Good Dovekie Day, Sad Dovekie Day - 1/6/23

    I spent today like I often do, driving along the beach at Island Beach State Park.  I am intrigued with the amount of alcids in our area and I want to see them as much as I can.  Any day they could just pick up and move out of sight.  It might be years before such incredible numbers occur again.  Today I counted 136 razorbills.  Much of the time all I needed to do was find a loose flock of Bonaparte’s gulls fluttering over the water.  Soon enough, a razorbill, or several of them, would pop up and the gulls would try to get some of the food that the submariner brought to the surface.

Flotillas of razorbills off the beach.  © S. Weiss

Along the way I also found 18 dovekies on the water.  Dovekies are rare here from shore.  In past years, it was a lucky birder to get one.  Needless to say, this is a personal high count.  Unfortunately, two of the 18 did not survive the day.  I watched one of these tiny birds too close to shore.  It was struggling with the waves and when it got caught in the wash it took a beating.  I was hoping to rescue it and bring it to a rehabilitator.  When it washed up I grabbed it, but it had already passed.  As for the other one, it fell prey to a peregrine falcon.  I saw the peregrine perched on a fence post.  When it saw me it flew off carrying its fresh caught meal.  The downside to seeing these little alcids so close to shore is that they are easy targets for bigger, hungry birds like peregrines and even great black-backed gulls.  The open sea may not be predator-free either, especially if skuas are present.
Deceased dovekie.  © S. Weiss
Sometimes size needs to be put into perspective.  Dovekies grow to just over eight inches.  My open hand measures just over seven inches.

Dovekies falling victim to predators.  © S. Weiss
Left, peregrine toting a dovekie in 2023.  Right, a great black-backed gull plucked a dovekie from the water in 2021.

Good news for today is that I saw another dovekie too close to shore as I got near the inlet.  I watched this for a few minutes.  It too got tossed around in the surf and washed up at the water’s edge.  However, this one quickly righted itself and swam back to the water with the receding wave.  I left it and continued on my drive.  On my way back I checked the spot where I last saw it and did not see any birds on the beach or in the surf.  After a few minutes I did see two dovekies out a way on the ocean.  It appeared that it made its way out of the surf and would be okay.
Dovekie almost on the beach.  © S. Weiss
This dovekie made it safely back out to deeper water.

Dovekie being a dovekie.  © S. Weiss







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