Whimbrel Watch

The Eastern Shore and barrier islands are a heaven for birders during the shorebird spring migration. I have seen so many awesome bird sights including little groups of threatened red knots feeding in the surf, hundreds upon hundreds of dunlin so tired from migration they barely have the energy to hop on one leg away from me, and huge groups of skimmers barking so much it's deafening. Other shorebirds of interest include the piping plovers and American oystercatchers that I work with, semipalmated sandpipers, spotted sandpipers, semipalmated plovers, willet, whimbrel, and sanderling.


My work has been doing a spring count of one of the species, whimbrel, for several years. We take about ten days in the spring and from 4:30-dark we count the whimbrel migrating north. They fly 4,000-5,000 miles in 4-5 days to the Hudson Bay or up to northern Canada. The whimbrel fuel up on fiddler crabs here in the area before taking the big trip north. A study found they eat about 0.72 fiddler crabs per minute to fuel up!

There was an article in the local paper talking about some of these birds and their journey: http://www.bayjournal.com/article/migratory_birds_shore_up_appetites_on_horseshoe_crab_eggs

This is the view for Whimbrel Watch! We count flocks of 5 to hundreds.

Solitary sandpiper

Dunlin by the hundreds

The ibis are so beautiful and majestic. We see mostly white, but the occasional glossy ibis.

Gorgeous red knots!  A new one for my life list.

Flat Stanley

I had a fun visitor last week - Flat Nora came all the way from Oklahoma! Flat Stanley is a children's book about a boy who flattens himself and is able to travel around the world. Nora made a paper version of herself and sent it to me so that she could experience a week in my life! I have always thought it would be the utmost compliment for my life to be one that someone would want to send a Flat Stanley to experience - bucket list checked off!

Flat Nora spent a day with the Diving and Boating Committee in a first aid and CPR class. The class was made up of divers/boaters from California, Louisiana, Texas, Utah, Florida, and New York and taught by an instructor stationed in Hawaii who does these classes globally.

 

Flat Nora went out on the boat with us to a barrier island. We walked many miles of beach monitoring the threatened birds. 

We found many nests but took the time to take a picture with this (not threatened or endangered) willet nest hidden in vegetation.

Flat Nora ate like a queen. These fried oysters were top notch

Flat Nora also attended happy hour on the screened in porch of the 1806 historic home. She ate more than her body weight in these fresh steamed local clams.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de May fell on a Friday, so I thought it was essential that we celebrate. I always get these notions to take on a lot of cooking and underestimate how long it will take and how many dishes I'll have to do after the fact. All in all it was totally worth it and I was pleased with how everything turned out. That being said, it may take until next Cinco de Mayo for me to sign up for such a task again.

There were 7 of us - coworkers and significant others- who enjoyed coronas and margaritas and chicken enchiladas. I'm really grateful to work with such cool people that I want to hang out with outside of working hours as well.

The Daily Grind

There are so many beautiful sights and sounds while riding the boat and walking the beach every day. It's hard to try to capture everything while still doing my job 100%, but every now and then I get to snap a shot of the wonderful world around me. 

There's a beautiful barnacle and oyster covered log on one of the islands. It looks like it's covered in bouquets

Some things just seem out of place at the beach - including butterflies.

Food

Roasted butternut squash, monarch tomatoes, and spinach cooked in red wine topped with mozzarella.


  

Mahi mahi with a mango salsa, asparagus and blood orange


 

Fresh steamed clams! Yum. This was for a work happy hour

 

Sweet potato biscuits are an Eastern Shore food apparently. They were pretty good - and the hush puppies were amazing.



Soft shell crab eggs benedict


  

Crab dip


 

Squid ink pizza

 

 

You know you've found a good friend/co-worker when he introduces you to the taco trucks.

Trivia

 

We found out about a local trivia night over lunch in the office one day, so of course I recruited a team for that night. The trivia is at a nice restaurant with this view of the bay. The participants are young families (The Half Shells) and elderly people (The Geezers) while our little office group is called Cape Charles in Charge (an 80s kids reference that I had to have explained to me). 

 

As you can see this isn't your typical trivia view



We have gotten 3rd place both times and are hoping to move up the ranks throughout the summer! The Old Geezers really know their history though...

Around the Preserve

Sadly this is an invasive Chinese tree species, but it's so pretty! It looks so cool because all this tall purple flower groups are blooming, but the leaves lag behind.

This is the drive back from my office to the barn. Not too bad to look at and it always smells great!

On my way to do laundry I was distracted by these pretty guys. They were shaking their feet to scare up some lunch and were doing pretty good with fiddler crab collection!