When the Stillwaters monitoring teams went out into field in search of information about Carpenter Creek and the estuary Jan. 10, we found more than just oxygen and salinity data.
The estuary team gathered up its equipment and trudged off through the Stillwaters campus to the first station called Salt Marsh (see “A” on map). The first thing we noticed was how high the water was.
As we walked out into the marsh there was standing water everywhere. Maybe you also have noticed some spots of your yard just stay constantly wet. This is often where the water table underground has raised nearly to the surface. We also noticed the water flowing in the creek was twice as high as usual (no bending down to get samples).
We again walked in water through the marsh to reach our second site, in the beautiful open expanse of low marsh and channel that you see to the north as you drive down West Kingston towards Miller Bay Road (see “B” on the map).
Here there was something else apparent – the wrack. Wrack, or “the wrack line,” is the seaweed, wood and other material (plastic and Styrofoam, too) found on any marine shoreline. The debris of the wrack is left at the highest extent of high tide. The wrack line this day was very far from the water showing the highest tides had been very high in the last few days.
As we walked, picking each step carefully, we found a special prize — a killdeer egg. A killdeer is a small shorebird that is commonly found on beaches, mudflats. It is also found in more upland environments like lawns, golf courses and athletic fields. Because of the sound of the its call the killdeer is also called a “chattering plover” or” noisy plover.”
Killdeers make nests on the ground in simple scrapes in places with a slight rises. These birds may create several “nests” to confuse predators or as they protect their eggs, they may also fake a broken wing to get predators to follow them away from their nest. In the past at this marsh, monitors have even seen eggs on top of woody debris.
Unfortunately for this egg it was not with others or in any obvious nest scrape. It appeared it had been washed out of a nest by the high tides or shifting wrack. It also seemed a bit curious to have had an egg there so early in the breeding season, but the timing of nesting is another subject all together.
The egg was slightly cracked and so was not viable. It now is empty and part of the collection of natural wonders at Stillwaters.
Its presence however, showed us a lot of things about the water movement of the marsh, the wildlife that is finding a way to live and reproduce there, and the amazing things that can be found when you just take some time to look.
Betsy Cooper is a board member and stream monitor at Stillwaters Environmental Education Center. She also serves on the Kingston Citizens Advisory Council.
