We have five pairs of oystercatchers in Plover Park so far this spring. And four of them have nests already.
The pair that still doesn’t belongs to an especially puzzling oystercatcher, A65.
And they’re driving me bananas.
This isn’t anything new though. Two years ago when A65 and mate first showed up in Barnegat Light, they hung around the park, scraped up spots to lay eggs in, in every corner from inlet to maritime forest, but never appeared to actually lay one. The situation was so confounding that someone even suggested they might be a homosexual couple.
That would certainly explain why I could never find their nest. People have said I have terrible gay-dar!
Then suddenly last night, I was walking through a lonely cut through when I spotted a single pair of fresh oystercatcher tracks ascending a steep dune. While not too unusual, something felt off, so I carefully followed the tracks up into some thicker vegetation. And that’s when I saw it… a second set of tracks coming out of the vegetation and heading in the opposite direction.
If you’re an angler you know that feeling you get when there’s a first, slight tug on your line after hours of silence. If you surf, you know that moment an incoming swell forms just enough to show you you’re in the perfect position and that this is your ride.
The dopamine fires and the heart takes an extra beat. It’s go time. I pulled out my phone thinking it would be a funny moment of me getting skunked by A65 for the umpteenth time.
It’s an unusual spot for them to nest, for sure. It’s also a beachfront mansion, on a hill, with a view.
I still worry that these two are going to stick out like the oyster knives on their faces and attract the attention of avian predators. But for the rest of us, it sure is a sneaky spot. Maybe the sneakiest ever. And a little trivia: it is the highest (vertically) nest laid by an oystercatcher in the park, and tied with piping plover Ruth Langmore and Vanguard for the highest (vertically) nest in park history.
Way to go A65 & mate. You both hornswoggled me in humiliating fashion, and you got us to five pairs. So that’s how it’s going to be!