An American Oystercatcher Chick
For the past couple of weeks I have been seeing photos on Facebook of American Oystercatcher chicks at Fort De Soto Park. This weekend I finally had time to run down to De Soto to see these chicks for myself. I wasn’t the only one.
I found the chicks in the North Beach area of the park, high on the beach in an area roped off by the park and monitored by volunteer bird stewards from a local Audubon group. As usual, the bird stewards of Fort De Soto seemed more concerned by the dangerous bird photographers sitting and laying quietly on the beach rather than the loud families walking past the nesting area. Every time I looked up from my camera I seemed to have at least one of the four stewards watching me through their binoculars or photographing me. Two of them even came to stand next to me at one point even though I was outside the roped off area and about 30 yards away from the birds. Can you say passive aggressive? Although these particular bird stewards were less than friendly, Fort De Soto is a very busy beach and I am glad they are there to keep the knuckleheads out of the nesting area. But I do wish the stewards were a little more friendly to bird photographers.
Anyhow, there were two adults and three chicks. I suppose the chicks were about three weeks old. One of the adults is a long-time Fort De Soto resident as indicated by her bands, AE 1106-14723. I first reported “AE” last July. Per the American Oystercatcher Band Database, AE is a female born in 2012 and has lived her entire life in the Fort De Soto Park area. Breeding was first reported in 2016 with successful breeding every year since. American Oystercatchers commonly live at least 10 years, with some banded birds living up to 16 and 17 years (1). American Oystercatchers remain with their mate for life, so the male is likely a long-time Fort DeSoto resident as well.
American Oystercatcher “AE” and her chick. I was surprised to see these birds eating this dried up clam. Photographed with the Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens mounted on a gimbal head to a Skimmer Ground Pod. ISO 250, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec.
Mine! One of the siblings grabbed the dried up clam and ran off with it! You better eat quick when you have siblings! Photographed with the Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens mounted on a gimbal head to a Skimmer Ground Pod. ISO 250, f/6.3, 1/2000 sec.
American Oystercatcher chick with a dried clam. Photographed with the Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens mounted on a gimbal head to a Skimmer Ground Pod. ISO 250, f/6.3, 1/2000 sec.
While I was on the beach I observed a Fish Crow make a couple of passes over the nesting area. In one instance AE took off and chased off the crow. The male intercepted the crow on a second pass. In both instances the adult remaining with the chicks let out a piping call and the chicks would run to that parent for safety.
Adult male American Oystercatcher. Photographed with the Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens mounted on a gimbal head to a Skimmer Ground Pod. ISO 320, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec.
American Oystercatcher chick running to a parent. Although in this photo it looks like the chick is running after a fly. Photographed with the Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens mounted on a gimbal head to a Skimmer Ground Pod. ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec.
What’s next? Well, Black Skimmers are nesting now and are laying eggs. I visited St. Pete Beach Sunday and confirmed there is an active colony. We should have chicks any time now. Can’t wait to see them!
Sources:
Working Group, A. O., E. Nol, and R. C. Humphrey (2020). American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ameoys.01
