threatened and eight endangered). Of the eight threatened species, there are five you have a good chance to see around Kiawah Island.
One of our local threatened species is the red knot( Calidris canutus), about which much has been written in this magazine. As they migrate from the southern hemisphere to their Arctic breeding grounds, they visit Kiawah’ s beach generally between March and May. You will see them singly or in small groups but more generally in large flocks that can number in the hundreds. Indeed, if you see a large number of birds in a flock on the beach in the spring, it is likely they are red knots.
There are five subspecies of red knots, but the common one here is rufa. In the spring migration season, they feed on invertebrates in the intertidal zone while here on Kiawah. Enormous flocks of migrating red knots are also found in Delaware Bay where, in the right season, they feed on horseshoe crab eggs.
Another threatened bird is the piping plover( Charadrius melodus).( Some authoritative books list the bird as“ globally threatened and endangered.”) They begin to arrive on Kiawah Island in August, and some winter over here. They are small( about seven inches long) and dun-colored. You will see them by themselves or in a small flock. As one book on shorebirds describes them, they are“ an inconspicuous bird” found on dry, sandy beaches. They are classified as one of four“ small belted plovers.” Others of that group you will see here are the fairly common semipalmated plover and the less common Wilson’ s plover.
Red knots on the Kiawah beach. Piping plover.
SUMMER / FALL 2017 • VOLUME 38
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