Sadly, The Fish Crows scared the Least Terns from nesting at Gould's Inlet. I had a few volunteers, so I have been trying to get them out to learn. Thursday, July 26 a small group of us were out on the beach and pointed our scopes at the sandbars. This is where the Least Terns have been hanging out. It is always fun to search the area for early migrants. Here is our group. Thanks

Least Tern are wrapping up nesting

It is August 6, 2016. The sky is beautiful, and it isn't as hot as it has been. I enjoyed this survey.

The Least Terns and Wilson's Plover are still out in the northern enclosure, 

especially in the middle and southeast side.

There are two Least Tern chicks very close to fledging and 

one Wilson's Plover chick that is maybe a couple of weeks away from fledging.

 The terns and plovers are using the north enclosure to rest at around high tide. 

This a young Least Tern. Isn't it lovely? It makes this nesting season worth it.

I counted 190 Least Terns total and one pair of Wilson's Plover. 

The Beach Bird Stewards were at Georgia's Department of Natural Resources Beach Week on St. Simons Island, GA June 29.

We had a table with information about Wilson's Plovers & the large Least Tern Colony at Gould's Inlet. 

Thanks to Devon, Linda, Sarah,  Mary Jo, Marge, and Marty for helping the birds.

The Secret Life of Least Terns

Once a year for the last 16 years, my friend, Melanie Kist comes to Jekyll with her family. She is a gifted photographer. I often used her photographs in my bird conservation work.

This year I invited her to see the Least Tern colony. Here are a few of her photos. 

They give us a peek at what these terns are doing on the beach.

Don’t they just melt your heart?

These are few more pictures of the secret lives Least Terns.

 Thank Melanie 

       

Operation Plover Patrol spreads out

Hi all
Well, the Wilson's Plovers are well cared for on Jekyll. Thanks to Ben Carswell, Yank Moore, and Ranger Bre.
This year Gould's Inlet has a huge sand spit. The Least Terns saw it as perfect for nesting. The Wilson's Plovers agreed. I was asked to help set up a Plover Patrol on St. Simons at Gould's Inlet. 14 volunteers have step up to help.
Tim Keyes, our DNR Shorebird person, got our vests. Here is one modeled by his son Walker.

Tomorrow evening these vests will get their first use as Team Bird is out in force on World Ocean Day!

Plover Patrol goes to the Jekyll Island Green Screen Event

It was so much fun sharing the Plover Patrol with so many people at the First Green Screen Event on Jekyll Island.  If you have not seen the film "Chasing Ice", do see it.  Beautiful photography. 

Here is Abby Sterling and I in front of her research poster on Wilson's Plovers. 

Looking for birds a Coastfest

The first Saturday in October is Coastfest.  It is a day that the Coastal Resource Division of Georgia Department of Natural Resource celebrates the variety of environmental groups that work for the Georgia coast.  There is lots of excitement.  This a large aquarium of local fish.

 The kids and their parents love it.  I was there with information about Operation Plover Patrol.  The folks at US Fish and Wildlife Service are wonderful.  They are applying for a grant to help the project so they offered me an opportunity to talk about the Plover Patrol.  Thanks so much guys!

 I took a few breaks to looked for other bird projects.  I came across this bird promoting recycling! 

 Of course, Coastal Georgia Audubon was there with the Build a Bluebird house booth.  This a wildly popular booth.  This year the team helped 275 kids build a bluebird house to take home. 

 Here they are in the thick of building bird houses!   Way to go Chris, who is the powerhouse behind the project.  Thanks also to the tireless workers. 

All the young people got a chance to experience nature.  This is thanks to all the hard work of all the environmental groups and especially the organizers.  Coastfest was a big success.

Surprises happen when you least expect.  I am lucky to have a great group of volunteers for the Plover Patrol.  One of them is Molly.  She is my church pew mate.  When she heard about this project of mine, she just jumped right into the task.                                            Well, Molly had a youth group coming to the Golden Isles to work in the area.  She needed one more project.  She thought of me.  So on June the 21, eleven young people from Durayton Ave. Presbyterian Church, Ferndale, Michigan were on the south end of Jekyll to help Ben Carswell, Jekyll Island Authority's Director of Conservation.  There is a cross over to the beach called the Glory Boardwalk.  This boardwalk has been undermine by the rough surf in the last couple of storms.  Now, there is debris all over the south end.  These young people and there advisers were there to help.

It was a perfect day to be on the beach.  The group broke into smaller groups and went right to work.

 Here is one group uncovering part of the board walk partly buried in sand.  Last Monday, it had been floating.  Four day later on Thursday, it had to be dug up.

 Right down to the last board.

This group was working on just one part of the boardwalk.  There was lots more debris.  

Here they are filling up the truck.

While they were working, they learned a little about the beach.  Here is a wharf crab that they found.    One young man told me he enjoyed being outdoors and would love to be a Beach Ranger on Jekyll. 

 You never know, do you?  The Plover Patrol helps the plovers and other shorebirds but it is helping Jekyll in small ways. 

Thanks Ben for pulling it all together. 

