I sat within the tidal pools along what I love to call Sanctuary of Sands west end; parallel to the runway here on Fishers Island. So happy to “report” what certainly appeared to me as an increase in this spring’s shorebird activity. Breeding and non-breeding plumage is visible on Ruddy turnstone, Killdeer and Black-bellied plover standing “Sentinel”.
** Please be mindful and leash dogs during this precious nesting time.
– A Snippet from The Field by Justine Kibbe May 24, 2018.
One of the best seats in the house for the Naturalist in all of us is Race Point. Walk southwest from the runway and find a warm rock to lean on, or better still a salty, soft “ berm” of kelps, sea lettuce, with mixed greens and reds to squish your toes through. Watch the Orient Point ferry returning to New London, listen to the eerie pulsating of a passing submarine dipping through chop behind the lighthouse.
These afternoons the Tree swallows are swooping and nipping at insects, Red-winged blackbirds clinging to swaying cattails.
The last few years I have looked forward to meeting Ruddy turnstones in this ecosystem specifically in early June. Island “locals”- larger sandpipers sometimes wading, wearing breeding plumage; hungry slender bills poking, sifting and leaving no stone unturned.
Rise and shine from burrow so brine
Calico Scallop.
Kneeling in low tide’s ebb, I listen as my camera shutter opens and closes rapidly
“Click- click-click”
“What is that?” I ask.
“Click” I hear answered from an open then closed shell.
And then it clicked, I get it.
Only inquisitive Ruddy Turnstone can tell……