Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Turtle Walk #5

Started out just as it was getting light out this morning. There were clouds all around and I could see lightning in some of the clouds that were further away. There were only a couple of other people in sight as we walked out onto the beach, but within a few minutes there were many more.




The sun seemed to come up very quickly this morning. I suppose it was because the Snowy Plover chicks caught my eye again and kept me well entertained for a while.



You have to click on the screen to start the player and then click on it once more to take you to YouTube where you can see the entire screen. If you watch it here, you miss seeing the birds on the right side. My blog is not set up to view the full width. I'm going to work on that soon!

The Plovers scurry around so fast that their parents can hardly keep track of them. If the adult bird sees anyone or anything move toward the chicks, they hold their wings out and the tiny little chicks snuggle in underneath them for protection. The one legged male Plover that we saw last week, was there again today.

This morning we saw 2 sets of chicks. One set was 3 chicks and the other was 2 chicks. You can help these endangerd birds by suporting the SCCF Snowy Plover Project.

Best viewed in HD on YouTube by clicking on the screen below.






The tide was out pretty far, so the shore birds were having great luck, gathering their breakfast.


These birds stand on only one leg so much of the time, with the other leg up and hidden, that you sometimes think they only have one leg. I was thinking about that as I watched this one for a long time. Finally it took flight and for sure, it did only have one leg. It had a little trouble on the take-off but then did just fine.

The pelicans were out early, diving for their breakfast too. I never get tired of watching their antics.


There's just something so cute, about a little child toddling along in the water.

Found some things tossed here and there, but the strangest thing was the red retainer. Somebody's Mamma is probably very upset.


A very cute scupture!


There were a lot of places where the water was coming in and then swirling around to run back again, making trenches. You could stand by them and watch the small shells drifting back through. I think these would have been good places to sit in your chair and just wait for a tiny junonia to come drifting by. :-)


There was a little of the manatee grass on the beach, but nothing that would bother you at all. What was there, had no odor at all.

Just before finishing the walk, we ran into a nice fellow that we had met because has worked at Jerry's Restaurant. He was pushing a stroller and carrying a fishing pole and equipment. He called out to us and went over to see the cutest little baby girl, with big dimples and a huge smile. I'm guessing she is somewhere around 3 months old and he said she loves to go fishing with her Daddy. Now, how cute is that!

There were no signs of turtle tracks this morning. :-(

If you have the time, you might want to check out this cute article about Willy, who is at Topsail, NC Sea Turtle Hospital.

Today's post continued on my Lazy Days Blog.

1 comment:

Snowbird said...

Love the videos. The wildlife place where I volunteer (you know the one) raised a couple of Snowy Plover hatchlings last year. They were adorable.