No Sandpipers on Beach in NC.... What's Up?

[elelle]

I've just come back from a couple of days at the NC shore, southernmost beach on the border of SC. I've been going there for years, and lived there in the 70's. There were always sandpipers, and other surf-edge birds, a-plenty. This year, None, Zip, Nada. Not a One. Also, almost no shells to be seen, and there used to be a nice bunch of shells always at the surf line. It was really alarming.

Anyone, Colibri especially, who can weigh in on the dearth of shore birds, at least on this Southeast beach?

[Lamar Mundane]

They're hiking the Appalachian Trail. Nothing to be concerned about.

[samclem]

Time of year?

[elelle]

Nope, Sam, this comes in observance with folks who've gone there for over forty years, same time of year; this year is noticeably bird lacking. For me, really frightening.

[John DiFool]

Umm, except for the local varieties (willets, a few species of plover), most North American sandpipers are currently in northern Canada brooding their eggs. They'll be back in August sometime.

[barbitu8]

The only sandpipers/plovers this time of the year in SC are willets, sanderlings, black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, semipalmated plovers, and killdeer. Here, in Charleston, SC, in addition to the above, recently I've seen plenty of oystercatchers and black skimmers (but those are not "surf-edged" birds, I don't think, depending upon your definition). You should be seeing these birds just up the coast. Depending upon what you mean by"surf-edged," we also have herons, egrets, marsh wrens, rails, and seaside sparrows. This doesn't include, of course, the terns and gulls.

[John DiFool]

Oystercatcher is in the sandpiper family, but the skimmer is related to the gulls and terns.