For those of us who love to go out to our beaches in early and mid-Spring to admire these amazing long-distance migratory birds, the
rufa Red Knot, the news that the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will initiate the process of listing it under the Endangered Species Act this year, could not be more welcomed! An endangered status will allow the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop and implement a recovery plan for this bird. You can read more details about how this came to pass here in
this story posted to News & Reports section of the
American Bird Conservancy site. To learn more about this beautiful bird and it's very critical relationship to the Horseshoe Crab, you may want to consider watching this moving PBS'
Nature program entitled
Crash: A Tale of Two Species . I am personally thrilled that this listing is being initiated and I hope that we can convince our Congress not to defund the Endangered Species Act with a rider, dubbed "the Extinction Rider," that has been attached to the Interior Department's spending bill now in the House of Representatives. You can learn more about this rider in
this article by Jamie Rappaport Clark, former director of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services, current Executive Vice-President of the
Defenders of Wildlife organization. As a nature lover, I have not hesitated to write my representative on this issue. For me, there are no tax cuts worth the extinction of any species!
Let me state that these are my personal views, and though I am blogging my individual perspective as a member of the Charleston Audubon Society, aka Charleston Natural History Society, this blog does not purport to present any official positions of this organization.
Below are a few of my favorite photos of the Red Knot on Folly Beach and on Captain Sams Spit on Kiawah Island. The photos show different stages of plumage for these birds. In the winter, they are in mostly varying, somewhat mottled shades of gray. They come into the beautiful rusty-breasted breeding plumage as they prepare for the final leg of their migration from the US Atlantic Coast to the Arctic Tundra. The pictures also show varying levels of health in these birds -- from the emaciated to the very plump. Hopefully, the thinner birds were able to gain enough weight before beginning the next leg of their journey.
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| Captain Sams Spit -- Kiawah Island, April 2011 |
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| Captain Sams Spit -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 | | | |
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| Folly Beach, April 2010 |
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| Captain Sams Inlet -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 | | |
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| Captain Sams Inlet -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 |
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| Captain Sams Inlet -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 |
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| Captain Sams Inlet -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 |
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| Captain Sams Inlet -- Kiawah Island, April 2010 |
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