chicks!

Friday July 7, 2017
Bird of the Day: piping plover chick(s)
Coffee of the Day: Ethiopian Harrar
Weird Wrack Item of the Week: a hair roller?
Invisi-bird Status: Official: Refuge Beach: 31 Pairs, 19 Nests, 31 Chicks. Sandy Point: 9 Pairs, 0 Nests, 23 Chicks. Town Beach: 2 Pairs, 1 Nest, 4 Chicks. Number actually seen by me: 3 Chicks, 2 Adults for a total of 5 of those invisible little guys!

Somebody Found Something Good To Eat!

Chicks! Chicks! Chicks! Cutest thing on the planet! Yup, I finally saw the offspring of the northernmost pair today. Three of them. They hung around being cute for most of the morning, so when visitors asked me if/where they could see those piping plovers I could point at them. The absolute best thing to convince people the beach closure is worth it is to show them the chicks.  One visitor was sitting on a log next to the boundary recording video of them for quite some time. She was impressed that I got a still shot of a chick with an adult.

Plover Parenting

Can You Spot the Plover Chick?

There's Nobody Hiding Under Me, Don't You Believe Me?

All the visitors were well-behaved, so I didn't have to do much beyond answering a few questions and showing people what these babies look like.  There was a long stretch when there was hardly anyone on the beach, so I got a bit of chance to photograph some really weird trash in the wrack line: multiple pairs of sunglasses, something that looked like a hair roller, a plastic knob, pistachios ... just plain weird stuff.

Sunglasses

More Sunglasses

Hair Roller, Plastic Knob, and Pistachios

The only reason I knew those things were pistachios and not some more local and more plausible plant matter was the heap of pistachio shells nearby.

Great Black Back Surveying the Scene