U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service South Carolina Lowcountry Refuges Complex Life in the Wild October, 2011 News from Cape Romain, Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin, Santee and Waccamaw National Volume 4 Wildlife Refuges Avian Adventure By Captain Chris Crolley, Naturalist, Coastal Expeditions The Island Cat is fully loaded this morning and we are beginning our journey through the oyster-lined tidal creek. Coastal Expeditions began this adventure with Cape Romain Refuge in 1994 as the Concessionaire for group services. Nearly five years had passed since Hurricane Hugo so we were on hand to witness the Island’s attempts to heal itself from Hugo’s landfall. Today we continue to bear witness to environmental challenges of both natural and human origin. From the very beginning, it has been a privilege Pelicans fly alongside the ferry en route to an adventure on Bulls Island. and a personal awakening to study and Credit: Tom Blagdon experience the islands and estuaries of nest in Cape Romain and nearly 30% of sharp scissors. Their underbite cleaves Cape Romain, and to spend time with all the Atlantic coast population overwinter the waters, feeling for and enveloping here. small fish and shellfish on the fly. The the fascinating people we encounter on skimmer is the only bird in the world whose lower bill is longer than the upper. this remarkable seascape. “I never for a day gave up listening to They command their place in the food the songs of our birds, or watching their chain, hunting in twos and threes on the We aren’t alone in our enthusiasm. For peculiar habits, or delineating them in the beachfront and in the still waters of lower many years Cape Romain’s feathered tides in the creeks. beings have captured hearts and souls. best way I could.” Birders of historic distinction and By John James Audubon The old fire tower on the Island witnesses worldwide fame have been here, where our arrival and we pass by the edge of the we are today. Mark Catesby, Alexander maritime forest where a Painted bunting Wilson, and John James Audubon have The Eastern Brown pelican feeds, breeds, is declaring his territorial boundaries. He all journaled their adventures here, and lives year round on the refuge. is the most colorful song bird in North immortalizing the avian specimens in Pelicans have been around for 30 million America, with splashes of green, blue, lithographic tribute. years and their pouch-like beaks haven’t yellow, and red. Breeding pairs hunt the changed much in all that time. They grassland edges together, one perching as As we make our way to Bulls Island we can cruise the saltwater highway inches lookout while the other forages for seeds hear the high-pitched whistle of American above the water or dive headlong into and insects. oystercatchers. They are bantering on the sea from as high as thirty feet in the the wing, waiting for the tide to recede air, propelling themselves headlong to We have witnessed the Great Horned and slowly reveal their favorite food; capture fish in their voluminous pouch. owls fledge their young in the grand thriving and abundant oysters. These The Northern Gannet, cousins of the oaks in front of the Dominic House. The seafood lovers expertly tip toe through pelicans, spearhead directly into the Osprey, Northern Harrier, Bald eagle, the shell colonies on pink three-toed feet. water as well. Peregrine falcon, Red-tailed hawk, Sharp- Their blood-red eyes and flattened orange shinned hawk, beaks are a foil to the bivalve fortress Black Skimmers are also masters of Coopers of the delicious mollusk. There are flight. These specialized aerial dancers (continued on impressive flocks of over three hundred of are sublime on the wing. As their name page 2) these birds nesting in the refuge. Half of implies they skim the surface of the all of the state’s American oystercatchers water with their beaks open like a pair of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Avian Adventure Are These Eggs for Real? (continued from page 1) It would be a rare day indeed, to be out predators during the egg incubation Hawk, the Kestrel and Merlin, all in the creeks and bays of Cape Romain stage, followed by mink. She also used a magnificent birds of prey, prowl the sky NWR and not catch sight of an American very innovative technique to safeguard like death on the wing. oystercatcher hanging out on the shell eggs until they could hatch. Samantha rakes. The Refuge is widely known for collected some of the eggs from the nests Endangered Wood storks glide on these strictly coastal, colorful shorebirds, and incubated them in a laboratory, thermals and wade through the shallows especially during the winter months, away from drenching boat wakes and of the creeks