Birds - Sands Beach - Coal Oil Point Reserver , Sept. 8 - Oct. 27, 2007

White-faced Ibis, banded Snowy Plovers and Terns, Willet, Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, birds in flight, Veneco - Ellwood Terminal, birders, Pectoral sandpipe

Snowy Plover counts have ranged between 170 and 250 so far this fall.

July 28, 2007 - Update from Cris
The end of the breeding season is doing very well. There are 10 broods with 26 chicks on the beach and 5 eggs in the incubator, due next week. We have learned an interesting thing about the wood egg replacement experiment. On the last nest at post 10, I brought back 2 chicks and 1 egg. The chicks were already walking because they hatched in the night instead of the typical morning time. When I placed the 2 chicks and egg in the nest, the parents would not go back, they were nervous about the chick. I then tried another nest to see if it was a problem with those particular parents or with the chicks being 12 hours old. When I placed on the other nest, the female accepted them but the male attached them. We know now that we have a narrow window of time to replace the eggs. Ideally it would be when I can hear the chicks pipping inside of the egg and when the chick is still wet from hatching. The 2 chicks that were rejected are being raised in our nursery by the dedicated chick team.

June 21, 2007 - The skunk predation is a continuing problem with the nests and chicks at COPR. There are at least two Least Tern nests. Last count for the Snowy Plover Chicks was 11.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Snowy Plover page This site includes information regarding the official status, critcal habitat, recovery plan, threats, range, life history and conservation needs of Snowy Plovers along the pacific coast.

2006-2007 Range-wide Western Snowy Plover Winter Window Survey Final Results (pdf file)

Comparison of the 2006 and 2007 summer Snowy Plover surveys of the Pacific coast. (Excel file)

Hi all,
This is the nest update of 6/5/07
The big news: we have 2 least tern nests.

Plovers:
1) 7 plover chicks have fledged

2) Several broods hatched in the last week. My best count was on 5/30. On that day there were 8 broods of small chicks totalling 16 chicks.

3) Today there were 11 nests. It has been difficult to track chicks because the beach was narrow and the chicks hide in the vegetated dunes. The beach finally started to broaden on 5/30/07. I am hoping to move the fence closer to the ocean next week. This will make it easier to count and photograph chicks because they will have more flat sand to forage.

4) In the plover nursery, we raised and released 1 chick. Of the other 10 eggs that we collected, 4 were infertile and 6 had dead embryos. Is quite unusual to have low hatchability and we need to find out why chicks are dying in the egg. It is possible that when chicks are at a crucial time of hatching, they must be kept warm or they die. Also, it is possible that the incubator is infected with bacteria. My friend who works with show chickens said that I need another type of incubator that can be disinfected regularly. I will look into that.

5) One of our last year's nursery chicks, banded as PA:AR wascourting a male by the docent chair.

Cris

Bird watching at Coal Oil Point and Goleta - May 12, 2007

The slideshow includes: Snowy Plover chicks, Sanderlings, Bullocks's Oriole, Western Grebe, Mark Holmgren, Deer, House Fench, Scrub Jay, Grasshopper Sparrow, Red-tailed Hawk, Phainopepla, Farren Road Area)