Matt Brady and I helped with a Red Knot Survey for BTNEP, walking a stretch of beach from here 29.934057, -88.822640 to here 29.868357, -88.830746 in a north to south direction. This was 5.8 miles on google earth, but the eBird app recorded 6.3 miles. We spent most of the time carefully counting and surveying Red Knots, particularly for banded individuals, but took great care to count all birds and photograph as many as possible. Although most of our walking was on the gulf side of the island, we crossed over to the bay side wherever there were mudflats visible and looked for shorebirds there, checking also some of the patches of vegetation of land birds and nesting sea birds, though the island was rather devoid of the former. We also looked for many other organisms as time and energy allowed. eBird list is here: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S56430414. Weather was generally hot and uncomfortable, though not nearly as bad as mid-summer weather. Temps early on were around 70, rising to the mid 80s by the time we left, though it felt hotter. Completely clear skies, with a few scattered clouds late in the survey. Light winds out of the SE, building to ~5 knots by the time we left. Habitat was largely open white sand beach, with lots of shells in places forming a barrier near the gulf side. This occasionally created some standing water on the mudflats on the bay side of the barrier with shorebird habitat. Tide was dropping as we surveyed, exposing mudflats on the bay side, mostly in channels through extensive salt marsh. Between the salt marsh and the gulf shore were occasional patches of vegetation dominated by grasses and Baccaris, usually inhabited by nesting Laughing Gulls. Many shore birds and gulls were feeding on the shore on the gulf side, with many more roosting on the upper beach.

Posted on May 18, 2019 11:39 PM by henicorhina