Th 31 Dec 2015
What a terrific way to end 2015! Wil
Christenson joined me today for the Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird
survey. At Garris Landing we met a gentleman from Ohio who was
solo-birding the NC and SC coasts. We offered him a chance to bird
Bulls with us, but he had other birding plans on the day, so we went
on without him. We met him again when we returned to Garris where we
compared our checklists. It seems that he makes similar trips to the
SC coast annually, so we hope we can entice him to join us next year
when he travels back through.
Coastal Expeditions (CEX) once again
graciously provided us with boating transportation out to the island
and back. We couldn't perform these surveys without such wonderful
support, and I am grateful beyond measure for CEX's continuing
support.
There has been another dike
failure on Bulls, this time at the Alligator Ally trunk between
Pool 1 and Jack's Creek. This is the third dike failure in about
15 months, all under similar (to my curious but untrained eye)
circumstances. That meant that the water in Pool 1 drained into
Jack's further complicating the draw down needed to resume the dike
construction across Jack's. However both the ducks and shorebirds
seem to be loving Jack's right now with sufficient water to float a
dabbling duck yet shallow enough to attract shorebirds by the
thousands.
Clearly we've not yet had any cold
weather, i.e., "not cold enough to bring in the ducks," but
there are many ducks, mostly dabblers, on Bulls right now. Gadwall
and Bufflehead together account for 70 % of the waterfowl on
Bulls today with 516 out of 739 ducks counted. Green-winged Teal were
also particularly abundant today. Lesser Scaup, usually a very
abundant species, were notable mostly for their low numbers; maybe
they're waiting for a polar vortex to blow them in, or maybe Jack's
is too shallow for diving ducks like them.
Semipalmated Plovers, Dunlin, and
Western Sandpipers each presented in high numbers. Other notable
shorebird species included American Avocet and Piping Plovers. One
banded PIPL that we were able to ID was the "old man plover"
from the Great Lakes population, "BO:X,g"
whom we've observed several times before. Read more about him and see
his picture in my posting from 17 Nov 2015.
We tallied 68 species on Bulls
today (see our eBird checklist, below), including 44 target
species, plus 22 species on the ferry ride for a total of
75 species on the day. Other avian species of interest included
a Peregrine Falcon that flushed the shorebirds we were scoping on the
North Beach (thanks a bunch!), Bald Eagles, Reddish Egret, Wood
Stork, and Sora. We also found a dead Common Loon that had washed up
on the North Beach.
Non-avian sightings that caught our
attention included relatively few American alligators, fox squirrels,
and a couple of bottlenose dolphins feeding in the shallows before
leaping through our wake.
I'll be back on Bulls this Sunday
for the annual Charleston Christmas Bird Count; that will be my
seventh of eight CBCs this year. It's what I do during the Christmas
season. The next survey is planned for Thursday 14 Jan 2016 with some
of the USF&WS staff. I will also be helping with the upcoming
mid-winter Bald Eagle surveys both on the Santee River and through
Cape Romain. I may post blog reports on those efforts.
Happy New Year! Now get out there
and go birding, folks!
David
Cape
Romain NWR--Bulls Island, Charleston, South Carolina, US
Dec
31, 2015 9:00 AM - 3:50 PM
Protocol:
Traveling
12.8
mile(s)
Comments:
Conducting the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird
survey with Wil Christenson. Effort: 10.3 mi and 1 hr 30 min
by truck plus 2.5 mi and 5 hr 20 min by foot.
Weather: overcast and warm; temps 70 °F to 73 °F; SW
winds < 5 mph; barometer 30.05 in Hg. Tide was
forecast 4.7 ft high at 11:39 AM.
68
species
Gadwall
224 Scope views. Many Gadwall.
American
Wigeon 11
Mallard
2
Mottled
Duck 30
Blue-winged
Teal 11
Northern
Shoveler 36
Green-winged
Teal 119
Lesser
Scaup 15
Black
Scoter 1
Bufflehead
292 Quite numerous. Multiple rafts of 20 to 30
plus many widely dispersed individuals.
Hooded
Merganser 5
Red-breasted
Merganser 2
Ruddy
Duck 1
Pied-billed
Grebe 4
Double-crested
Cormorant 60
American
White Pelican 7
Brown
Pelican 69 Estimate.
Great
Blue Heron 10
Great
Egret 6
Snowy
Egret 10
Little
Blue Heron 10
Tricolored
Heron 7
Reddish
Egret 1 Slate blue egret, reddish plumage on
head and neck, bicolored bill, dancing around the shallows.
Black-crowned
Night-Heron 1
White
Ibis 8
Turkey
Vulture 1
Osprey
1
Northern
Harrier 1
Bald
Eagle 2
Red-tailed
Hawk 1
Sora
1
Common
Gallinule 21
American
Coot 47
American
Avocet 2
Grey
Plover 15
Semipalmated
Plover 650 All in the oceanfront marsh at
Jack's.
Piping
Plover 7 Two were banded, one was flagged.
Banded PIPL #1: BOXg. Banded PIPL #2 flew before we were able to read
the bands. Flagged PIPL: upper L metal, upper R black flag "KK"
in white, lower L no bands, lower R no bands.
Killdeer
5
Greater
Yellowlegs 14
Willet
34
Lesser
Yellowlegs 3
Marbled
Godwit 1
Ruddy
Turnstone 77 A fairly accurate estimate by
counting over several different locations.
Sanderling
53 Counted some, estimated other widely dispersed
from a very large mixed flock of shorebirds.
Dunlin
1885 Very numerous in both Jack's and in the
oceanfront marsh at Jack's.
Western
Sandpiper 610 Very numerous in both Jack's
and in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's.
Short-billed
Dowitcher 202 Most in Jack's Creek. Scope
views.
Ring-billed
Gull 14
Forster's
Tern 8
Mourning
Dove 19
Belted
Kingfisher 2
Northern
Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2
Peregrine
Falcon 1
Eastern
Phoebe 3
Tree
Swallow 6
Carolina
Chickadee 2
Ruby-crowned
Kinglet 1
Grey
Catbird 4
Northern
Mockingbird 3
Pine
Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped
Warbler (Myrtle) 25
Savannah
Sparrow 1
Song
Sparrow 1
Swamp
Sparrow 1
Eastern
Towhee 1
Northern
Cardinal 1
Red-winged
Blackbird 30
Common
Grackle 6
View
this checklist online at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26566781
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