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Sunset Beach: A WARNING:



Dear Potential Sunset Beach C'Birders:

Today while Carolyn Bush and I were checking the west end of Sunset Beach to
see if we had our usual post-breeding wandering Reddish Egret yet, and
remarking on the fact that it was the best birding day weather-wise we had
EVER experienced: breezy, so no bugs and not too hot, we got chased by Mr.
Barclay, the Beach Patrol guy on his ATV.  It seems, "people might follow us
and walk on the dunes".  Since there were NO dunes near us, and we had not
walked on any getting there and never would, we were  somewhat annoyed.  He
said he was just obeying the law, which of course is an absurd thing to say
since there is no statute against walking on the flats.  We also know better
than to walk on the sea oats, etc.  There were 2 bird photographers that had
already left, lucky for them.

The Good News is that although there were no Reddish Egrets found there was
a lovely mix of at least 5 kinds of terns, some nice rusty Short-billed
Dowitchers, a few Whimbrels, a Marbled Godwit, a Turnstone, a very
attractive Least SP, etc., just what you would expect in Mid-July here.

  At the east end of the beach there were families of Wilson's plovers, this
area is roped;  Oystercatchers with big youngsters, and several Skimmers
with kids,  lots of Least Terns, and I think the Sandwich Terns outnumbered
the Royals.  So you should be able to find at least some of the same species
at the East End of the beach, if you want to avoid the West End.

Meanwhile CB will be looking into this problem.

  This was at  High Tide and Ebbing Tide by the way.

We had a calling King Rail in the west end marsh which surprised me as I
didn't think there would be one there this time of year .    He answered the
tape which I accidentally played: not the Kik, kik call.

I have trained my Red-bellied Woodpeckers to drink the hummingbird nectar
and they are making such pigs of themselves that we are filling the feeders
constantly so our family of Ruby-throats will get their share. A transient
male Ruby-throat is now in attendance as they are at other feeders in the
area.  A Carolina  chickadee is  chasing the hummers because he just loves
drinking water out of the ant trap and is determined to find out the
attraction of the nectar.

My friend has a Blue jay that she watched 3 days in a row have what appeared
to be a seizure.  Any thoughts??

And last but not least, since I never got to see the Green Violet-Ear
Hummingbird in NC several years ago, I caught up with the one near Austin,
Texas now.  WOW!

Good Birding All,
Mary McDavit, note new E-mail address.
osprey1@atmc.net