Doing an off-cycle shorebird survey
Earlier this week, I waited for sunrise while I listened to a chorus of leopard and pig frogs out on one of the back levees and watched the full moon turn amber as it sunk into the murk on the western horizon. As the sun rose, the sound of the frogs gave way to the sounds of cardinals, Marsh Wrens, and the squawking of Green Herons.
The edges of the levee where I stood were covered with wood sage and out in the spartina marsh, swamp mallow blossoms, trying to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, poked above the grass tops.
I was doing an off-cycle shorebird survey, just out of curiosity. This is close to day zero, when all northbound migrants are gone and no southbound migrants have returned. (Day zero may not exist, as late Spring migrants and early migrants sometimes cross paths, but it’s a fun concept.) The June rains have East River and Lighthouse Pools full, pushing shorebirds onto Stony Bayou I and the salt flats, which makes counting easy.
I had 190 shorebirds of nine species. Just over half of the birds were summer nesters; Wilson’s Plovers and Willets. The remainder were primarily yearling birds that are oversummering; Black-bellied & Semipalmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitchers.
I also had one Whimbrel, eleven Semipalmated Sandpipers and three breeding plumaged American Avocets.
Both the Willets and Wilson’s Plovers are at the end of their breeding season and were beginning to flock up. I found a group of 33 Wilson’s Plovers sitting together on a mudbank in Stony Bayou. They will soon start moving out and are generally gone by late August.
Our breeding Willets will migrate out to South America this month with some lingering into August. Their winter replacements, the western subspecies Willet from the Great Basin, are starting to trickle in, but the majority of them will arrive in October and boost numbers to their winter highs when there may be several hundred Willets on Tower Pond.
St. Marks songbirds are through with nesting and are going through their post-breeding molt and fattening up for migration. The fruits of grape and swamp dogwood disappear as fast as they ripen. Within weeks, elderberry and Peppervine will provide even more food. Songbirds are quieter now and you have to look closely for Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Red-eyed Vireos as they slink through the treetops.
The year at St. Marks is never static. It never stops changing. Tower Pond had almost two hundred waders, mostly Great Egrets, but including Tricolored, Little Blue and Great Blue Herons, as well as, Snowy Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills. The 158 Great Egrets that I saw likely represent post-breeding dispersal of birds from further South. The 17 Roseate Spoonbills there were definitely peninsular birds that have moved up after nesting.
Later this month we may see the first Louisiana Waterthrushes, American Redstarts, Black & White Warblers and Yellow Warblers as the southernmost nesting birds begin to migrate.
Things are always changing at the refuge. It is a hot and humid July on the Gulf Coast, but come on down anyway. Maybe a little change would do you good.
Don Morrow can be reached at donaldcmorrow@gmail.com.