November 18, 2011
This was the first day of participation in the SEANET bird mortality survey on a portion of Bird Shoal in Rachel Carson Reserve. The purpose is to document the number and reasons for waterbird strandings. I had the great company of Paula Gillikin (site manager) and Robin Newton (volunteer and self-stated Pelican lover) as we walked the beach in my orientation survey. Fortunately, there were no new fatal bird strandings found but we had the joy of finding an entangled and dual fishook impaled Brown Pelican. After we removed the hooks and unwrapped the line, we checked for other injury. The pelican is my favorite bird also and to lean over its back and expand its wings one at a time not being able to reach the wings tip with my wing span is a neat memory to be easily surpassed by the moment we stepped back, heard the bird give a thank you quonk, saw him/her make a step forward--expand his wings to find them and his legs free--and then with two flaps take the air and climb to gliding height. Our spirits soared alongside.
A short while down the beach, we found a cold and skinny,malnourished first year cormorant stranded just above the high tide line.He was missing more than 30% of his right-sided tail feathers and was struggling to breath or move. He was easily captured, bundled up and carried to the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter (OWLS) where they gave him/her 50% odds of survival. In transit, as he warmed up, he already had begun to be feisty.
Far down the beach, a stranded Kemp Ridley’s juvenile sea turtle was discovered and was able to be evaluated for research later that day by Paula.
One prior tagged gull-like bird was found a second time. We documented the re-discovery. This bird also was entangled around the head and bill with monofilament line...do not know if the line was there last week at first discovery, but it seems that today we had two fishing related strandings as we have just passed peak trout season.
Lots of shorebirds--a hawk, 2 turkey vultures,many sanderling, several ruddy turnstone, 3 great egrets, 15 white Ibis, more than 400 dunlin, many gulls and several terns, a dozen or so Pelican, black bellied plover, and possibly one pipng plover.
Future days will be hard-pressed to match this start.