Survey wk 4: GBB Tu, May 23rd, 2006

May/26/2006 02:52 PM
On Tu, May 23rd I was @ GBB WMA from 3:25pm until about 7:45pm. I did my survey to coordinate with the Fish and Wildlife agencies' Atlantic Coast aerial surveys (May 23 & 24 from Florida to Massachusetts) for Red Knots. Check my 5-23-06 blog entry for my Red Knot info.

The afternoon & early evening was mostly sunny and warm. Winds were strong for most of the time and from the W-NW. Little Sheepshead Creek HT 5:27am & 6:04pm, LT 12:03pm. Shooting Thorofare HT 5:13am & 5:50pm, LT 11:41am.

Side Note: Photo below is a SBD I found just standing in the road, not moving. As I approached it was a bit disheveled and stunned. I stayed with the SBD until it came to her/his senses and I ushered it across the road to the grass & then off she/he swam into the water. More photos of the SBD in the album (link below) & a video to be posted at a later date.

sbdblog


Tuesday's survey consisted of 9 stops along GBB & the birds consisted of Red Knots, Dunlin, SBD's, BBP's, Least Sndprs, SPS's, SPP's, a distant YL, 2 AO's at the SE end of GBB as always, Ruddy T's, Spotted Sndprs & a Black Skimmer.
The Larger groupings consisted of:
- The Red Knots were a group of 18
- A mixed group of Dunlin, SBD's & BBP's = 365
- A mixed group of Ruddy T's, SPP, SPS, LS, SBD & 1 Spotted S. = 69
(40 of which were group of Ruddy T's, largest group of RT's that I have seen out @ GBB)
- A mixed group of Duns (31), SBD (27), SPS (1), LS (2) & a Spotted S
- A group with 1 SBD, Dunlin (20) & SPS (11)
- & 1 last group of 22 SBD

May 23rd GBB Photo Album

(Red Knot Photo Album separate)