Least Tern Colony News

Look what I found the first thing on my survey of Saturday morning July 23. 

This chick took me by surprise.

I thought that we would be through with the Least Tern project by July 19^th, but these birds won’t quit. They have found a near perfect nesting area and they are going for with all the gusto they can muster. Last week, there were a little over 80 birds still in the two enclosures. 

Adult Least Tern is flying by as a Least Tern chick sits in the shade of a Russian thistle.

The Wilson's Plovers appeared to be finished.  Boy! was I wrong.

Isn't this Wilson's Plover just cute?

Granted there were fewer terns this week. I counted around 50 terns inside the enclosure.  There were more chicks than last week.  I watched as one Least Tern worked on a scrape.

To top that one Wilson’s Plovers was sitting tight on a nest. 

Live and learn. 

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.

New Wilson Plovers chick May 26 Yea!

Yesterday, May 26, 2015, Yank Moore, Jekyll Island Authority's wildlife coordinator, found a new Wilson Plover's nest with 2 hatchlings.  I was invited to go along to watch these Wilson's Plover chicks get their color bands.  Thanks to Elizabeth Hunter for banding them.

We now have 7 Wilson's Plover chicks with color band so far this  years.  These bands will help us to follow these special birds though the years.








Aren't they cute.  Meet Blue/Green BLG and Blue/yellow or BLY hatched 5-26-2015















And here is a chick that was hatched Mother's Day
May 10, 2015 This one is Light Blue/Orange or LBLO



Here one chick ready to get back to its mom.

2015 May Atlanta Shorebird Workshop part 1

Brad Winn who was then working with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources persuaded Lisa and Art Hurt to do this special Atlanta Audubon workshop in May. The Georgia Coast is one of those secret places where birds have a chance to rest on their migration routes. In May the shorebird time their migration to correspond with horseshoe crabs laying their eggs. Lisa called on Gene Keferl and me to help lead the group which i

s limited to 12 people.

This year’s workshop was time just right for the moon phase, tides and bird. Saturday, we met and carpooled down to the south end of Jekyll. We hit it just right! The tide was going out and the birds were dividing into the fest. 

I invited my friend Georgia Graves to come along. I met Georgia years ago when I starting leading groups for Coastal Encounter Nature Center. She is a wonderful engaging teacher who helps to show the connection between our coast and the birds. Here she is showing why the shorebirds are on the beach.

She uses a sieve to dig up the anthropoids that are

the favorite food of the Sanderlings and Dunlins. She also found a dead horseshoe crab loaded with eggs. These eggs are protein and fat packed perfect for shorebirds that are going to fly to the arctic.

Here are a few birds feasting on those eggs.. 

Of course, the reason I take the group here is to see the Wilson’s Plovers with their chicks. They did not disappoint us we saw all 5 chicks! Here is one picture by Larry Gridley. 

Plover Patrol at Georgia Sea Turtle Center

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center attracts over 100,000 people to come to Jekyll annually. On Thursday April 9 and Friday, April 10 around 1200 people came to their spring event called Shell-a-brate.

For the past few years, I have had the Operation Plover Patrol booth at this event.  The idea is to teach visitors to the beach about the birds those birds on the beach. This year, we did something different. 

This year we decided to create signs for the nesting shorebirds on our coast. Painting is fun and a good way to engage the public in helping these birds. It wasn’t my idea. I took the idea from Walker Golder, the North Carolina Audubon Director. Since we were on Jekyll and we have a rope line at the south end with nesting Wilson’s Plover, we focus on Wilson’s Plovers.

We talked about why the rope line was up.  We showed pictures of Wilson’s Plovers as family groups. One of those pictures showed the adult in plain sight and the chick blended into the wrack and vegetation. We ask people to find the chicks. It was fun to watch them search and find the chicks.

We had decided to have three slogans to build their sign designs around. Those slogans were “Help the Wilson’s”, “Share the Beach,” and “Protect our nests.”  I had a simple way to draw a bird to show our young artists. 


The young people were very amazing at coming up with ideas on their own. Here are a few of the signs.

Back on the Beach

March 30, 2014, it has been a year since that day.  I had joined a group of birders on Little St. Simons Island.  My hip had been giving me problems but ignored it.  “Just a pinched nerve,” I thought.  The First beach was at the north end of the island.  There we were going to see a Long-billed Curlew.  This is a large shorebird who feeds on worms in the soft mud of our salt marsh creeks.  If you are from the Pacific Ocean Coast, you are probably saying we see 100’s of Long-billed Curlew, big Deal. But here in Georgia, there are just a few that winter here.  Little St. Simons Island is the place to see them.

Carl Runge & I at Glory Boardwalk

I was really looking forward to seeing this bird so I slogged through the mud with my heavy scope to see it.  There it was the tall, stately brown bird with a long bill that was almost as long as it body was long.  I was in heaven. But my heaven soon turned into hell.  I slogged out of the mud back to the sandy beach only to have my hip screaming at me.  I could barely move.

The next stop was the center beach.  There was a large group of terns way out on the sand bar.  I would have to walk out on that soft sand.  I couldn't do it.  There were those terns waiting for me to walk out to them.  Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns Caspian Terns, Forster’s Terns, and Common Terns, I love terns and I couldn't walk out to see them.  It broke my heart.  What was wrong?

