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Dear Team,
A quick note to keep you up to date.
We made our first catch today of 120 knots and a handful of turnstones. It was a hard choice that worked out. Over the last few days, the number of red knots stayed at about 600 and very few turnstones and about 1000 sanderlings. The winds were blowing from the north and we assumed the problem was the adverse conditions for migration. But we weren’t sure. Usually, we start on the 13th ( yesterday) but with so few birds we had visions of last year where the birds came and left because the crab spawn didn’t really get underway until the third week of May and ultimately peaked in the first week of June. By then the Knots and other species had left. Would this year be the same? Did knots decline after last year’s delayed?
Red knots and ruddy turnstones feed on horseshoe crab eggs on the shoal between north Cook beach and south Reed Beach NJ. We trapped these birds successfully.
This year the water warmed slightly faster than last year. Still, the water temperature fell below 59 degrees in the morning, the threshold for crabs to spawn because nighttime air temperature fell into the 40’s. Through the week the crabs spawned in fairly good numbers at night and smaller numbers during the day ( the night water temperature is defined by the daytime air temperature, the daytime water temperature by the previous nighttime). Even now the nighttime temperatures fall into the 40’s.
But eggs were building and so we assumed the problem was the adverse winds. Just to be sure we didn’t trap yesterday ( the 13th) and instead carried out a boat count to be sure we weren’t missing knots in the areas between Bidwell’s and Maurice River. We found only 30 knots and a few other species.
We also hit the rock jetty at Goshen creek and spent the afternoon struggling to get back to the dock.
This morning the number of knots jumped from about 600 to about 1000 and it seemed more came in this morning. In the 120 we caught 10 recaptures ( which will warm Humphrey’s heart). The winds are fair and from the south so we expect more in the next day or two. Tomorrow we go for Turnstones.
We also make a small catch of sanderlings at Villas, NJ. We only caught 12 birds, two of which were named and released by Vivienne and Juliette Grime with help from their mother Janine.
Larry Niles and the NJ Shorebird Team
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Vivienne and Juliet Grimm hold two sanderlings as part of our catch. They named the bird’s Twinkle and Tweet Tweet.
