A World Class Birding Event

Steve and I woke up at the same early hour, had breakfast and packed up the Mule.  I was getting ready to drive when I noticed the headlights were very dim.  The battery was low since we didn't charge it last night because of the blackout.  Steve swapped batteries and we were on our way.  I patrolled South Beach and looked for whelks on my way back to add to tonight's dinner.  Steve searched for clams, but had no luck.  We then drove north.  My stretch was the same, and just as I was looking forward to a nice walk back, Steve radioed me about a crawl.  I wanted to get back quickly which meant I had to run.  This is something I wish I was good at, but after all the years of trying, I still can't, and rather detest it.  Steve and I do hope to keep practicing the run on that beach, however, so that by the end of the season we'll be able to run a 5K.

I met up with Steve and we raced to the crawl.  He didn't say anything and wanted me to read the tracks and tell him what I saw.  It was nothing like before!  I wish pictures could do it justice.  The loggerhead came up the beach, only 60 meters from the last false crawl, and to similar erosional, woody beach.  She dug a body cavity and even a nest cavity.  For some reason, though a good one, she left the hole and walked toward the water.  As she hit the water's edge she turned back up the beach.  This time she ran into a fallen branch, gave up, and headed back for the ocean.  Steve and I wonder if she is the same turtle that came up a couple nights ago and failed to find a good spot.  We learned that often after a false crawl such as this, a sea turtle will return not far only an hour later to try again.  We'll never know, but I hope that she comes back to Ossabaw to nest. 

Once we completed the sea turtle work, we got busy saving the horseshoe crabs.  This morning was the most I had seen yet.  Steve took some footage of the mass migration to the water.  On the drive home we stopped to check out the blue crab trap in the marsh.  Two crabs are in there, but there is no more bait.  We'll have to remember one of these days to throw the cast net for some.  Once we arrived to the neighborhood, we took care of Andy's pets again.  Only one more morning.  

When we got home we decided to play in the pasture across from our house.  We were looking for plants to put in pots around the porches.  Nothing of the sort was found but I stumbled on a large black snake, and two dung beetles rolling a dung ball!  Another rare showing from the island.  Before we headed home, we stopped up at the dock to see what the GADNR birders were up to.  A few had just come back from a sand bar to get scopes for up close viewing of migratory birds.  Brad, the GADRN Nongame Manager, asked if we'd like to go along.  Of course we would.  He called it a "World Class Birding Event."    

The trip was only a couple minutes northeast of the dock.  Several shore bird species are here to refuel on horseshoe crab eggs before continuing their journey to northern breeding grounds.  Of the birds there, some we saw were white and brown pelicans, sanderlings, plovers, oystercatchers, and the most special to the birders: the red knot.  The red knot winters in southern South America and breeds in the high arctic tundra.  Many groups of scientists track them through the use of bands on their legs.  Brad gave Steve and me a scope and a notebook to look for and record bands on the birds legs.  Different countries use different color bands, and most have an alpha-numeric sequence.  From a distance, Steve and I took turns spotting a banded bird, and then took time to carefully watch until the band was readable.  We successfully noted 4 bands.  Not bad for our first time.  After Brad was finished taking photographs of the birds, he was eager to use our scope to locate some himself.  Steve and I were then given permission to use a huge lens that coincidentally works with our new camera.  We took some great shots.  

After the trip, we came home thirsty and hungry.  When we set out earlier, we only planned to look for a cactus, not spend a few hours on a sand bar.  Steve cooked up whelk fritters again.  As the food supply gets lower, I am thankful to be able to find food here.  We just returned from feeding the animals again.  The two little pigs were extra obnoxious and the horse flies were attacking everything in sight.  Tonight might be the first night that after a very full day, we are done and ready to relax (blog completed too) by 730.