Despite the wind and heat, a photographer friend and I went to Bethel
Beach this morning. When we arrived, we noticed it was low
tide...extremely low. We hoped for rails, caught the tail end of one
running into the march grass and heard many, but never saw any others.
Several willets were nesting down near the beach and worked on drawing
us away from the nest site. The highlight was the osprey nest. When we
arrived, both were on the platform, one sitting on the nest and one
standing guard. As we went to walk around to the point, the male flew
off to fish while the female hunkered down. We walked around to the
newly formed inlet and had hoped with the super low tide that we would
be able to cross but no such luck. The inlet is at least 10-12 feet
wide now and appears to be quite deep. From our side on the beach we
could see several pairs of mute swans, some terns, and at least one
oystercatcher. There were some other smaller shorebirds, but too far to
make out.
We walked back toward the osprey nest and watched as the male brought
back a gar to the female. She got up off the nest and started eating on
the fish, then pull off a piece and lowered it into the nest...all of a
sudden, these two little heads popped up...really little heads. I would
guess they were only a couple days old. The only way we could see the
young was from the inshore side with the sun in our face. It looked to
be two chicks. As mom fed the chicks, dad went off to hunt again. He
went out off the point of the river and was circling. I turned to watch
the mom and chicks again.....maybe thirty seconds later my friend
pointed and there were three bald eagles chasing the osprey. It was two
adults and an immature. The bigger of the two adults, presumably the
female, dived the osprey and when it went to defend itself, it dropped
the fish it had just caught. The male swooped down and grabbed it and
off they went. I am guessing they were teaching junior how to steal a
fish. Dad chased them a bit and then returned to fishing. He caught
another gar and brought it to the nest. This time, he landed and went
to eat the gar himself when the female reached over and grabbed it from
him. A brief tug-o-war ensued with the gar and then male gave it up,
mom enjoyed her breakfast.
The wind was blowing right good and kept the bugs away, but when off the
beach, they will eat you alive. If you go, be prepared!
We also visited a few of the other birding trail stops, but not much
luck at any of those.
Pics are at:
http://public.fotki.com/bhouston/miscellaneous/nature_pics/20120529-bethel-beach/?view=roll
Barbara Houston
New Kent, VA
