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.