Cape May Point ~ Laughing Gulls

 Another bird that returns each spring is the Laughing Gull with their white eye shadow and red lips.  These are the first Laughing Gulls I have seen this year.

Beth's Patch ~ Laughing Gulls

 Each morning when I go over to the beach in June, There's a group of Laughing Gulls and often a few other species of gull feeding on the horseshoe crab eggs left there overnight due to the mating of the crabs.  It reminds me of a coffee klatch of men or women after they retire.  But taking pictures as they fly gives me some practice in flight pictures.

Beth's Patch ~ Spring Migration

Red-breasted Mergansers flying down the Bay

And the Laughing Gulls have returned for the season

Dunlin are around all winter in good numbers.  Here they are moving along the Bay.

Clearwater Beach, FL ~ Sand Key

Dancing Reddish Egret.

Reddish Egret

Brown Pelican

Diving Brown Pelican

Yellow-crowned Night-heron

Displaying Laughing Gulls

Merritt Island, FL ~ Wildlife Drive

Reddish Egret

Eastern Willet

Greater Yelllowlegs

Marbled Godwit

Laughing Gulls coming into roost in the evening

Laughing Gulls coming into roost in the evening

Reed's Beach - Red Knots and more

Every spring the Red Knot, an endangered shorebird flies from it's wintering home in Chile back to the Arctic to breed.  The birds stop once in the long flight along the shores of the Delaware Bay where it refuels by eating Horseshoe Crab eggs. One of the miracles of nature is that the Horseshoe Crabs know when to leave their homes on the floor of the Atlantic ocean along the East Coast and travel back to the bay to spawn.  This spawning takes place during the new and full moons in May and June with the largest concentration around the full moon in May.  We are building to the full moon now and there are hundred's, probably thousands of the crabs here spawning and many more than I have seen in recent years.  This year the numbers of Red Knots looks higher also.  Stopping at Reed's Beach today I was talking to one of the scientist's who are studying the Red Knots and he said that there were between 6000 and 8000 Red Knots on the beach today where they were trapping and tagging the birds. The birds were flying across from an island nearby in large groups and I could see at least 1000 Red Knots, plus Ruddy Turnstones along with gulls on the beach.  If I could have a wish about spring migration it would be that the Laughing Gull and other gulls didn't also enjoy feasting on the Horseshoe Crab eggs.

Top birds Red Knots(4) and bottom birds Ruddy Turnstones

Birding Cook's Beach

Red Knots on Spit

Mid May to me means the return of the Red Knots and other shorebirds that come to feed on the Horseshoe Crabs.  The birds fly from South American without stopping and when the Red Knots arrive they need to feed and eat as much protein as possible as the leave the Delaware Bay and fly through to the Arctic Circle where they breed.  The numbers of the Red Knots have been down which the scientists feel is from over-harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs.  The birds get the protein they need from the Horseshoe Crab eggs.  There's been a moratorium in the harvesting of the crabs and now the scientists feel the numbers of birds are rebounding.  Some of the beaches that are good for the birds to feed along are Reed's Beach, Cook's Beach and Kimmel's Beach.  Today I saw Red Knots, Least Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, Laughing Gulls, Forester's Terns, Great Egret, Snowy Egrets.  Here are some of the pictures.

Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, Laughing Gulls

Least Sandpipers

Forester's Terns

Great Egret

Snowy Egrets