One chick flees into salt pond during capture attempt
A team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists carrying nets approached a pair of American oystercatcher chicks on a beach at Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge on June 19. The birds — roughly the size of a football, with bright orange bills and long legs — did not stay put.
One chick darted into a nearby coastal salt pond. The other took a short flight, sending the team running across the mile-and-a-half-long (2.4-kilometer-long) beach in pursuit.
“There is a problem. They can fly,” Alan Kneidel, a senior conservation biologist with the environmental group Manomet Conservation Sciences, said as he watched the team go after the chicks.
The biologists tracked down both birds. They bundled each into a white pillow case and carried the chicks to a sand dune, where they recorded body measurements and clipped identification bands onto the birds’ long, peach-colored legs.
Shorebird Crew Lead Mary Bertschi of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was among the team that located the juvenile oystercatcher.