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June 7, 1999 |
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June 7, 1999
Plover Count: 29 (they've started updating the count on the white board at the gatehouse again, so you get an updated count today)
Reading: Before the Dawn by Shimazaki Toson
Copyright © 1999, Janet I. Egan |
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The haze made everything shimmer and made it hard to estimate distances, which turned out to be a problem when I was trying to tell Unit 61 where the trespassers were, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Two guys on jet skis landed on the beach at the very limit of how far I could see with binoculars. They walked up to one of the nests, which naturally worried me. I called it in right away and tried to give landmarks like the funny looking dune with trees on it because everything was vibrating with that shiny heat shimmer and I had no idea how far away anything was. Unit 61 set out on the big ATV (the 6-wheeler) that the biologists use. The jet ski guys hung around for awhile and walked back and forth near the nest. Eventually, they got back on their jet skis and headed south. I reported that they'd left. A few minutes later they came back and landed again just south of where they'd been before. I could see a blob in the haze that looked like the ATV but it wasn't even close to where they were yet. They left again before 61 got there. Grrr. I couldn't see where they went because they disappeared into the haze. Unit 61 checked the nest and reported that the eggs were still there and it didn't look like the guys had done any damage. I still felt frustrated at not being able to keep them away, but heck I'm not Super-Warden. Jet skis drive me crazy. A really nice guy who was surf fishing gave me a cold can of root beer and some grapes. That really hit the spot. Despite having brought bottled water with me, the heat was sucking me dry and I was thirsty. He wasn't catching anything. Every once in a while I could see some fish break the surface but they were never in the vicinity of his lines. He didn't seem to mind though. The bird life was pretty subdued today except for the purple martins near parking lot 1. Even the gulls seemed to just sit on the water and bob, except for one who tried to open the fisherman's bait box. Unsuccessfully. The piping plover nests are concentrated in the central area of the beach, closer to the north boundary. I can see several predator exclosures from where I stand. The one in the picture above is the closest to me. I think that nest belongs to the pair I saw courting on May 17, because it's one of the most recently installed. I'd have to have Superman's vision and then some to see any piping plovers that far away, but it's nice to know they're there.
Later that same hhh day, I looked up the yellow flowers and am pretty sure they're beach heath (also known as "false heather"). Looked up the butterfly too and am now pretty sure it was a black swallowtail. Check out the June issue of Birder's World. It has an excellent article on the efforts to save the piping plover - and the cover plover is gorgeous. |
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It's
hazy, hot, and humid today. Way hot. Way humid. The beach
was by far the best place to be.
Way
more beach peas are in bloom than last week. This must be
peak beach pea week. Both sides of the path through the
dunes from the parking lot are lined with them. It's like
walking in a garden. I stopped to take a picture of them on
my way back to my car even though I desperately wanted a
drink of water and some lunch. They were just too pretty to
walk by without recording. They're all mixed in with the
ammophilla and some little yellow flowers I don't know the
name of. It was way too hot to be carrying any extra
reference books for looking up flowers or even butterflies.
I did see one monarch butterfly - or its twin, the viceroy -
and a beautiful large black butterfly with a yellow stripe
or a line of yellow spots, which might have been a black
swallowtail.