),(2)
9 Sandwich Tern -- (1)
327 Black Skimmer -- (1),(2)
2 Mourning Dove -- (1)
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo -- (1)
1 Merlin -- (2)
1 Great Crested Flycatcher -- (1)
1 White-eyed Vireo -- (2)
1 American Crow -- (2)
4 Tree Swallow -- (1),(2)
10 Barn Swallow -- (1),(2)
4 Marsh Wren -- (1)
1 Carolina Wren -- (2)
1 Northern Parula -- (2)
2 Northern Cardinal -- (1)
6 Painted Bunting -- (1),(2)
6 Red-winged Blackbird -- (1),(2)
4 Boat-tailed Grackle -- (1)
1 Orchard Oriole -- (1)
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
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