Wilson's Plover sitting on a nest

Thursday's Bird Ramble group went out to check on the area. It was amazing the number of birds that were out there. One of my volunteers was out doing an Operation Plover Patrol beach surveys. He was down the way a bit so we did not disturb him. We found the first pair of plovers or should I say the male Wilson’s spotted us and began to attract our attention when another male Wilson’s came over. They did do a little sparing and then settled back down. Our attention was divided between the large number of gulls, terns and shorebirds resting beyond Jim the volunteer and looking for the Wilson’s. We did locate one nesting plover sitting on a nest. We then moved down the beach and watched the main flock. We had skimmers, Forster’s Terns, Royal Terns, Laughing, Ring-billed and Herring Gulls plus a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Mixed into those birds were Dunlins, and Sanderlings. Two Least Sandpipers landed with 30 feet of us.
When we finally got up to Jim, he was almost finished with his two hour survey period. He pointed out the American Oystercatchers. He also told us there had been two Wilson’s near him during the survey period but had lost them. Two of my groups were looking for the birds and they located them up in the dunes well inside the fencing. The Wilson’s pair was mating. They will be nesting soon. There is even a pair of Eastern Willets flying around looking for a territory. In years past the Willets have failed when they attempted to nest. This year they might succeed. So nesting season on Jekyll is off to a good start.

Coastal Georgia Audubon takes a boat ride

On Saturday, Coastal Georgia Audubon Society went for a boat ride with the Dolphin Tours. It was wonderful. We went down to the south end of Jekyll. This was a wonderful way to see how these birds are gathering. We also saw Molly one of Operation Plover Patrol volunteer on the job. Here are some pictures taken by another Operation Plover Patrol Volunteer, Janice Browning. Walkers unaware of the birds walked right thru the resting bird. Operation Plover Patrol will help folks to appreciate what these birds are doing here.
Cormorants galore They are generally the first to leave when disturbed.

Operation Plover Patrol Surveys help resting shorebirds

I posted on February 12th, the plans for Operation Plover Patrol. This year it is a simple task of watching the birds at the south end. There is a survey form that I created, that I ask the volunteers to fill out as they watch. The survey times are around high tide. I schedule the time so the volunteers gets there a little before high tide. Then for two hours, you watch. It is very easy. I just want you to watch and record what you see happening.

This data will help me prepare positive scripts for future volunteers who start the patrols.The resting Sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstone thank the volunteersThe male Wilson's Plovers gets his nap because the volunteers are there.

The over 60 American Oystercatchers want to thank Carl Runge, Wes Utter, Gene Keferl and Mary Hoffman for helping them get in some shut eye before they had to get out an find food.

Operation Plover Patrol Begins

What is Operation Plover Patrol? Eventually, it will be an interpretive program to help people learn how to share the beach with plovers & shorebirds. Here is a pair of Wilson's Plovers near Jekyll Point. See how they blend into the beach. The south end of Jekyll is a very important area for resting shorebirds, gulls and terns. There has been increasing use of this beach by a wide variety of people. They use the beach for a wide range of acceptable and unacceptable recreational activities. The unacceptable activities increase the pressure on these already stress birds. There is a need for public education to help give people a positive experience and allow the birds to rest and nest.

Because I am doing this without much needed funding, this year I am beginning with this simple survey to see the real problems for these birds. Here is the survey. If you are in the area and want to help with this survey let me know. Also if you want to help fund this program, the Jekyll Island Foundation has a special fund set up. It is called Operation Plover Patrol.

A little rain and the Big Sit

Sunday was a wonderful day at the Wildlife Viewing Tower at the Welcome Center. This is the view first thing in the morning The weather was questionable at best; however that often creates great birding opportunities. Diana Churchill came over in the morning and helped me spot. We had 9 Peregrine Falcons. One came so close that I felt I could have reach out and touch it.

In the afternoon, several groups of folks came by to take a look from the tower. This is a Georgia Ornithological Society group who stop by to help spot for a while.

Sheila Willis was an excellent guide and as always kept wonderful notes.. There were several Coastal Georgia Audubon members who brought scopes and binocular to share. Charlie and Tracey Muise were wonderful. They carefully scanned the mud for one more species. There were several Jekyll Islanders that came by to support my effort including Mac DeVaughn, Executive Director of the Jekyll Island Foundation. He has been very supportive of my Operation Plover Patrol project. His board has set a fund to get this project running. If you interested in this project, please comment and I will send you the details.

Here is my poster explaining the Operation Plover Patrol project. I had at the Georgia Ornothological Society meeting the night before the Big Sit.

Now to the birds, I ended up with 45 species. The Whimbrel made several appearances. Clapper Rail antics were shows in themselves. The complete list of birds is below. It is always fair weather when good fellows get together.

Jekyll Island, Glynn, US-GA Oct 9, 2011 6:50 AM - 5:50 PM Protocol: StationaryComments: This was a BIG SIT for Jekyll Island at the Wildlife Viewing tower on the causeway. This area is a hammock (small marsh island) It overlooks a wide mud flat. 45 species

Wood Stork 10, Double-crested Cormorant 110, Great Blue Heron 3, Great Egret 30, Snowy Egret 12, Little Blue Heron 1, Tricolored Heron 4, Roseate Spoonbill 24, Turkey Vulture 10, Osprey 1, Northern Harrier 6, American Kestrel, Merlin 5, Peregrine Falcon 9, Clapper Rail 24, Black-bellied Plover 8, Semipalmated Plover 50, Greater Yellowlegs 2, Willet 49, Lesser Yellowlegs 1, Whimbrel 1, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper 75, Least Sandpiper 7, Short-billed Dowitcher 40, Laughing Gull 40, Herring Gull 3, Great Black-backed Gull 1, Forster's Tern 1, Royal Tern 8, Mourning Dove 2, Great Horned Owl 1, Chimney Swift 2, Belted Kingfisher 1, Red-bellied Woodpecker 1, Tree Swallow 4, Marsh Wren 1, Northern Mockingbird 1, European Starling 1, Common Yellowthroat 3, Palm Warbler 1, Seaside Sparrow 1, Indigo Bunting 1, Red-winged Blackbird 33, Boat-tailed Grackle 50