Delaware Bay Shorebird Season – Update 1

Dr. Larry Niles

May 11, 2021

There have been a number of changes to the Bayshore, and I will work to just list some in bullet form:

  1. Working with the American Littoral Society and Wildlife Restoration Partnerships (Stephanie and I) have erected sand berms in five locations that winter storms have either worsened breaches, or created new ones, on Kimbles Beach and Pierces Point. We closed the breach at Reeds that you may remember us rescuing 5000 crabs with a bucket brigade in 2017.
  2. The winter has not been kind to the Bayshore. The complete lack of any ice or snow and the normal ferocious winds from the west and NW have left most of the beach damaged. Pierces was hit hard. We have funding to redo Pierces next year and Fortescue but that won’t take place until next winter. Pierces is not that bad for spawning, just moved in a way.
  3. I’d like you all to visit a new website for the Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition. David Mizrahi and I began this two years ago and it has blossomed into a 30 group coalition including National Wildlife and National Audubon, Physicians for Responsible Medicine and corporations like Eli Lilly. The group is dedicated to ending the killing of horseshoe crabs in various ways. This year we are instituting the first Atlantic coast-wide survey of horseshoe crabs.
  4. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has funded us once again and the plan is to continue until 2028. If we live that long you’re welcome to continue coming to the bay
  5. The condition of the horseshoe crab population is uncertain. The agencies still pretend numbers are going up but any reasonable judgement based on the data suggests otherwise. The bay trawl done by state of Delaware shows promise though, and so I am hoping for more crabs this year, but prepared for the same.
  6. So far the weather was cooperating with a warm spell that brought bay water temperatures up to the threshold for spawning at 59° F (15° C for you foreigners). But it is since dropped to below 57. Let’s hope for warmer weather. There was some spawning but not many eggs yet.
  7. Similarly, the red knot population is uncertain. The counts done in Tierra del Fuego remains similar to last year but with new observers. The count in Lagoa do Peixe was far below last year. As of this morning, there are about 500 knots in the bay, 400 knots were at Cooks this morning.
  8. We have purchased new equipment.  We have a new ATV that we purchased last fall and a new storage trailer that allows us to work inside if necessary. We are renting three houses again this year but you all will be happy to know that thanks to Stephanie, we have rented three for next year, a first!

We will begin trapping on Thursday I will keep you informed of the progress during the season.  I missed some people last year inadvertently, let me know if you see someone missing that might want to know.   Feel free to add your two cents, miss you all.  Larry