Fri 4 Nov 2016
It had been a month since I'd surveyed Bulls Island yesterday. I recall becoming so distracted with Hurricane Matthew rhetoric that boiled over while we were conducting our last survey on 4 Oct that I recorded our survey data, submitted the eBird checklists, then never got around to writing a blog post.
That 4 Oct survey was fairly slow with only 32 species recorded on the survey proper. Best species were Piping Plover (no apparent leg bands or flags), Reddish Egret, and Great Black-backed Gull. Mary Kennerty and Pat Campbell joined me for that survey. That eBird checklist is available at:
My original plans were to survey on 18 Oct; instead I helped with an island clean up effort on that same date. Between refuge employees and volunteers we had almost 20 people clearing trails from limb fall and picking up literally truckloads of litter off of the beachfront. Between the storm surge and following king tides, many trash items including plastic and glass bottles, styrofoam, shoes, and light bulbs had accumulated beachfront on Bulls. It was a good beginning effort to clean up the island but much more needs to be done as so much trash has now been washed well up into the vegetation as the beachfront continues to erode into the forest.
We returned to surveying yesterday with Scott Davis and Richard Stuhr joining me. Coastal Expeditions' Captain Wil Christenson and First Mate Nick Johnson may have never turned off their ferry engines between regular ferry services, beach drops, and chartered groups coming and going to Bulls, yet they were invariantly gracious and accommodating to haul us out and back. I also met a couple of Irish brothers, one living in the U.S. now, who also took the ferry out to Bulls. I always enjoy birding with folks from off who will naturally find great pleasure in so many of our everyday species. I wish I could recall their names, especially since they knew of me through this blog, but I was negligent in not writing down their names. I'm glad that they finally saw a Belted Kingfisher upon returning to Garris Landing and hope that they enjoyed their day birding on Bulls.
The birding was pretty slow with relatively few ducks and relatively few shorebird species; strangely we saw no identifiable gull or tern species on the island. Our eBird checklist from the island is appended, below, FYI. Maybe with ferry passengers being dropped off on the North Beach many of the expected shorebirds, gulls, and terns there may have been flushed prior to our arrival. Also, we had just scanned at distance a large mixed flock of shorebirds in the oceanfront marsh at Jack's Creek when they flushed, teased us by flying about at distance, then disappeared. We think that an unidentified falcon (Peregrine Falcon or perhaps a Merlin) may have flushed this flock. And Jack's Creek has enough water to completely cover the long-exposed mudflats that had attracted so many shorebirds.
We tallied 27 species on the survey proper, 54 species on the island, and 62 species on the day. The best birds of the day were Reddish Egrets, American White Pelicans (first I've seen in many months), and a very special Piping Plover. "Old Man Plover" has returned to the North Beach. He hatched in 2002 at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI and began breeding there in 2005, which is when he received his current band combination. We've seen him on 30 Oct 2015, 31 Dec 2015, 12 Feb 2016, and 12 Mar 2016. It was actually Mary Catherine Martin (SCDNR) who first spotted Old Man Plover yesterday; MC was doing her Bulls Bay shorebird survey while we were doing our Bulls Island survey--we fortuitously met up on the North Beach as we've done a few times before. Scott Davis has graciously shared a couple of his photos and I received the following email from the bander:
David,
This is such good news!!!! I've been waiting to hear if he made it south. He had a bit of a rough summer. The "ladies" kept passing him by. He finally attracted a first-year captive-reared female, rather late in the season and they managed to fledge all three chicks that hatched. He gets the credit. His mate spent the first few days after hatching chasing her own chicks and attacking them. First-time parents sometimes take a while to figure things out. He's a champion dad.
Thanks for the update. You just made my day.
Alice
You may also read earlier posts and see other pictures of Old Man Plover in the following blog posts:
We had to deal with hordes of mosquitos and biting flies that were our constant companions through the whole day. I don't recall the bugs ever being worse in 4 (almost 5) years of surveys now. There were only 7.0 inches of rain recorded on the island for Hurricane Matthew, a significant under-measurement as, I believe, their rain gauge doesn't hold any more than that; I strongly suspect that more than 7 inches fell (I had 9.33 inches in my personal rain gauge downtown from that weather event). But even though there has been no rain since 8 Oct the island still has standing water that mosquitos must find inviting. The very light winds from the West, i.e., a land breeze, really didn't help with the bugs either.
Looking ahead at the tidal calendar suggests we consider the following dates for our next survey:
Th 17 Nov 2016 6.5 ft high tide forecast at 9:33 AM
F 18 Nov 2016 6.2 ft high tide forecast at 10:29 AM
Sat 19 Nov 2016 5.9 ft high tide forecast at 11:25 AM
Looking ahead at the tidal calendar suggests we consider the following dates for our next survey:
Th 17 Nov 2016 6.5 ft high tide forecast at 9:33 AM
F 18 Nov 2016 6.2 ft high tide forecast at 10:29 AM
Sat 19 Nov 2016 5.9 ft high tide forecast at 11:25 AM
David
Cape Romain NWR--Bulls Island, Charleston, South Carolina, US
Nov 3, 2016 9:36 AM - 2:29 PM
Protocol: Traveling
12.8 mile(s)
Comments: Conducting the ongoing Bulls Island waterfowl/shorebird survey with Scott Davis and Richard Stuhr. This was our first survey since Hurricane Matthew blew through 7 to 8 Oct 2016. Effort: 10.3 mi and 1 hr 30 min by truck plus 2.5 mi and 3 hr 45 min by foot. Weather: sunny, warm, and very light breezes; temps 67 F to 79 F; W winds <= 5 mph; barometer 30.24 in Hg falling to 30.14 in Hg. Tide was forecast 5.5 ft high at 10:37 AM. Salt water likely intruded into Jack's Creek when the dike failed at the trunk at the Old Fort. Almost all, maybe all, of the exposed mud flats in Jack's Creek are now flooded with standing water, but it is not full to the brim. Some oceanfront dunes were over washed and thus flattened, but the island fared fairly well through the storm otherwise.
54 species
Wood Duck 3
Mottled Duck 35
Black Scoter 80
Pied-billed Grebe 25
Double-crested Cormorant 16
American White Pelican 14
Brown Pelican 84
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 8
Little Blue Heron 8
Tricolored Heron 7
Reddish Egret 2 Oceanfront marsh at Jack's, in their usual location.
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
White Ibis 3
Turkey Vulture 11
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Clapper Rail 6
Common Gallinule 15
Grey Plover 4
Semipalmated Plover 920 Estimate as a very large brace of these plovers flushed immediately before we scoped to ID species and counted. May have been flushed by an unidentified falcon, maybe Peregrine Falcon or Merlin.
Piping Plover 2 One was banded: BO:X,g (a.k.a. Old Man Plover). He hatched in 2002 at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI and began breeding there in 2005, which is when he received his current band combination.
Sanderling 19
Dunlin 405 Estimated.
Least Sandpiper 29
Western Sandpiper 417 Estimated , most in one bind.
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Willet 15
Belted Kingfisher 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 3
Eastern Phoebe 6
Blue Jay 2
Tree Swallow 20
House Wren 1
Carolina Wren 1
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
Grey Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 5
White-throated Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Painted Bunting 2
Red-winged Blackbird 3
Boat-tailed Grackle 42
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32371830
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (/content/iss)
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