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Razorbills and beach renourishment on Emerald Isle



Yesterday, March 25, the Emerald Isle(NC) beach
renourishment project added 125 feet of sand 6 feet
deep in front of our unit at Ocean Reef, next to the
Old Emerald Isle Fishing Pier site.  I was wondering
how long it would be before the birds came back.

This morning, while having breakfast on our front
deck, we watched the D6 and D7 bulldozers continuing
the work 100 yards down the beach, and there was still
a lot of construction activity in front of our unit.
Nevertheless, actually standing on the "new" sand
directly in front of our unit I counted:
a dozen Royal Terns
a dozen Sandwich Terns
several Common Terns
several dozen Bonaparte's Gulls
several dozen Laughing Gulls
several dozen Ring-billed Gulls
over 100 Herring Gulls (of various ages)
three Willet
a dozen sanderlings
two Black-bellied Plovers 

Best of all, less than 100 yards out in the water, my
first ever Razorbill, floating in calm water in
proximity to, but not interacting with, other groups
of Bonaparte's Gulls and Double-crested Cormorants. 
Two hours later, about 11:00 a.m., the Razorbill was
joined by a second Razorbill (both looked very healthy
- both were in adult non-breeding plumage), and both
the Razorbills were actively diving, staying under for
10 to 15 seconds at a time, in modest waves as the
surf had begun picking up.  They stayed 50 to 100
yards off the "new" beach, and are still there as I
write this at 1:00 p.m.  They are obviously not very
disturbed by all this construction activity.

Meanwhile, further off shore there are many Northern
Gannets, headed east down the island, and occasional
long strings of Black Scoters.  What an unexpected
morning!

Alan Johnston
Emerald Isle, North Carolina 

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