First Black Oystercatcher Monitoring Trip of the Season

 Since 2005, I've been monitoring Black Oystercatchers on the Oregon Coast for various agencies. Eight years ago Portland Audubon took over the largely abandoned project, kept going only by volunteers who didn't stop monitoring even though there was no agency using our data. I kept monitoring but did skip out one year for various reasons, but mostly because of changing access to my sites. Now the access issues are even worse since the road I drove into Cascade Head washed out year before last, so I could not monitor there at all. This year I hope to hike in and at least monitor the closest Cascade Head site. As of last year, I have another monitor to take turns doing the long hike into The Thumb at Road's End. That hike is getting to be too much for this old body, so who knows how much longer I'll be doing this. 

Yesterday, Monday, May 22, I made the two mile trek up to The Thumb, with the help of my trusty ski pole to lean on. It turned out to be very worthwhile.

My co-monitor, Casey, who is younger and more athletic, had hiked in twice earlier in May but seen no BLOY nesting activity. Yesterday, the BLOY cooperated for me. 

Not seen or heard at first, I finally heard a quiet call and then saw a BLOY preening on the east side, the side I can see from The Thumb, of what I call Middle Rock. It is a long look and I use binocs to spot the birds, then my camera to document their location. Scanning the rock, I found a bird setting. It stayed in that place a long time which told me it was almost certainly on a nest. I took photos and will just let them tell the story (in captions). (I had North and South mixed up in my original post, so have now corrected it.)

Almost there! The Thumb is visible between trees.

A view north to Cascade Head

A whole cliff side of these flowers were in bloom.

This is Middle Rock, where BLOY have long nested.

A BLOY sitting for long periods means a nest. Thank goodness for that red bill.

This is South Rock where BLOY have also nested.

A BLOY was here on sentry duty, but looking not toward the traditional South Rock nest area, but rather toward Middle Rock. I think it is the other half of the Middle Rock nesting pair.

The long view showing South Rock on the left and Middle Rock on the right with "Back" or "Black" rock behind it

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Having found the setting BLOY, I just let my camera take frame after frame in hopes it will capture any happenings, which it did. Way too far for me to see even with binoculars.

Second bird showed up in bottom right quadrangle of this photo. Nesting bird top left quadrangle very near the top of the photo.

I did not know about this until I got home and saw the photos on the computer. Nesting bird is putting more pebbles next to her egg.

Egg barely visible here. Bird with pebble in her bill.

Gathering another pebble. And now the egg is visible!

I have never documented pebble additions after egg laying before. Never knew it happened!

Here is the aftermath of a nest exchange. One bird leaving, one bird about to settle down on the egg.

Mission accomplished (almost two hours after arriving), I left. On my way out, this Gray Jay was grooming for quite some time, ignoring my attempts to get a photo. It finally held still long enough.

 

  BLOY usually lay 3 eggs, so the story has just begun. Thank goodness my co-monitor, Casey, will be going up next time. My aging legs could use a rest!