THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 30, 1995 TAG: 9507280203
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEA ISLAND WILDLIFE REFUGE LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
WITH A COUPLE of yanks and a quick twist, birder Don Perry has his 22-power, tripod-mounted spotting scope set up in no time.
Maybe a hundred feet away from Perry and his companions on this sunny Outer Banks beach are the objects of contemplation: a group of seemingly anonymous shore birds.
The gray-brown creatures, with large bodies and long bills and legs, skitter along the edge of the surf, just out of the reach of the sea foam. Beaks peck impatiently at the firm sand, probing for the small water animals that live in the topmost inches of the uncovered shore.
``We got some,'' says the 66-year-old Perry, a retired telephone systems technician who lives in Manteo, peering through twin eyepieces as he adjusts the magnifying device's focus. ``They don't sit still. There they go!''
As if guided by an unseen maestro, the flock of 14 willets take to the air as one, darting parallel to the shoreline and then weaving sinuously inland, in the direction of a Pea Island marsh.
In flight, their brownish-gray or silver-gray bodies seem to transform into living chevrons of white and black, the only colors seen on the underside of their wings as the birds beat against gravity in the heavy summer air.
Willets are one of the most common, but least recognized, species of shore bird along the Outer Banks, according to experts. Because of their size and stature - picture a big pigeon on small stilts - willets browse the best of nature's menu both seaside and inland, along mud flats and inlet waters, an advantage not enjoyed by other of their avian competitors.
``Willets can and do use a broader range of habitats than most other shore birds,'' said Dwight Cooley, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deputy manager of the Pea Island and Alligator River national wildlife refuges. ``Because of their size, they use deeper water habitats. They're longer-legged and so can forage along the beach or in waters up to eight inches in depth. Like most shore birds, the less (human) disturbance there is, the more likely it is they'll use the beaches.''
Come August, greater numbers of willets join their cousins, sandpiper-like relations such as yellowlegs and godwits, on an intense eating binge to prepare for an arduous southern migration to winter nesting grounds. On the menu will be such natural delicacies as mole crabs, fiddler crabs, crab eggs, marine worms and several other varieties of sea food.
``August is a peak month. Starting now, they'll sit here and fatten up,'' Perry said. ``The surf stirring up exposes a lot of goodies. They can see stuff that you and I can't see.''
But not all willets will leave when the cold arrives. Many will winter on the Outer Banks, noisily courting and mating once springtime arrives.
Typically, willets nest in clumps of weeds, or in long marsh grass close to shore. Females usually lay no more than four greenish-white or brownish-olive eggs.
While extensive shoreline development and accompanying human intrusion has affected the numbers and habits of most bird species, the willet appears to be holding its own. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service census of willets at Pea Island refuge last week counted 1,602 birds, second in number only to slightly more than 3,000 sanderlings.
``The numbers of a lot of shore birds have dwindled somewhat due to habitat loss,'' said Marcia Lyons, a National Park Service naturalist at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. ``The willets aren't swinging on a pendulum. Their overall population seems to be stable.
``This is a bird that's able to use the diverse habitat on the barrier islands - from the dynamic surf zone to the more quiet salt marsh - to make a home and carry on a yearly life.''
Still, concern over shrinking habitats affects all migratory birds, including the willet. As roads, homes and shopping centers gobble up land once used by birds as stopover points, and as humans push ever closer to vital nesting areas, bird populations are dwindling.
Intensifying the threat is the patchwork development of once-dense forests, introducing new bird-eating or egg-stealing predators such as cow birds and domesticated cats.
Efforts are under way both in the United States and abroad to establish a linked system of bird breeding and nesting grounds. The venture, still in its infancy, would link public and private lands in an attempt to re-establish some of the lost habitat.
David Leake manages a data collection station at the Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve, managed by the Nature Conservancy. It's one of perhaps 300 such stations across the country, most clustered on the east and west coasts.
The former president of the Outer Banks Audubon Society is collecting data on where and how birds breed, as part of a five-year study called MAPS, for Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship.
Shortly before 2000, Leake says, MAPS should provide biologists with the detailed statistical information that policymakers may use to modify regulations or create new laws to shield endangered populations.
Leake said humanity's impact on bird populations is felt now as never before.
``The rise and fall of bird populations are certainly indicative of what's happening in the environment,'' Leake said. ``We're part of the environment. We have an effect on other living things around us. From a very selfish point of view, if we don't pay attention to our effect on the environment, we may become an extinct species ourselves.''
Don Perry is paying attention. Several times a week Perry leads bird-watching tours from the Pea Island refuge visitor center, looking not just for willets, but for the almost 40 different species of other shore birds that flock to Outer Banks beaches and marshes.
This day, the bill on Perry's cap shades his eyes as he looks toward the sunny sky. Just as suddenly as they left, a flock of willets have returned to this nearly deserted stretch of Pea Island beach where Perry and several companions stand sentinel. A few moments later, the birds are again airborne, a blur of black and white against sea green and sky blue.
Perry waits and watches, as patient as the willets are skittish. He says simply and quietly, ``They're pretty to look at when they fly.'' ILLUSTRATION: Cover color photograph by Drew C. Wilson.
Meet the willets, those gray-brown feathery creatures, with large
bodies and long bills and legs, skittering along the edge of the
surf, just out of the reach of the sea foam. Their beaks peck
impatiently at the firm sand, probing for the small water animals
that live in the topmost inches of the uncovered shore.
Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
A flock of willetts works the surf line while their larger relative,
the sandpiper, joins them for the meal at Pea Island refuge.
A willett sticks its elongated bill into a mudflat while looking for
a meal at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
A pair of willets walk along the shallows of the noth pond at the
Pea Island refuge on Hatteras Island.
by CNB