Sat 23 May 2015
Yesterday was sunny, windy, and merely warm on Bulls Island for the ongoing waterfowl/shorebird survey. Wil Christenson and I had a wonderful day exploring places and vistas that neither of us had ever explored before. Our ever-gracious sponsor Coastal Expeditions (CEX) got us out to the island and back on our own time schedule. Thanks, CEX, for your continuing support.
We tallied 47 species on the survey proper, 60 species on the day's outing. Our combined eBird checklists for the Bulls Island Ferry and the Cape Romain NWR--Bull Island eBird hotspots is appended below, FYI.
With shorebird migration apparently continuing we focused primarily on the very drawn down Jack's Creek by walking well out into the exposed flats on both the ocean side and bay side of Jack's where we found thousands of shorebirds in a large mixed flock.
And since the horseshoe crabs are continuing to come ashore to lay eggs, and thus induce a feeding scrum of shorebirds, we walked along the North Beach well around to the back side of Bulls; there we saw another large (est. 1000) mixed flock of birds apparently taking great advantage of the horseshoe crab eggs. This flock would fly down to the water's edge, walk up the beach to the supralittoral zone (immediately above the spring high tide line) exploring for horseshoe eggs, then fly back to the water's edge to repeat the exercise. Fascinating to watch. In service to the horseshoe crabs, Wil and I returned three or four dozen stranded horseshoe crabs back to the water where most appeared to make it back into the drink. In doing so, we also, apparently, came close to a Wilson's Plover nest; both the male and female were doing their broken-wing dance to distract us from their nest (that we never saw). Pretty cool.
Late spring shorebird migration appears to be continuing on Bulls. There were high numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, and Dunlin. Small numbers of winter shorebird holdovers included Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, and even a Piping Plover. Waterfowl were represented only by summer resident Wood Duck (a.k.a. Summer Duck), Mottled Duck, and Black-bellied Whistling Duck.
Summer resident gulls, terns, and skimmers are picking up; we spied our first-of-year Black Terns. This is the second summer now with sightings of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks recorded on Bulls Island (look in Upper Summerhouse Pond along Turkey Walk Trail, especially on the seaward edge against the forest). Reddish Egret, seen in recent summers, have not yet arrived.
Non-avian sightings of note included loggerhead sea turtle, Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphin, bonnethead shark, fox squirrel (eight of them!), American alligator (one of which raised its head to bellow), and many horseshoe crabs.
Looking ahead at the tidal calendar suggests the following dates for our next survey:
Fri 5 June 2015 4.8 ft high tide predicted 10:18 AM
Sat 6 June 2015 4.8 ft high tide predicted 11:09 AM
Sun 7 June 2015 4.9 ft high tide predicted 12:04 PM
David
BirdLog Checklist Summary for: Friday, May 22 2015
Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey with Wil Christenson.
Number of Checklists: 2
Number of Species: 63
Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Bull's Island Ferry
Date: May 22, 2015, 8:30
(2): Cape Romain NWR--Bull Island
Date: May 22, 2015, 9:10
2 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck -- (2)
7 Wood Duck -- (2)
62 Mottled Duck -- (2)
6 Black Scoter -- (2)
6 Double-crested Cormorant -- (1),(2)
1 Anhinga -- (2)
25 Brown Pelican -- (1),(2)
1 Least Bittern -- (2)
2 Great Blue Heron -- (2)
24 Great Egret -- (1),(2)
67 Snowy Egret -- (1),(2)
7 Tricolored Heron -- (1),(2)
9 Green Heron -- (2)
25 White Ibis -- (1),(2)
6 Glossy Ibis -- (1),(2)
1 Black Vulture -- (2)
6 Turkey Vulture -- (2)
1 Osprey -- (1)
4 Clapper Rail -- (2)
22 Common Gallinule -- (2)
52 Black-necked Stilt -- (2)
7 American Oystercatcher -- (1),(2)
50 Black-bellied Plover -- (1),(2)
7 Wilson's Plover -- (2)
785 Semipalmated Plover -- (1),(2)
1 Piping Plover -- (2)
2 Killdeer -- (2)
10 Spotted Sandpiper -- (1),(2)
1 Solitary Sandpiper -- (2)
2 Greater Yellowlegs -- (2)
4 Willet -- (2)
2 Lesser Yellowlegs -- (2)
4 Whimbrel -- (1),(2)
429 Ruddy Turnstone -- (1),(2)
539 Red Knot -- (2)
5 Sanderling -- (2)
779 Dunlin -- (1),(2)
12 Least Sandpiper -- (2)
1890 Semipalmated Sandpiper -- (2)
2350 peep sp. -- (2)
102 Short-billed Dowitcher -- (2)
24 Laughing Gull -- (1),(2)
7 Least Tern -- (2)
4 Gull-billed Tern -- (2)
3 Black Tern -- (2)
5 Common Tern -- (2)
8 Forster's Tern -- (1),(2)
116 Royal Tern -- (1),(2)
29 Sandwich Tern -- (2)
143 Black Skimmer -- (1),(2)
2 Yellow-billed Cuckoo -- (2)
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker -- (2)
2 Great Crested Flycatcher -- (2)
1 Eastern Kingbird -- (2)
4 Barn Swallow -- (2)
2 Marsh Wren -- (1)
1 Northern Parula -- (1)
3 Northern Cardinal -- (2)
1 Painted Bunting -- (2)
24 Red-winged Blackbird -- (1),(2)
12 Boat-tailed Grackle -- (2)
1 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (2)
2 Orchard Oriole -- (2)
This trip summary was created using the BirdLog app for iPhone and iPad.
See BirdLog for more information.
--
David C. McLean, Jr.
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