Shorebird monitoring and management at Cape Lookout National Seashore: 2018 annual report

Altman, Jon; Stephenson, Chelsey

Cape Lookout National Seashore, located on the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina from Ocracoke Inlet to Beaufort Inlet, contains many ecologically important habitats, such as marshes, intertidal flats, and beach areas that support a variety of shorebirds including threatened species and species of special concern. Piping plovers (Charadrius melodus), American oystercatchers (Haematopus palliates), colonial waterbirds, and red knots (Calidris cantus rufa) are monitored and managed at the seashore to promote successful reproduction and to protect their habitat. Shorebird monitoring and management is conducted in compliance with the Cape Lookout National Seashore Interim Protected Species Management Plan. Twenty-four pairs of piping plovers nested throughout the Seashore in 2018. The birds at the Seashore accounted for 75% of the nesting pairs in North Carolina. Twenty-one pairs nested on North Core Banks and three pairs nested on South Core Banks. A total of 30 nests were identified. Egg laying was initiated on April 29 and the last chick was fledged on August 21. Nineteen nests hatched and produced a total of 20 fledglings. Productivity was 0.83 chicks fledged per pair. Since 2000, fledge rates have ranged from 0.15 to 1.04 per pair at the Seashore with a mean productivity rate of 0.57 from 2000 to 2018. Sixty-nine pairs of American oystercatchers nested throughout the ocean beach habitat of the Seashore in 2018. A total of 123 nests were identified. Egg laying was initiated on April 14 and the last chick was fledged on August 24. Twenty-eight nests hatched and produced a total of 39 fledglings. This represents a 0.57 fledge rate per pair. Since 2004, fledge rates have ranged from 0.00 to 0.86 per pair at the Seashore with a mean productivity rate of 0.48 from 2004 to 2018. Fourteen colonies were identified in the Seashore in 2018: seven on South Core Banks, six on North Core Banks, and one colony on Morgan Island. Nine were least tern (Sterna antillarium) colonies, one was a black skimmer (Rynchops niger) colony, and four were mixed species colonies. Least terns, black skimmers, common terns (Sterna hirundo), gull-billed terns (Gelochelidon nilotica), royal terns (Thalasseus maxima), and sandwich terns (Thalasseus elegans) all nested within the Seashore. Productivity was low for seven of the colonies, medium for one colony, high for one colony, and five colonies had no productivity. In 2018, red knot spring migration peaked on May 25 with 2,296 birds counted across South Core Banks and North Core Banks. Fall migration peaked on August 25 with 232 red knots counted. North Core Banks averaged 261 birds per survey throughout the survey period and South Core Banks averaged 106 birds per survey.