After a couple of weeks of watching Oystercatchers make scrape after scrape all over the Two Mile beach, I'm pleased to announce that one lucky couple has settled on a nest site and has given birth to their first egg. 
   I expect that another egg will be there each day for the next three days.  This is probably the same pair that had a nest in almost the same exact spot on the Refuge beach last year.  Plenty of predators will be on hand to make the next several weeks dangerous ones for this family: crows, gulls, coyotes, ghost crabs, trespassing beach walkers, etc.
   Another pair of Oystercatchers has been showing signs of being nest-ready further down the beach near the jetty.  I'm confident that they will decide on a location and lay their first egg soon, maybe tomorrow.  I don't like to bother them too much when I'm doing the survey, but it's important to make a visual confirmation of the number of eggs and their condition, so I don't feel badly about snapping a photo or two of the little bundles of joy as I walk past.  The birds squawk at me a bit and do their little broken-wing charade to throw me off the track, but I'm much too smart for that trick.  And after I walk by, they always return within a minute or two to continue their parental duties (which they share, by the way).
   Again today a group of 4-6 piping plovers was down by the jetty looking nest-ish.  Lots of courtship behavior, piping, bowing, strolling, scraping, sitting, feather-ruffling, etc.  I'll look tomorrow and see if any of the scrapes have become real nests.  I'm cautiously optimistic, but last year I observed the same sorts of behavior, and no real nests were ever made there. 
   Elsewhere at Two Mile, the American Copper butterflies were once again abundant.  New bird arrivals included the  white-eyed vireos, one of the few birds that sing pretty much continuously throughout the day, and yellowthroat warblers. Boat-tailed Grackles were showing off their iridescent black tails all along the powerlines along Ocean Drive.
   Sanderlings, as I reported a few days ago, are still absent on the beach.  At least eight or nine Osprey were feeding in the breakers today, all of them calling.  Bottlenose dolphin numbers are building just offshore.
   I saw deer tracks on the beach today, not the first time I've seen them but always interesting and somewhat surprising.
 

   Refuge Biologist Heidi Hanlon has once again asked me to help out with her annual Piping Plover Survey at Two Mile Beach as she traveled to Massachusetts for a conference this week.  Of course I jumped at the chance.  I stood in for her for a couple of weeks last year   also and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  The Two Mile beach was closed to the public on April 1, so apart from an occasional scofflaw, I have the beach to myself. 
   How many people, particularly in New Jersey, can ever make that claim, especially during this most beach-worthy season? 
   Piping Plovers return to their nesting areas along the coast in late March and early April.  Heidi's survey involves walking from the north boundary of the Refuge beach (at the southern end of Wildwood Crest), down the Coast Guard beach and all the way to the Cape May inlet jetty.  See plovers, watch plovers, count plovers.  Try to make them feel at home!
   The problem with Plover counting is finding them.  They have this uncanny ability to become invisible.  You can be looking right at one and not see it unless it decides to move.  They tend to hang out near large flocks of sanderlings on the wet sand at the water's edge, but generally a bit further away from the water.  The ratio of Sanderling to Plover on the Two Mile beach recently has been about 500 to 1.  But just when I would about give up finding a Plover, one would appear, as if my magic. 
   Here are summaries of my  plover surveys so far:

March  26:  five Plovers observed feeding in the wet sand in front of the north observation platform.  This is a good start!  It's still hasn't started to warm up and the plovers are back.

March  30: No Plovers observed.  Pooh.  It's rainy and windy and I chalk it up to bad weather.  I'm sure there are Plovers here; they just chose to go unobserved today.

April 2: Jackpot.  18 Plovers observed!  15 were on the FWS beach; the remaining 3 were on the Coast Guard beach.  And there was evidence of "scrapes" (false or trial nests) being made in the dry sand where plovers like to nest.  The temp has risen to the low 50's.  Things are looking great for a nest somewhere on the beach.

April 5: A warm, sunny day.  Lots of Plover tracks in the dry sand high on the beach, where Plovers like to nest.  No Plovers on the FWS beach, but 9 were hanging out at the Coast Guard beach, feeding, wandering around, maybe house-hunting?

April 6: No Plovers observed.  :(  However, a pair of Oystercatchers was hanging around the FWS beach, looking nest-ish, making scrapes up on the dune about where they nested last year.  They are amazing birds and fun to watch.

April 8: Today the southwest wind was blowing almost 30mph, so it was a struggle even walking on the beach.  And for the first hour, all I could see were Sanderlings, and even they were difficult.  Hard to hold the binocs steady, sand blowing into my eyes, my ears, my boots, everywhere.  But finally, the Plovers appeared:  three pairs and one single, all on the FWS beach, close to the "overwash area" that has been built for them by Heidi and Jack.  Seven Plovers, hiding behind any patch of dune grass or wrack they could find to get out of the howling wind.  I'm glad I decided to stick it out today, even though I'm still digging sand out of my ears.

   Heidi returns today, so I'll be off duty for a couple of weeks.  But she has another trip planned later in the month so I'll be back, hopefully monitoring nests and chicks!

Here are some other birds I saw while doing the surveys:

OCEAN/BEACH:
-Red-throated Loon
-Common Loon
-Glossy Ibis (flyover)
-Double-crested Cormorant
-Cooper's Hawk
-Purple Sandpipers
-Long-tailed Ducks (Oldsquaws)
-Northern Gannets
-Forsters terns
-Black Scoters


BACK BAY/OCEAN DRIVE PONDS:
-Belted Kingfisher
-Green-wing Teal
-Blue-wing Teal
-Greater Yellowlegs
-Red-breasted mergansers
-Black Ducks
-Great Egret
-Mute Swan