Red Knot

Linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes and and NC Sue Wordless

I hope you can join in and share your photos, I look forward to the wild birds and nature scenes.

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Red Knot from our visit to the Delaware shore. The first couple of weeks of May is a awesome time to visit the Delaware beaches to see the shorebirds migrating and the horseshoe crabs laying their eggs. The Red Knot is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

It can be fun trying to pick out a certain species of bird that is hanging out with a group of various shorebirds. I was looking for the Red Knot and in the center of the photo above is my Red Knot, the larger shorebird with the reddish head and neck.  It is 10 inches tall compared to the 8 inch Dunlin also seen in the photo.

The shot above has three Red Knots along with the Laughing Gulls, Dunlins  and some other little peeps. Can you find the 3 Red Knots, they kind of form a triangle in the photo.

I see one Red Knot is the photo above, third bird down from the Ring-billed Gull. The size difference between the gull and shorebirds is amazing.

I managed to find one Red Knot standing out in this group of birds, do you see it? But, there could be more, they are so close together.

And I think I see three Red Knots in this shot of the birds in flight, do you see the Red Knots? Seeing the reddish color on their fronts help to pick them out of a crowd. The birds with the black spot on their bellies are the Dunlins.

I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post and photos. Till next week's wild bird post. Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird and nature photos please visit:

 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes and and NC Sue Wordless

Thanks to all of our hosts. Michelle for Nature Notes and Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday and Sue for Wordless Wednesday.

  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Delaware Shores & shorebird Migration

 I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday

 I hope everyone is enjoying Spring, it is a great time of the year to see the migrating birds.  After a spring full moon and the water temp's in the high 50's, the horseshoe crabs make their way out of the Delaware Bay. The arrival of the spawning horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay is timed perfectly for the migrating shorebirds.  Last weekend, beside Bombay Hook NWR hubby and I also visited the Delaware beaches hoping to see some of these migrating birds.

Slaughter beach above is one of the stops we made to check out the horseshoe crabs and to look for birds. On the path to the beach we saw a few Tree Swallows and the Purple Martins at their houses. Hubby and I walked up and down the beach turning over any horseshoe crabs that was stranded on its back. We were doing our part in trying to save these declining horseshoe crabs.

Shorebird congregations will feast upon the thousand of horseshoe crab eggs. The birds depend on these eggs to refuel during their spring migration. Saving these horseshoe crabs is important, not only to protect this arthropod species but to prevent the decline of shorebirds like the Red Knots and the Semipalmated Sandpipers. 

The horseshoe crab is like a hotel for living creatures that are attached to the shell of the horseshoe crab. Some of these hitchhikers have no effect on the day to day life of this horseshoe crab, but over time they may degrade the shell.

The male horseshoe crab will hang onto the female as she crawls up the beach laying thousands of eggs in sandy nest. As the female drags the male they in turn fertilize the eggs in each nest as they are pulled over the nest and eggs.

The Horseshoe crab can lay as many as 60,000 to 120,000 tiny green eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time.

 

For me seeing these gathering of the horseshoe crabs and seeing thousands of shorebirds is an awesome wildlife spectacle. On this day we saw mostly laughing gulls.  I believe the migrating shorebirds are still on their way to the Delaware shore. Hopefully there will be plenty of eggs to help refuel these migrating birds on their journey to their breeding grounds in the Artic.

Birding Bombay Hook and Delaware

I am linking up with Mosaic Monday  and  Our World Tuesday

I have been posting so many photos from my trip I have been ignoring other outings I have been on since being home. We visited the Delaware shore and the Bombay Hook NWR the weekend of the Super Moon.

 Above Bonaparte's Gulls, Dowitchers, Super Moon, Swallow at the Dupont Nature Center, last bottom right more Dowitchers.

The mating season of the horseshoe crabs happens during the spring full moon when the tides are high. The female horseshoe crab will dig a hole in the sand and deposit her eggs and then the male will fertilize the eggs with his sperm. Nature is cool. Somehow the migrating shorebirds, especially the Red Knots find their way to the Delaware shore to feast upon these horseshoe crab eggs. Apparently, the birds know the schedule better than I. We were a few days to a week early to see the large count of shorebirds. But, I was happy to see all the Dunlins with their spotted black bellies, the Ruddy Turnstones, Dowitchers and hundreds of gulls.

 From a distance it was hard trying to id all the smaller shorebirds mixed in with the gulls. But, I did see a few Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones and lots of Dunlins.

During this visit we also make a quick stop at the Bombay Hook NWR. The wildflowers looked beautiful and enjoyed seeing more birds.

The Yellow Crowned Night Heron  was seen near the Black Crown Night Heron rookery. The BC Night Herons were perched in trees between the leaves so it was difficult to see them much less take any photos. I did count at least 7 BC Night Herons but I am sure there were many more.

 The wild irises were gorgeous.

We saw many BC Night herons, Great Egrets, GB Herons, Snowy Egrets,  along with Dowitchers and more Dunlins.

Back at home we were able to see the full moon setting over our lake.


To see more wonderful mosaics and photos please visit Mosaic Monday  and Our World Tuesday. 
Thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday and thanks to the hosting group at Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia and Sandy.

Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post and I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

Food Source for the migrating shorebirds

Horseshoe crabs play an important role in the ecosystem, any harm to them will interfere with the feeding and resting of hundreds of thousands migrating shorebirds.
In late spring the horsecrabs arrive on the Delaware beaches to lay their eggs. They say thousands of horseshoe crabs arrive in the Delaware Bay between May and June.

 The beaches which are mainly sand and pebble mixture are perfect for incubating the eggs. I read that one female can spawn repeatedly over several nights and lay over 100,000 eggs.

 Some of these eggs are exposed to the air which causes the egg to dry out and prevent the egg from hatching.  The exposed eggs are now the rich food source for the migrating birds. Delaware plays host to the second largest population of migrating birds. And these migrating birds depend on the exposed eggs for their feeding.

The horseshoe population needs to be protected from overharvesting. A decline in the horseshoe population can also mean a decline in the shorebird population.

I visited the Delaware beach this past weekend. Hubby and I walked along turning over any horsecrab that seemed stuck upside down. It was too early for most of the migrating shorebirds we did see quite a few Ruddy Turnstones and probably hundreds of Laughing Gulls.

To see more birds and other critters visit the Friday Ark and you can also visit Michelle's Nature Notes

Thanks for stopping by my blog.