Lourdes Page and I at Glory Boardwalk

Well, that was a year ago.  Since then, I have been cooked, cut and fried but the doctors, my friends and I, we beat that cancer.  So on April 3, 2015, I walked on the beach on Jekyll. Carl and Lourdes joined me to walked almost the whole southern half of Jekyll's beach. We conducted the first of the spring season's International Shorebird Surveys.  It felt great to be out there looking at Willets, Dunlins, Sanderlings and six Short-billed Dowitchers.  They were beautiful.  Of course, the Wilson’s Plover came out from the wrack to give me a high five and welcome back.  We saw 4 pairs and there could be 2 more pair tucked way back in the sandy dunes.  I look forward to helping them as they settle into nest.  Yea! More to come...

What a Surprise!

February 21 was the evening for the third year for Jekyll Island's Green Screen. Ben Carswell created this wonderful event.  Each year, I bring a poster for my Operation Plover Patrol.   This year the Plover Patrol keep me excited through the worst of the nasty chemo.  Even when I was so weak I could barely move, one of my volunteers would send me a report and I could keep going.  Giving the birds a voice was more important than any treatment.  Also, there were lots of friends sending me notes.  These notes helped me.

      Abby Sterling is studying Wilson's Plovers on the Georgia Coast.  She spent the summer near Barrow, Alaska.  This is one place I really would love to visit.  She sent me pictures from Barrow.  It lifted my mood. 

Here is Abbey Sterling with me at the poster.  This year's poster was put together by Katie Higgins.  It was peach so it popped!   It was so much fun to see all the conservation work going on here on the Georgia Coast. There was one poster that showed how much the south end of Jekyll has grown and change.  The work used a shrimp boat that went down in June of 1996.  Fascinating, I wish I could have looked at it a little longer but there was so much to see and people to talk to around the room.  

    Of course, there was the main event the movie.  Angel Azul is a beautifully filmed story of the coral reef and the people who are working to save it.  But before the film began I got a huge surprise.  I was honored with a Certificate of Appreciation. 

I was floored & humbled. I had no idea that they were going to do that.  Abby told me that they wanted to thank me for the bird conservation work I am trying to do.  It is hard work getting people to listen to these creatures who live with us on this planet and I love giving the birds a voice.   Britt Brown donated her photo of 3 Wilson's Plover chicks.  Hatched then color banded in June 2013.  These chicks were resighted as fledglings.  

Keychains for the plovers

Sorry for the long delay since the last post.  I have been busy with one of the perfect jobs for me.  I was an Eagle Monitor for US Fish & Wildlife.  I watched as two adult Bald Eagle connect, nest and raise two young one male and one female.  The last one flew on April 2.

In the meantime,  I have also been building the Plover Patrol for Jekyll Island.  I talked about it so much that Bryan, the buyer for Jekyll Island, made a key chain for the plovers.  They can be bought at the Jekyll Island Guest Information Center.

I am so excited to see how the breeding seasons

Wilson's Plover Chicks surviving

I asked Lauren Deaner, a researcher working on Wilson's Plovers, to share some of her pictures of Wilson's Plovers.  Here are a couple. 
No wonder we can't find them on the beach.

 Please be careful where you step.  Keep up the good work Lauren.  All photos are by Lauren Deaner.

On Thursday May 9, I went down to see if the Wilson's Plover's nest survived the super high tides and heavy rains.

   I saw the two adult plovers over to the side of the nest, and there were three eggs!  They made it! 






On Sunday May 12,  This Wilson's Plover became a mother.  See the chick over to the left!  It was wobbly.  It took a few moments for the chick to gain the strength get up.  Then we saw another chick.   . It took a few moments for the chicks to gain the strength to get up. Then they were up and running.   Wow!

The Wilson's are nesting on Jekyll!

They are nesting!  Want to help? Consider signing on for a Plover Patrol Survey.  It is simple and you get to spend 2 hours on the beach.  Look at this great picture by Marilyn Meagher.  She has completed two surveys already.  Ty Ivey has done one.  Thanks guys!

The rope line came down

                                    Gene taking down the stakes

On Friday, Gene Keferl, Ben Carswell and I met to take down the fence line that had defind the plover nesting area at the south end of Jekyll.  This rope line helped three pairs of Wilson's Plovers nest and they raised 6 chicks successfully.  The fence helped but so did the volunteers that came out to watch the flock of resting and nesting birds.  It takes caring.  Thank you everyone.                                                          

Wilson's Plovers are beginning to move off the nesting grounds and up and down the coast.  Help the scientists who are studying them.  Here is what they are looking for and where to report the birds. Thanks to the hard to the hard work of these scientists, we can help these beach nesting birds.

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. 

Strong east wind

A strong east wind piled up Sargassum grass on Jekyll over the weekend

 This is one of those sea weeds that is really wonderful....quite cool.  When out on the ocean, it is a safe world for all kinds of creature, like baby sea turtles.  It has Wilson's Storm-petrels dancing over it looking for tiny crabs that live in it.  Wilson's Storm-petrel are sometime called sea swallows for their swallow-like silhouettes.

 Here some sargassum grass is rolling in the surf at the south end of Jekyll.  Don't you like its golden color?  It has little bladders so it can float of the surface of the ocean.

It is piling up right in front of the huge wrack line.  It appears the oldest Wilson's Plover chick has fledged and is now flying.   The second oldest Wilson's Plover chick still has the drooping wing.  Still it is running around and  gleaning insects in the middle of Sargassum grass.  Time will tell if this bird ever flies.  On the good news front,  we now have 4 new chicks on the southwest side of Jekyll.  Yea!