and ponds. They are the when the largest population on the East prowling raccoons. After the eggs only stork native to North America. They Coast finds safe harbor at Cape Romain. hatched, she immediately returned the are large impressive birds with bald gray If you’re lucky you might see one pry chicks to the nest. This technique is called heads, thick curved beaks, and black open an oyster with its bright red-orange “headstarting.” bill. trailing edges on their wings. In flight The adult oystercatchers didn’t notice their shape resembles a flying cross with The U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan that their eggs were missing because an outstretched neck and long trailing lists the American oystercatcher as an Samantha replaced each egg that she legs. They see the refuge from on high “extremely high priority” shorebird removed with a wooden egg painted to among the horse tail cirrus clouds, and because their numbers are on the decline. resemble the real thing. At first, the down low in the plough mud bottoms Researchers have suggested that the wooden eggs were anchored with a large where they shuffle through the shallows, decline may be due to the bird’s low nail. Marauding raccoons were able waving one foot in front of their sweeping reproductive success. to pull the egg out of the nest scrapes beak to rustle up a meal of worms and though, and this caused the adults to shellfish. They are joined by a pair of abandon the nest. The anchor system was immature Roseate spoonbills, barely pink revised to an 18” piece of rebar, which from their shellfish diets. prevented the raccoon from removing the egg entirely. Scratches and teeth marks There have been days when Jacks Pond on the wooden egg bore witness to their attempts to eat it in place. held so many ducks that it looked like a mud puddle. Dabbling, diving, preening birds covered the water. We have seen canvasbacks by the hundreds, buffle heads, green and blue winged teal, Wood eggs were placed in nests as placeholders. Credit: Samantha Collins. hooded and common mergansers, mottled Cape Romain provides nesting habitat and black ducks, mallards, shovelers, for oystercatchers on barrier beaches pintail, wigeon, gadwall, red heads, as well as washed shell mounds, supporting over half of the breeding golden eyes, and ruddy ducks. pairs in South Carolina. The nest is a scraped out depression in sand or shells. You never know what your binoculars Oystercatchers nest on shells mounds might find. Thousands of barn swallows because the beaches are busy, populated funneling into themselves, casting with people and dogs. After the eggs hatch, the chicks are immediately returned to the nest. shadows like a disco ball on the ground, For the past two summers, Samantha Credit: Sarah Woodward. only to disappear as if commanded into Collins, a graduate student of Clemson the green wax myrtle. It shivers with the University, has studied refuge Samantha’s research found that trembling colony of acrobats. Was that a oystercatchers to evaluate their nesting lone Magnificent Frigate bird high in the overwash, particularly from boat wakes success. Factors that affect nesting as boaters travel too close to the shell cumulus? Could that have been a Golden success include habitat loss, overwash, eagle on the beach? It looked too big to be rakes, contributed to nest failure, and predation by raccoons and mink, and caused adults to abandon the nest. It a young bald. Was that a Long-eared owl human disturbance. This summer, in the shadows ahead? was also responsible for failure of the the focus areas for the study included eggs to hatch, and with the adults gone, As I write this account I am receiving the shell rakes along the Intracoastal predation. Nest failure from over wash is a text. It seems that a pair of Swallow- Waterway, all rakes in southwest Bulls expected to increase as rising sea levels tailed kites are cavorting above Beach Bay and West White Banks, and a bring higher tides. Samantha’s innovative Road. I wish I were there. I wish you secluded shell rake island in the Refuge. study has provided new information were there. As a matter of fact there is Samantha used cameras and telemetry that will help inform future refuge still time for you to catch the 12:30 Ferry. to monitor nesting success and chick management decisions at Cape Romain Come join us on this avian adventure. survival. Video cameras showed that NWR. raccoons are the most common nest U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Bird in the Hand Blown Away Recollections of Spenser Bradley, Summer Employee and Student at the University of Knoxville in Tennessee. Cape Island’s damaged dock will be rebuilt. Credit: Sarah Dawsey Spenser Bradley prepares to release a freshly banded Wood duck.