Fifty Billion Birds

A recent study has estimated that there are fifty billion birds in the world. Earlier this week, I went down to St. Marks NWR to do a shorebird survey and count what I hoped would be a much smaller number of birds. It’s mid-May and dawn was already breaking when I went through the Lighthouse Road gate just before 6:00 am.

Morning birds were already calling; Red-winged Blackbirds, Boat-tailed Grackles and a few Cardinals. There was little time for night birding. I heard no owls and only a single King Rail as I drove out on the levee. It was moonless and nearly cloudless with just a few wispy shreds on the Eastern horizon for the rising sun to play with. A pair of Wood Ducks flew by. At sunrise, as I got to the far end of Stony Bayou II, bobwhites were calling from the woods to the Northeast.

I was timing my route to hit Stony Bayou I during a morning high tide at 8:20 am. Shorebirds are tide-driven and that’s where I expected that the majority of shorebirds on the refuge would be found. The first part of my route had no shorebirds. It’s May and there’s deep water on Stony Bayou II. In other months and at low water, this can be a productive shorebirding spot, but not today.  I enjoyed the slow morning ride down the outer levee, watching the sky and the greening marshes, listening to Marsh Wrens and Orchard Orioles.

I turned on to the cross levee between the two Stony Bayou Pools. Wilson’s Plovers are nesting along its edge and this levee is temporarily closed to the public. I have access authorization in order to do the survey. The perimeter levee around Stony Bayou I stretches for 3 miles. I kept stopping to set up my scope and scan for shorebirds. Each time I would do a separate scan for plovers (Black-bellied, Wilson’s & Semipalmated), Dunlins, yellowlegs, Willets, peeps (Semipalmated & Least) and cool birds. I count individually or by tens, depending on the species.

Most of these shorebirds are either migrants passing through or non-breeding yearlings that won’t migrate in their first year. The Willets and Wilson’s Plovers are the only local breeders on this pool. The cool birds were three Ruddy Turnstones and five Spotted Sandpipers. Later I would find nesting Black-necked Stilts on East River Pool, five more Spotted Sandpipers and a Whimbrel on the Lighthouse Flats.

There is an art to counting shorebirds and I try not to count any bird more than twice. Occasionally, birds fly and you try to adjust and do your best. I use natural landmarks to break up the 270-acre pool. One of my landmarks, a dark pile of rocks, turned out to be an eight-foot-long alligator that started walking off. 

It took me over five hours to complete the survey. Half of my time was spent slowly working through Stony Bayou I, where 85% of the shorebirds were located. Shorebird numbers are in their rapid Spring decline. Wintering shorebirds have already left and we’re seeing the last pulses of arctic-bound migrants moving through. I logged 1,002 shorebirds, but had 1,816 two weeks ago. By the time I do my next survey in early June, I expect that there will be about 200 shorebirds; breeding Willets, Wilson’s Plovers and Black-necked Stilts plus some over-summering yearlings of about a half dozen species.

Arctic-nesting shorebirds are usually the last Spring migrants that pass through. Although, it may still be possible to come across a very late migrant in the last part of May. I had about twenty Bobolinks at scattered points on the levees during my survey.

St. Marks is settling in to Summer and our resident and summer breeders are already fledging young.  Come down and enjoy the refuge before the heat of summer sets in while the mornings are still cool.kes